Innovative systems for industrial applications

The Engineering Academy is a project initiated by the Ministry of Education and Research and funded by the European Social Fund, with the goal of improving the quality of engineering education and reducing the labor shortage in technical fields. The project is led by the Education and Youth Board and is joined by five higher education institutions. The Engineering Academy includes 22 engineering-related study programs, of which ten have been selected as priority focus programs for development. The project has three focus areas: • Increasing the number of applicants • Improving the quality of education and Increasing alignment with labor market needs • Reducing dropout rates The Technical University has set a goal to increase admissions in the field of engineering by 15% each year. To improve the quality of education, the action plan includes a significant expansion of project-based and problem-based learning, curriculum development, quality enhancement, and infrastructure upgrades. Additionally, lecturers’ training and the recruitment of teaching assistants are planned. To reduce dropout rates, individual support for students will be increased, both during the first year and when completing their final theses. First-year students will also be offered additional mathematics courses. The goal is to significantly reduce dropout rates and increase the number of graduates.

Visible effects of society’s ageing is the reported increase in the necessity of orthopaedic implants boosting to a huge economical market. For a successful integration of any implant, bone regeneration, osseointegration at the interface bone and implant as well as mitigating inflammatory events are crucial aspects. The project aims at extending the biocompatibility and tribo-mechanical performance associated with a lifetime of surgical implants based on Titanium (Ti). The hypothesis states combining Ti alloy with hydroxyapatite (HAp), and medically active components (drug delivery function) in order to obtain excellent biomaterial supporting bone growth and eliminating the problem of loosening of the implant by its integration with bone. The project goes beyond the state-of-the-art by laser surface treatment, opening the underlying porosity improving the cell transport and cell growth. The result implant biomaterial, will reduce the number of removal surgeries in the future.