Zoltán Kolozsváry: The Part and the whole – a complex relationship between education, innovation, production

CONFERENCE ON UNIVERSITY AND BUSINESS COOPERATION IN CENTRAL EUROPE 28 - 29 JANUARY 2016, BUDAPEST, HUNGARY

“The Part and the Whole” –a complex relationship between education-

innovation- production

Prof.Dr Kolozsváry ZoltánSC Plasmaterm SATg.Mures-MarosvásárhelyRomania


INTERNATIONAL FEDERATION FOR HEAT TREATMENT AND SURFACE ENGINEERINGSC PLASMATERM SA

.....the back-up triangle....


University - Industry Collaboration

Mission University IndustryCreate and disseminate knowledge - Create value and cover educate students for the actual and expected future needs of society needs of society

The reasons

Product development, innovation in technology, training,technology transfer, relevant projects

A few facts at the beginning of the 21st century

• Unprecedented development of science in almost every known field. • the sophisticated investigation possibilities, the level and speed

of communication and the basic knowledge of the physical world all contribute to an ascending spiral of development.

• Paradox: • Earlier : research and development was oriented towards solving

a specific problem faced in any area of human activities. • Today – it seems – the research and development, has little to do

with a specific problem or need, it is oriented on a more general level exploiting the possibilities of the existing knowledge and of those offered by investigation techniques.


....Instead of an introduction...

...a shocking contradiction....

A declaration or a slogan frequently heard: our era should be characterized by a “knowledge-based society”... in our everyday life the contrary may be observed: ... the average cultural level is alarmingly dropping........ or should it mean the technical development and especially the development of data processing and transmission leads to a “side effect” of loosing our most valuable asset, human culture ?---- I have a nightmare: the phalangster in Madách’ s “Az ember tragédiaja” (The tragedy of man”).......



General problem: .......as I see it....

• The education is too much fractionalized and the emphasis being on “the part” eliminates the view on the “whole” (lost)!

• The concept of ‘engineers’ has disappeared especially as a social, unique, disciplined and rational category of intellectuals

• The system in education is more and more globalized, serving the interest of multinational giants over human or social need.

• The unprecedented development of data processing and networking creates the false impression.. ”nothing has to be learned, everything is available on the net”....


Contradictory expectations:

• The multinational giants need highly trained specialists in a narrow field, more and more limited to specific activities for maximum efficiency

• SME-s -which still give jobs for an overwhelming majority of the population- need a much more general education, more in the “classical” approach to engineering, they really need engineers with a broad understanding of the production process and technology

• No satisfactory balance was found between the two contradictory trends.

• Hundreds of new professions, respectively new “qualifications” appeared and the basic knowledge is slowly lost in a mist.

• The concept of lifelong learning has become a myth


What the industry wants: with special emphasis on SME-s

• “engineers” and not just graduated people of „fictional” specialities

• solid basic – general- knowledge which may fundament specialization in a selected field of interest

• young graduates with dedicated professional interest • a general view –at basic level- on the system shaping

industrial activities• understanding the permanent need for learning and

innovation• understanding the system and reasons of work discipline


The state of art:

what is missing : • general knowledge on fundamental disciplines, especially

physics and chemistry – • the logical connection between the theory and practice• the logical relationship between “what…why ...how..

when “ the time-gap between innovative ideas and industrial application is alarmingly increasing

• interdisciplinarity in both the gradual- and post gradual education is almost disappearing


IT, communication, management, etc. seem to be more attractive though all these are practically part of a “second level” in the industry, which may not survive without the “hard core” of creating goods..

Engineers have to find the optimum in applying all known scientific theories and technological solutions for solving a problem...

...nothing can be out of interest, if it may result in a better solution. (Kocsis Maria Baan)


what we see and experience:

• Strong orientation towards informatics without the knowledge to select and prioritize- tendency to accepting artificial statistics as the gospel

• A firm belief, that the computer (internet etc) can solve anything and thus there is no need to learn specific elements or nuances within each discipline

The state of art:

Characteristic of our era on a scale of the society

• The scale of values has lost its sense, the only “parameters” of significance are money and position

Consequence for young people after graduating

• Too much interest for the money from the beginning of the professional carrier prevents a serious, deep training for a more general interest creating real values later

• Lack or incorrect view on the general trends of the society

In education

• too many, too specific disciplines and lack of a more general approach to the science and applied science.



The pillars of a successful economy :

- solid professional knowledge - innovation –in a strong connection with applied research

and development- efficient logistics- efficient and stable legislation

Innovation and applied research need a strong collaboration between companies and universities involving students as well


Difficulties in collaboration with universities

• research activities are mostly not oriented to solve specific problems or needs but follow just the possibilities offered by modern highly sophisticated investigation and laboratory equipment, a kind of “l’art pour l’art” in university research appears

• the trend to “quantify” science, respectively to project any activity to publications with impact factor, citation,…. etc. strongly restricts the interest for industrially applicable themes

• extremely sophisticated and bureaucratic approach to apply for funding


Should be a solution –at least partially- a more generalized dual education system?

Problems with the dual education system

• mostly the “dual education” system is formal and the students are not really interested . Most of the companies - especially SME-s - have no system or personal for an efficient mentoring and training


“Plasmaterm SA “ with 140 employees is a non-typical SME following the tradition of a previous research institute established in 1965-1973The activity profile:- precision investment casting in a niche-market for short to middle

series of highly sophisticated castings- plasma surface engineering covering nitriding/nitrocarburizing- R&D activities in the related field- testing materials- special development and production activities for high-tech locks

for the US market covered by the SGI partner in New York



An experiment:The experiment considered three steps:1. Students from the last two years are part-time employed in

the company with a well shaped program - a kind of a dual system is created combining production

and R&D activities- the students have the possibility to be involved in

international research projects with specific tasks based on the support of both the university and the company.

-students are part of a “bridge” connecting company's applied research with that of the university

2. Depending on the dedication (!) and performance after finishing the studies at BS level these students are employed by the company - the company is ready to support their MS studies in

conditions of a mutual agreement


3. A kind of a “domestic” post-graduate training is organized.- once a week all the young engineers and students involved in the

system attend a “scientific training meeting” (absolute compulsory!) lead by the managing director of the company

- the meeting has a pre-defined object concerning one of the problems of interest for the company and for the attendees as well

- presentations are prepaired by one of the participants or by invited speakers of recognized professional authority

- foreign partners involved in research projects are “special invited speakers”

- free discussions follow the presentations

Observation: a great interest of the participants is beyond any doubt!


Examples of R&D project with joint company/university/student involvement:

• Technology of preformed ceramic cores for investment casting

• EU funded international joint research project LoCoLite (EU acronym) for the automotive industry –project coordinator the London Imperial College

• Active screen plasma nitriding/nitrocarburizing with the support of the Miskolc University and the Sapientia in Tg.Mures

WP2 Tool Materials and Surface Treatments for HFQ ProcessTask 2.1 Development of low-cost low- friction/thermal fatigue resistant

hot forming tool

Nitrocarburized samples (φ 50 mm disc)

Gaseous nitrocarburising G3500 at 570 C / 6 hours;

Surface hardness: 940 MHV100Core hardness: 276 MHV100Layer thickness: 10 20 m

Low-cost Lightweight (LoCoLite) forming technique


Example of R&D project in “dual education “ system

...from the 24 month progress report


...an R&D project originated in the need of solving production problems:

Preformed ceramic cores for investment casting


The team....


Summary

• The education has to be based more on a general need of society and more “user friendly” for SME-s and not only of multinational giants

• More efficient contact between companies, universities and R&D sector• Financing R&D programs has to be more “problem solving” correlating with

the universities Less bureaucratic and more globally cooperatively oriented strategies; more ‘bottom up’ generation of proposals for support, instead of the present ‘top down’ approach to selection of projects;

• Better understanding of the science and technology issues by governments and international organizations

• The politics should be more concerned for the future of society then that of the multinationals


Thank you for your attention !

Education

Zoltán Kolozsváry: The Part and the whole – a complex relationship between education, innovation, production