Annual Report 200 /200 Board of European Students of Technology
Welcome!
Table of Contents
Nowadays, information is the power to create doors to a new world, while technology holds the key to enter and move forward. Engineers have the privilege to master both, but at the same time, they carry a huge responsibility.
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Soon, in a world ruled by information and technology, talented engineers seeing beyond borders will be steering the wheel of the society. As members of BEST and being talented students of technology, we will be the ones building this future! Enjoy the following pages, as they will show a small sign of our constant efforts to be the change we want to see in the world!
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Welcome! Welcome from the XVIII International Board Growth of the Organisation Local BEST Groups My Passion for BEST Complementary Education: BEST Courses in 200 -200 A Professor’s Experience with BEST More External Events BEST Educational Involvement BEST Involvement in Thematic Networks Career Support Service Career Events in BEST Management of BEST Our Achievements in 200 -200 Communication in BEST What is the BEST Training System? BEST IT Systems: Supporting Communication Streaming to a Common Image BEST Alumni Network Careers in Europe: A Successful Cooperation Cooperating with other Organisations Finances of BEST in 200 -200 Partners of BEST
BEST Identity Statement VISION
MISSION
Empowered diversity
Developing Students
People understand and respect different cultures and societies. The environment of empowered diversity supports people in applying their full potential and acting responsibly.
BEST helps students to achieve an international mindset, to reach a better understanding of cultures and societies and to develop the capacity to work in culturally diverse environments. BEST creates opportunities for personal development of students and supports them in reaching their full potential.
BEST SPIRIT BEST Spirit is the inspiration for all our actions
Flexibility
Friendship
We seek the ability to make changes and deal with changing conditions.
We build good relationships in which people help, support and care for one another.
Fun
Improvement
We enjoy everything we do.
We strive to continuously improve the standards in everything we do.
Learning We gain skills and understanding through experience.
POSITION
ACTIVITIES
BEST is a voluntary, apolitical, non-profit, nonrepresentative international association of European students of technology.
Core Activity Providing complementary education
Other Activities Providing career support Increasing educational involvement
Welcome from the XVIII International Board We wrote one more year of the story of BEST. It was a year of growth and change for us as members as well as for the entire organisation. BEST has grown fast in size, developed more activities and gained status and influence. We faced numerous challenges, exhausting amounts of work and sometimes tough decisions. Together we made it through and we can be proud of the results. The most enjoyable part was working with BEST members. They show so much dedication, motivation and will-
Name
Nadina Busuioc Susan Langer Jihad R’Baiti Elina Seppanen Michal Wojtera Xavier Ronde-Oustau
ingness to face new challenges, it is overwhelming. They are not afraid to learn new things, try out their skills and push their limits to reach maximum results. It is impossible to find such a diverse group of friends with such team spirit anywhere else. We want to thank you all; it was a pleasure working with you! During a year hundreds of stories are born. Wherever BEST members travel and meet, they create memories to last a lifetime. We cannot fit it all inside, but this report will give you an overview of what BEST and its members are.
BEST Group
Position
Bucharest Copenhagen ENSTA, Paris Tampere Lodz Helsinki
President Secretary Treasurer Vice President for External Services Vice President for Internal Support Vice President for Local Group Support
Growth of the Organisation One of the greatest things about BEST is our constant growth and endeavour for development and improvement. Every year new groups are eager to join and show how their participation will contribute to BEST. They are the ones bringing the most new ideas and remind us to stay innovative.
the steps that will be taken to fulfil the requirements. As well, the actions done throughout the whole process will be taken into account. By the end of June 2006, BEST reached the amazing number of 70 local groups after inviting 3 new groups to join. This means that BEST is now settled in 70 European high standard technology universities and is spread in 29 countries in Europe.
This year brought a lot of development in the area of membership in BEST. The process to become a member group of BEST is now flexible and adapted to the growth process of the group individually. This way their motivation and creativity will have space to grow, while learning more about BEST at the same time.
Another 3 observer groups are patiently waiting to be approved by BEST to join the organisation and take part in all the activities.
On a General Meeting, the full members of BEST can vote upon new groups democratically. To become a member group an action plan has to be presented, that states
On behalf of the whole organisation, we hope that the next year in BEST will bring at least the same development and innovation to all the former, current and future groups of BEST.
Number of Local BEST Groups Number of BEST Groups
80
Number of countries
70 60 50 40 30 20 10 0 1989
1992
1995
1998
2001
2004
2006
Membership Changes Presidents’ Meeting (Ljubljana, November 2005) New observer groups Madrid Carlos III Reykjavik Novi Sad New Baby member Brno New Full members Rome, Tor Vergata Gdansk Istanbul Aalborg
General Assembly (Zagreb, April 2006) New Observer groups New Baby members New Full member
Brussels ULB Graz Reykjavik Novi Sad Ekaterinburg USTU
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Local BEST Groups Name
University
President
no. of Members
Budget,€
Full members Aalborg Almada Athens Barcelona Belgrade Brasov Bratislava Brussels Bucharest Budapest Chania Cluj-Napoca Coimbra Copenhagen ENSAM ENSTA Eindhoven Ekaterinburg Ekaterinburg, USTU Gdansk Ghent Gliwice Gothenburg Grenoble Helsinki Iasi Istanbul Kosice Krakow Leuven Liege Lisbon Ljubljana Lodz Louvain-la-Neuve Lund
Aalborg University New University of Lisbon National Technical University of Athens Technical University of Catalonia University of Belgrade “Transilvania” University of Brasov Slovak University of Technology Free University of Brussels (VUB) “Politehnica” University of Bucharest Budapest University of Technology and Economics Technical University of Crete (T.U.C.) Technical University of Cluj-Napoca University of Coimbra Technical University of Denmark ENSAM National Institute for Advanced Techniques Eindhoven University of Technology Urals State University of Railway Transport Urals State Technical University Gdansk University of Technology Ghent University Silesian University of Technology Chalmers University of Technology National Polytechnic Institute of Grenoble Helsinki University of Technology “Gheorghe Asachi” Technical University of Iasi Istanbul Technical University Technical University of Kosice AGH - University of Science and Technology Katholieke Universiteit Leuven University of Liege Instituto Superior Tecnico University of Ljubljana Technical University of Lodz Catholic University of Louvain Lund Institute of Technology
Jeppe Mulvad Larsen 14 Diogo Lorena 19 Myrto Argyropoulou 55 Marcello Masgrau 20 Mirko Grujicic 30 Sebastian Jusca 35 Jan Mazanec 26 Imre Vanhemelryck 20 Dan Florescu 50 Gabriella Kovacs 15 Manolis Koufidakis 15 Ligia Martin 45 Andre Guiomar 10 Anne Louise Frost 15 Anne Teichner 25 Rudy Pastel 5 Mark van Heeswijk 9 Natasha Borisova 30 Olga Gladysheva 22 Wojciech Kulesza 30 Liesbeth Taerwe 22 Kamil Korczynski 29 Jonas Sundell 20 Mathieu Delor 20 Kristina Uusi-Esko 15 Ionut Manastireanu 50 Ahmet Sarialioglu 26 Rastislav Chomjak 15 Ewelina Szczudlo 35 Karel Eeckhout 16 Francois Bonjean 6 David Paisana 32 Tanja Kranjc 20 Slawomir Klab 30 Christophe Bodson 16 Veronica Karlsson 12
5.000 28.000 15.000 18.000 3.490 12.500 5.000 10.000 33.000 3.000 8.000 25.000 4.500 26.800 5.000 2.000 10.000 14.000 5.000 11.500 10.000 20.000 20.000 15.000 7.500 15.000 9.500 8.000 36.370 7.500 10.000 15.000 40.000 10.560 7.000 17.000
9 Lviv Lviv Polytechnic National University Lyon INSA Lyon Madrid Universidad Politécnica de Madrid Maribor University of Maribor Milan Politechnic of Milan Nancy National Polytechnic Institute of Lorraine Naples University of Naples “Federico II” Paris, Ecole Centrale Centrale Paris Paris, Polytechnique Ecole Polytechnique Patras University of Patras Porto University of Porto Riga Riga Technical University Rome University of Rome “La Sapienza” Rome, Tor Vergata University of Rome “Tor Vergata” Skopje University “Ss. Cyril and Methodius” Sofia Technical University of Sofia Stockholm Royal Institute of Technology Supelec Supelec Tallinn Tallinn University of Technology Tampere Tampere University of Technology Thessaloniki Aristotle University of Thessaloniki Timisoara “Politehnica” University of Timisoara Trondheim Norwegian University of Science and Technology Turin Politechnic of Turin Uppsala Uppsala University Valladolid University of Valladolid Veszprem University of Pannonia Vienna Vienna University of Technology Warsaw Warsaw University of Technology Zagreb University of Zagreb
Baby members Brno Brno University of Technology Kaunas Kaunas University of Technology Novi Sad University of Novi Sad Reykjavik University of Iceland
Taras Kovtalo 30 Eric Dubreuil 15 Victor Astorga 20 Urska Krajnc 15 Massimiliano Araldi 10 Mederic Gillet 23 Alessandro Miceli 20 Emmanuel Louvrier 7 Laetitia Messner 20 Aggelos Saliagkopoulos 25 Pedro Vilas-Boas 30 Kristina Kirsanova 36 Giuseppe Porsia 15 Riccardo Rossi 21 Ana Veta 35 Petya Lozanova 29 Kerstin Bengtsson 15 Jerome Henry 32 Armin Tull 55 Heidi Lunden 10 Fanis Grollios 20 Karina Herman 45 Solveig Fiskaa 14 Ivan Difrancesco 25 Karin Sjostrand 8 Igor Llorente 25 Borbala Bordas 25 Evelyn Napetschnig 23 Pawel Pelka 24 Petar Cvahte 45
Michal Kral Daiva Bagdonaite Janko Micic Andri Kristinsson
My Passion for BEST BEST is more than just a way to spend my whole time and energy. It’s not only the amazing diversity of things you can see and learn, not only the amazing amount of people working for free on this one big idea, Europe; it’s not even the sum of all this, it’s more: it’s this force you suddenly feel when you get together with people you already know or you never saw, but who are sharing the same ideas as you do, the same enthusiasm, the same will to go further and further... But is BEST worth it? Always 1000 things to do, always 1000 things to think of, always the risk to meet someone somewhere in Europe, without the guarantee to meet again... but then, yes – the BEST experience is something unique, which you remember your whole life! So, are you ready for the challenge?
Manuel Gay Local BEST Group Lyon
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10.700 4.500 26.000 25.000 2.500 5.500 14.000 6.000 5.000 6.000 15.000 21.000 13.000 14.740 12.000 10.000 18.600 20.000 45.000 2.500 18.450 30.000 20.600 55.710 11.100 25.000 4.000 6.000 120.000 30.470
14.620 7.000 3.130 32.000
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Complementary Education: BEST Courses all around Europe BEST offers a wide spectrum of activities, all of which develop students in different ways. However, there is one activity we cherish more than anything, our service – complementary education. Each year local BEST groups organise around 70 courses lasting from 1 to 2 weeks.
At a BEST course, the students gain knowledge within the branch of engineering the course targets. Participating in a BEST Course is a once in a lifetime opportunity to develop your technical skills, improve your mobility and start creating an international network of future engineers.
BEST Courses in 2005 – 2006 Title of the event
Organiser no. of appl./part.
Winter season The eyes in the skies Artificial intelligence: success or failure of the humanity? Energy: What Challenges for Tomorrow? Mobile Magic – Let the waves do it! Speak as you eat! - A tasty introduction to EATalian language European Week 2006: Multicultural Project Management, a messy melting POT ? Mechatronics: Add Your Brick to Engineering Build your own Smart Home!!!
ENSTA 141 Ekaterinburg, USTU 167 Paris, Ecole Centrale 283 Tallinn 403 Rome 762
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Supélec 672 50 Ekaterinburg 176 30 Athens 549 23
Spring Season Robot Programming – Creating Intelligent Machines Re-Design your city: Discover how to live with water! Recycle-man, your friendly neighbour!!! Nuclear Energy: from Fission to Fusion Be like God - Control your climate Stop Smoking & Go Faster! – Discover the New World of Transportation Careerology: The world after graduation Robots and machines: How will they change us? 25 hours to innovate; from idea to object Home, green home! – Build an ecological house Materials Matter! – Materials science and its improvements on the human potential. Don’t let the scorpio tweak you! – workshop on mobile robotics My heart will go on - Biomedical Engineering
Chania Thessaloniki Belgrade Paris, Polytechnique Sofia
193 218 168 217 103
20 20 20 22 22
ENSAM Ljubljana Lyon Nancy Grenoble
151 175 215 206 266
23 20 20 20 20
Patras Gliwice Lodz
150 94 146
22 20 20
Gothenburg 126 Maribor 162 Liege 79 Skopje 55 Tallinn 94 Kraków 138
26 25 20 24 24 22
Summer Season Yacht Design Milky way and Mars under the stars Kick the ball and track it! From scratch to a machine – Discover your dream car! Papa’s got a brand new bag Pimp my house! – Building Automation
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No Panic with Bioinorganic – Discover your Proteens! Copenhagen 120 25 Crash Course 2006 Ljubljana 89 25 Universal Design – Architecture for All Vienna 189 20 Use your laser, man! – Optoelectronics Warsaw 91 20 Feel the speed. Feel the engineering. – What’s behind Formula 1 cars? Madrid 295 20 Risk assessment in contaminated areas Chania 207 20 Don’t get lost in three trees Riga 142 20 Can we fix it? Yes, we can!! Bob, the biomedical engineer Leuven 155 20 A look inside! Do you mind? – The human brain inside out Eindhoven 255 25 Renewable energies Louvain-la-Neuve 176 20 “Quality Management” – Rise up to the standards! Cluj-Napoca 42 20 Face 2 Face With Signals Iasi 69 20 Wild Water World – Let’s Get Wet! Bratislava 160 21 LEt’s GO! – Athens 252 20 “Don’t call us, we’ll call you.” Learn about human resources management Brasov 88 20 Photonics, your beam to the future! Brussels 243 20 R.O.M.E. – Raising Operations Management Effectiveness through Lean Production Rome, Tor Vergata 236 20 Coimbra’s ancient roots: Useful and Medicinal Plants! Coimbra 157 20 Engineer the future: Get yourself sustainable! Lisbon 358 30 What goes around comes around – Renewable resources for sustainable production Lund 131 24 Electricity from Thin Air – Wind Power! Tampere 228 20 Let’s network – welcome to the candyshop! Budapest 352 20 Empowering the 21st century – Energy systems of the future Aalborg 213 24 Bridge up your life! Trondheim 105 27 Wood Stock 2006 Helsinki 221 24 Go back to nature and into the future with Artificial Photosynthesis Uppsala 142 26 Maritime Industry: Be like Popeye the Sailor Man. Sea It !!! Gdansk 104 23 Robots – What Can They Do With (out) Us? Almada 175 30 Wake Up, Join the Robolution! Porto 163 20 Safe Structural Design Brno 98 22 On the move? Do it safe! Naples 152 20 The Birth of BEST Anthem. e-Music - a Creative Approach Kaunas 66 25 Pedal to the Metal – 10 things you don’t know about your car Bucharest 73 25 When Imagination Comes True: Big Infrastructures Made in Italy Milan 226 20 I like the way you move Turin 197 24 Wind – Water – Heat – Sun: The power is around us Valladolid 246 27
Number of applications and participants for year 2005-2006
12325
1422
A Professor’s Experience with BEST Courses In the spring of 2005, I was asked by one of my former students to get involved in teaching a BEST summer course. Although I was alone to handle a two-week teaching, I was free to choose the theme of the course and had authority to assess the students’ competence. Due to the interesting cultural diversity encountered in a BEST class, the ideas were exchanged more rapidly than in an ordinary class, and I was impressed by the ability of the students to understand and correctly master a matter out of their usual scope. This is why I would also recommend it to my colleagues.
Professor Jacques Hermia BEST summer course July 2005
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More External Events When applying for a BEST event, one will notice the great variety of events, which BEST offers in addition to BEST courses. They are BEST Engineering Competitions, Leisure events and Events on Education. These events are very different from our courses and give the students other possibilities of developing themselves. No matter if they want to improve their cultural understanding, express their opinion on educational issues in Europe or use the knowledge they already gained at their home universities to compete with other international students, then BEST gives them the possibility of doing just that.
Title of the event Organiser
Number of Number of applications participants
BEST Engineering Competition BEST Engineering Competition BEC – BEST Engineering Competition BECool! BECreative! BECompetitive! BEST Engineering Competition BEST Engineering Competition – Pump it up!!
Events on Education BEST Academics and Companies Forum Ethics and Sustainable Development issues in Engineering Education Active Learning in Engineering Education Virtual Mobility – the Educational Challenge of the Future National & Inter-European Challenges in Bologna Process Implementation
Leisure events (B)eat the Snowflakes! Viking Winter – Discover how warm Sweden can be Career Event: What Kind of Engineer are You? The slopes are alive! Retro Roots Navigare Necesse (B)EST: Sailing Event Belgium By Bike: A Beer too Far B5: boats between beer, bears and beach Go High Reloaded
Tallinn
75
21
Timisoara Veszprém Barcelona
57 33 163
23 20 20
Istanbul
195
20
202 170
20 20
Madrid Porto
Bucharest
59
20
Lviv
69
23
Bratislava Stockholm Ghent Vienna Kosice Lodz Ghent Ekaterinburg Cluj-Napoca
96 201 151 156 11 35 97 52 52
22 20 20 20 11 20 20 25 16
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BEST Educational Involvement
Events on Education
Through its Educational Involvement, BEST provides European students of technology with a platform to gather knowledge and discuss their ideas on specific topics of engineering education. The core action is constituted by Events on Education, which are meeting places for students and other stakeholders in engineering education – universities and companies. There, they have the chance to debate and produce significant outcomes on various educational issues. In order to achieve its goals in the field of education, BEST cooperates with various networks and organisations. They appreciate BEST as the most excellent opportunity to get the input from students in their European-wide initiatives. This is enabling BEST to act as a key player in the decision-making process. In 2005 BEST became a member of the Thematic Network EIE-Surveyor and its members attended 13 conferences all around Europe, presenting both the outcomes of the Events on Education and their personal contributions.
To achieve the goals of Educational Involvement, during the period July 2005 – June 2006 five Events on Education were organised by Local BEST Groups Rome Tor Vergata, Aalborg, Istanbul, Madrid and Porto. 1045 students applied to these events and in the end, there were 105 participants. More than 40 university and company representatives also took part there. The topics of the events ranged from E-Learning to Ethical Issues, from Extra Curricular Activities to Virtual Mobility and accreditation. Their outcomes were presented to different Thematic Networks and at some European educational conferences such as SEFI Annual Conference.
Late at night in a train to Istanbul, I was thinking “Here I am, travelling to an event where I am supposed to discuss education. Who am I to discuss with professors or companies representatives, who know much more about education than me?” In the following days I realised my doubts were unfounded. Participating in the BEST Academics and Companies Forum, I took active part in discussions with fellow students and professionals, who were listening with great interest to the ideas of twenty students from all over Europe. When I came back home, I knew that our input – as students – was valuable. Goncalo Castro, participant BEST Academic and Companies Forum Istanbul, February 2006
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BEST involvement in Thematic Networks Thematic Networks are a special kind of network structured as a three-year project on a specific theme of concern in engineering education, supported and financed under the framework of the Socrates Erasmus programme. Their influence on the decision – making process in matters concerning universities and their students is significant. BEST is participating in these networks most often as the sole and only student organisation. Therefore, its contribution is seen as valuable and necessary. The following table describes the Thematic Networks BEST is currently member of and outlines their role within the project.
Thematic Network Description
EIE-Surveyor: reference point for Electrical and Information engineering in Europe
TREE: Teaching and Research in Engineering in Europe
ReVE: Real Virtual Erasmus
Role of BEST
• Reflection on generic competences and subject-specific competences in Electrical and Information Engineering (EIE), • Implementation of quality assessment methodologies on some educational resources available in EIE, • Reflection and proposition of a methodology for accreditation, in order to enhance comparability and common certification procedures, • Proposition of a census of the existing curricula in EIE in Europe, the multinational degrees, and the situation of the implementation of the Bologna-process in EIE, at the bachelor, master and PhD levels
BEST is a member of the Monitoring Team of the network
The global goal of TREE is the development of the European dimension in Engineering Education (EE). This means enhancing the compatibility of the many diverse routes to the formation of Engineering graduates which exist in Europe in order to facilitate greater mobility of skilled personnel and integration of the various situations throughout Europe.
BEST is a member of the TREE Management Committee and is currently leading two Special Interest Groups (SIGs): B6 “Stimulating student research in the first cycle” and C8 “The role of extra-curricular activities in engineering education”
The REVE project is aimed at enhancing the impact and efficiency of traditional Erasmus programmes through the setup and support of mainstream Virtual Erasmus actions in the European Higher Education Area.
BEST is a member of the ReVE Management Team.
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Declining Student Interest for S&T Studies: Trends, Factors, and Solutions… The development of student enrolments in science and technology (S&T) at various levels of the educational system has been an issue of interest in many OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development) countries over the recent years, as economies are increasingly driven by complex knowledge and advanced cognitive skills. The OECD Global Science Forum has just completed a two-year study on this issue, which analysed statistical data on student enrolments and graduation rates together with information on factors contributing to possible declining interest. Solutions attempted in different countries, and the preliminary findings were debated during a concluding international conference in Amsterdam. In the search for possible speakers and panel members from the student community, who could bring their own
view of the problem during the conference, BEST has been the most helpful partner and their cooperation the most promising. A survey addressing the reasons why students chose to pursue S&T careers was prepared and carried out by BEST. Its results were presented during a keynote speech in the Amsterdam event. We look forward for the input of such active and interested student organisations as BEST, in issues of concern Frederic Sgard OECD, Global Science Forum
Students and Virtual Mobility: Our BEST Experience For a few years now EuroPACE is collaborating intensively with BEST. It all started within the TREE – Thematic Network, in which both organisations are partners. Since then we had plenty of occasions to discuss with students about virtual mobility, and as an example we could refer to the ReVE project, where we try to enhance the impact and efficiency of traditional Erasmus programs through the set-up and support of mainstream Virtual Erasmus actions in the European Higher Education Area. We took BEST on board as a partner to have the students’ point of view at each phase of the project, and more importantly, in each step to implement virtual mobility in their learning process. Besides the very constructive input from the students’ representatives in all project meetings, we could also count on BEST to fine – tune further our project’s intermediate results thanks to the workshops we could organise during BEST Symposia on Education, the outcomes of which are very valuable for the projects of ReVE Virtual Mobility. We value a lot the constructive attitude of BEST in the
ReVE project and the students’ willingness to be involved in projects on European level. We already have BEST included as a partner in new project proposals, and we are definitely looking forward to further collaboration. Wim Van Petegem Vice-chairman EuroPACE¹ and Director K.U.Leuven - AVNet
1 EuroPACE is a network of European universities collaborating in the field of e-learning – for more information, see: http://www.europace.org Teaching and Research in Engineering Education – for more information, see: http://www3.unifi.it/tree Real Virtual Erasmus – for more information, see: http://reve. europace.org/
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Career Support
BEST Career Centre
Where to draw a line between higher education and a career life? It is all about developing necessary skills and facing challenges – every day. These are the two passions of BEST members and we want to share it with other students.
Did you dream of an IT system gathering all Career related services for BEST students and companies to meet?
Despite the last years of problems with BEST Career Support, members chose to keep it as one of our core activities and develop it further. We want it to complement our other services in order to support the development of students comprehensively through their studies and into their working lives. We hope to bring BEST to the leading edge of providing career support for students by students.
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We have it at http://www.best.eu.org/bcc A database of over 8000 CVs of those students Job and internship offers from our partners Complete profiles of our partners Promotion of special programmes‌
On this platform, BEST students not only find information about their future employers, but also find out about special opportunities for seminars, internships and jobs. BEST partners, on the other hand, have access to those students by searching among those high talented students, speaking 3 languages for the majority, and eager to develop career experience abroad. One of the powerful tools of the system is a targeted newsletter: to reach students in a specific region, a field, or all of them. BEST Career Centre is already a fast improving tool, entitled to propose more features and applications for both students and partners: a tool to get those stakeholders from all Europe always closer.
Connecting Students to the Corporate World The love story between Schlumberger and me started in 2005 at the XXIV General Assembly in Greece where I got to know the company during the presentation session of the opening day. At that time, I was looking for a job in an international company that would be technical oriented at the beginning and that later on would give me the opportunity to go into management. After talking with the Schlumberger recruiter it was obvious to me that Schlumberger was a company I would like to work for. I am now working in Scotland in Schlumberger for almost one year and I am enjoying every bit, as my job is challenging and full of unpredictable situations. Angela Scaueru Junior Field Engineer Schlumberger
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Career Events This year a new kind of event was tried out: the BEST Career Event. The program of Career Events consists of a mixture of company workshops, training, debates and discussions. The goal is to help the attending students to get in closer contact with potential employers, and to provide them with a better understanding of the company lifestyle. Interested companies can hold their own workshops and company presentation within the alotted time. So far, three career events have been held, organised by Local BEST Groups Turin, Ghent and Ljubljana. The Career Events are currently still in a trial phase, and there were strong differences between the selection procedure for attending students, and the number and background of the joining companies. In the future, BEST will evaluate the Career Event concept, to see if it could become a standardised event to be offered to students and companies.
Job Fairs in 2005 – 2006 Organisers Belgrade Brasov Bucharest Cluj-Napoca Gdansk Gdansk Gliwice Gliwice Iasi Krakow Lisbon Lodz Louvain-la-Neuve Porto Skopje Sofia Supelec Tallinn Timisoara Valladolid Warsaw Zagreb
Dates
Oct 31 - Nov 01 2005 May 15 - May 18 2006 May 8 - May 11 2006 May 16 - May 17 2006 18 October 2005 9 November 2005 Mar 7 - Mar 8 2006 6 October 2005 13 April 2006 14 March 2006 Mar 13 - Mar 24 2006 23 March 2006 Mar 6 - Mar 9 2006 6 April 2006 Mar 20 - Mar 22 2006 Oct 25 - Oct 27 2005 6 March 2006 Mar 30 - Mar 31 2006 Apr 5 - Apr 6 2006 29 March 2006 May 9 - May 10 2006 Mar 21 - Mar 23 2006
No. of visitors No. of companies 1.500 12 4.000 29 5.000 84 3.000 35 250 1 200 1 5.000 34 2.000 10 3.000 17 8.000 46 120 6 4.000 32 400 65 70 1 2.000 14 15.000 30 150 5 4.000 56 6.000 40 5.000 18 10.000 39 10.000 22
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P&G is the world’s leading fast moving consumer good companies, marketing over 300 brands of top quality (a.o. Pampers, Pringles, Gillette). The secret of these good results? Our people. Thanks to our promotion from within policy, the new hires of today are the leaders of tomorrow. That’s exactly the reason why P&G values the cooperation with BEST already for many years and will put even more focus in the coming year on leveraging it to a higher level. We strongly believe that students participating in BEST activities gain extra-curricular experience which makes them better prepared for their future career in a business environment getting more dynamic and demanding every day.
On top, the pan-European network of BEST groups facilitates active promotion of P&G seminars or vacancies to a very specific audience of engineering students all over Europe. As such we want to play an active role in supporting the BEST members who enthusiastically invest a few years of their life to help their fellow students. We do think that the challenges they are facing now are helping them to develop themselves into the managers of tomorrow we are looking for! Wouter Schaekers Procter&Gamble BEST member 2000-2004
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The Board of BEST
Local Group Support
The International Board of BEST is the yearly elected top-management team, consisting of six members: the President, the Treasurer, the Secretary and the three VicePresidents: for External Services, for Internal Support and for Local Group Support. Within this structure, the members of the Board coordinate the information flow among the Local BEST Groups, supervise the international projects developed to support the services offered to students, decide upon the division of resources and represent the organisation towards the outside world. This is all done in a multi-cultural environment and in parallel with their regular university studies, which makes their task very challenging and educational.
While the network of BEST expands, the connections between each BEST group become more essential. This year a new function in the board and a first generation of regional advisors dedicated one year to take care of keeping the overview of the local groups and providing support where needed. Sharing between BEST groups got extra attention, to assure the individual knowledge and experience of every BEST group is spread among the network. To fully support our Local Groups, the needed IT & promotion tools were continuously improved and individual trainings were provided if requested by a BEST group.
The Committees of BEST BEST International Committees cooperate with the Board members to achieve their goals and to provide materials, services and communication tools to Local BEST Groups to improve their activities. Corporate Relations Team: makes and keeps contacts with partners and sponsors of BEST (Coordinator: Raido Kivinurm) Educational Committee: represents BEST in educational matters and European Thematic Networks (Coordinator: Nicolò Wojewoda) External Events Committee: manages the organisation of BEST Courses and other events (Coordinator: Nuno Andrade) IT Committee: supports BEST in IT-related matters (Coordinator: Rudolf Mayer)
PR, web and marketing Team: designs promotional materials and maintains the image of BEST (Coordinator: Harilaos Vasiliadis) Training Interested Group: manages the BEST Training System and aids Local Groups in HR related matters (Coordinators: Federico Pisanu, Cristina Dumitru) Career Support Committee: provides international career oportunities to the young engineers in Europe (Coordinator: Madalina Niculae) The committee members are students from all Local BEST Groups, who join the committee based on their own motivation and this gives the committees an international aspect. The majority of committee work is done virtually, on mailing lists and with the use of chat, servers and wiki.The committees are lead by a coordinator, elected every year.
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Our Achievements in 20052006 At the beginning of every summer, the International Board analyses the status of the organisation and sets goals for the following year. These goals are results of a thorough analysis of the resources, needs, projects and fresh initiatives. Each goal comes with a set of actions (timeframe, task division, planning) and along the year, this makes it easier for us to achieve our goals. During the process, we learn to be flexible, to adapt, to change and to re-define the plans. The main goals for 2005-2006 are presented below; enjoy discovering the achievements we are really proud of!
Defining BEST Identity After sixteen years of existence, BEST found itself standing on a turning point. The goals and aims set in the early nineties were not coherent anymore with the current situation. The process of re-evaluating the organisation and its aims started, and after the first year of working, involving everybody from fresh members to the founders of BEST, a new identity statement was created. The main leap forward is the change in the definition and focus of the association: a network that was aimed “to promote Europe among Europeans” became an organisation that aims to develop students.
Merging IT Systems Gone are the days when BEST members needed three usernames and passwords to access all our services – Private Area, BEST Application System and BEST Career Centre. Since 2006, these systems can be reached with one login only, and their common data, like addresses, can be shared. This new feature was realised by the IT committee of BEST, who developed a Merger tool to let people merge their different accounts in each system. After thorough preparation, BEST members can now enjoy not only an easy access to BEST online, but also a transparent way of sharing information. The next challenge is to make this feature available also to non-members.
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Establishing External Relations While studying the contacts of BEST with the outside world, we realised that until now the approach towards External Relations was uncoordinated, it lacked a clear strategy and a well-defined overview. This naturally happened due to the growth of the network and the constant need of adapting the system to the size of the organisation. How-
ever, during the last years, the growth became constant and predictable and the need for an External Relations Agenda became a priority. This year BEST investigated the current situation in detail and defined a strategy for establishing an External Relations system.
Evaluating Career Support In the last years, BEST Career Support service has not developed as we hoped. The interest towards what we offer has not grown enough inside and outside the organisation. This year we analysed the service to find causes to this problem. We found out that what we offered was not coherent with the needs of our partners and did not provide enough added value to students. Thus our focus and the role of BEST in the career field was redefined.
The current activities are based on our partners’ needs, so their focus was shifted to students with international mindset, high mobility and readiness to face challenges. In addition, a new project started, researching more into what unique value we could offer to students in terms of their career. We aim to realise the full potential of BEST in the career field.
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Communication and Internal Events
Virtual Communication
We are students from various universities in Europe and making our projects work relies, to some extent, on face-to-face meetings. Only through these meetings real interaction, cultural exchange and sharing are possible. Around 50 such internal meetings happen every year, from decision-making General Meetings, to workshops and trainshops, from board meetings to short intensive meetings of committees. Every year, our most involved members meet in any given corner of Europe to discover once again the BEST spirit, to share, to gain new knowledge, to improve and to have a taste of multinational team-work.
With 70 Local BEST Groups in 29 countries, the biggest problem that arises is obviously communication. One hundred years ago, it would have been difficult to let students in Reykjavik know that they were accepted to a summer course in Istanbul. Today it is only a matter of seconds. As a network of students of technology, we have well discovered the wonders of virtual communication. Staying in touch in order to exchange ideas and work together is important, that is why we exchange e-mails and why we have instant messaging sessions; we put together projects even if we live thousands of miles away.
Internal Events in 2005-2006
Type of event
Number of events
Number of participants
General Meetings 2 Board Meetings 3 Committee Meetings 15 Workshops 3 JAMboree 1 Regional Meetings 19 Alumni Meetings 4
348 36 220 60 414 720 41
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What is the BEST Training System? Among all BEST events, there are also training events that help BEST members to be efficient in specific areas as well as provide good basis for our internal work. All the work done in this area is correlated to the idea of BEST training system that was born in 1998. When joining a Local BEST Group, a new member immediately recieves basic knowledge about BEST and the training through all his BEST life begins. BEST Jamboree should be then the next step where BEST members encounter the international taste of the organisation. Next a mixture of local and international training opportunities comes. Knowledge is transferred on various topics via LBG motivation weekends, local LBG training, and training on Regional Meetings. These are already somewhat specific and mostly suitable up to local project management and some Local Board functions. The foam on the cake is of course the selection of top quality, specialised training courses on international environment. The core of it is the
series of TrainShops, which cater for different fields necessary in special positions of an LBG. Be it about leadership, fundraising, PR or IT, it always contains a great deal of applied knowledge specific to BEST. Accompanying Training Interested Group, BEST Committees also actively take part in organising such events, providing nessesary knowledge on the field of their work. Trainers Camps (TRAP) takes place once a year. New BEST trainers are grown up to keep on transfer BEST heritage to new generation of BEST members. In addition, new trainers always have opportunity to improve their skills by attending periodically organised Trainers Meetings (TRAM). In practice sometimes, the learning experience is not this linear. However, if going on this training path, BEST can assure great knowledge transfer and provide the continuity of the whole organisation. For better overview of trainingrelated BEST events, the table of these events during last year is presented.
Trainings for BEST members
Organisers
Number of participants
Trainers Camp – trainers education and development beKNOWN – training on marketing and design bePROUD – training for leaders and managers beRICHER – training on HR and optimising resources beMORE – trainers education and development Trainers Meeting
Cluj-Napoca Brussels Sofia Lodz Louvain-la-Neuve Brussels
21 20 20 20 20 13
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BEST IT Systems: Supporting Communication In order to support BEST in achieving its goals and visions and guarantee good communication between all Local BEST groups, IT Committee of BEST provides technical resources and services, developing concepts of IT applications and implementing the systems. As a part of this job, ITC takes care of a network of
servers distributed across Europe to support BEST online services. Thanks to the help of the Local BEST Groups and the universities that host and provide the Internet access, BEST can be online for the whole world. Moreover, BEST members use everyday the internal services designed to improve the communication and productivity of the organisation in their daily activities.
Application Servers
Mail Servers
An application server is a server, which hosts services as webpages and databases, and also other applications such as backup tools.
A mail server is a server making sure that the delivery of emails going to @BEST.eu.org addresses happens.
Lisbon (Web Application Server) Hosted by Technical University of Lisbon, Lisbon, Portugal Tallinn (Development Server) Hosted by Tallinn University of Technology, Tallinn, Estonia
Cluj-Napoca The server was acquired by Local Best Group Vienna Hosted by the Local Best Group Cluj-Napoca Stockholm Hosted by the Local Best Group Stockholm
Ghent (Development Server) The server was donated by Ghent University, Ghent, Belgium Hosted by the Local Best Group Ghent
Tallinn Hosted by the Local Best Group Tallinn
Chania (Database Backup Server) Hosted by the Local Best Group Chania
Valladolid Donated and hosted by the Local Best Group Valladolid
Tallinn (FTP & Backup Server) Donated and hosted by the Local Best Group Tallinn
Vienna Donated and hosted by the Local Best Group Vienna
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Streaming to a Common Image “We are beautiful!” said a BEST member recently. We are creative students, full of energy and motivation. This is obvious when you meet us, when you attend our events, when you hear about our activities. Nevertheless, this message has to appear through all of our means of communication. The image of BEST around Europe has neither been coherent, nor representative of who we really are. To achieve that, the members of the PR, Web and Marketing Committee of BEST (PRteam) worked a lot this past year. By learning, planning and designing, we managed to set an action plan in order to develop the Corporate Identity of BEST. It would be the link between the newly written BEST Identity and the chosen ways of communication with our target audience and partners.
The design also took steps forward with the implementation of the fresh “shields” in all the materials. While still leaving enough space for creativity, the shields provide the necessary connection among the PR-materials throughout Europe, therefore making BEST more recognisable. Together with fresher and more specific colours, you can already notice the difference in the remarkable creations our young engineer-designers produce. In the year that follows, we will continue to design and develop the Corporate Identity in order to achieve a common image of BEST both internally and externally.
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BEST Alumni Network After 17 years of activity, the amount of BEST members increases daily and so does the number of experienced retired BESTies. The Alumni network of BEST, gathering engineers working all over Europe in all different fields, is expanding day by day, to keep in touch with good friends and to be updated about the current life/issues of BEST as well as to help each other to share career experiences or to give a hand to young BEST-graduates looking for an international career. Their successful presence in the European businessworld, as researchers, engineers or managers, proves that BEST holds a huge potential of open-minded future engineers.
Word from the First President of BEST Ida Lau Borch In 1988, my Student Union was invited to Grenoble to discuss the possibility of creating a student organisation for students of technology across Europe. After a week of work, fun, skiing and a lot of new friendships, we had decided to do something new - to create a student body that we called BEST. This was 18 years ago. Time flies! Is BEST still about the same? In Eindhoven, autumn 1988, we had a guy from Dresden, then DDR, attending our meeting. He had to report to the local police every 24 hours, and was in the “West” for the first time. The world now is a different place. BEST is a different organisation. However, there are some core values in BEST that are thankfully constant. Those core values are the idealism of student organisation work, the practicality and realism common in those who study technology, and the fun that comes from spending time with people from other cultures. In BEST, the sky has never been a limit - just another border to pass. One of the first things decided about BEST was to make it an organisation that would exist to DO SOMETHING for the students in our universities. That is idealism and that created the summer courses. I don’t know where BEST is going, but I am sure that if the organisation keeps true to its values of idealism, realism and fun, wherever it goes, it will be good. I hope the alumni will go the same way. The alumni of BEST are a unique opportunity. Thousands of dedicated, hard-working, idealistic people in a network that includes a great diversity of companies, cultures, competencies and careers - imagine what we can achieve through such a network! Together we can do anything, reach the moon or abandon poverty - the problem is, we have to decide what it is we really want to do.
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Careers in Europe: A Successful Cooperation Twice a year, the “Careers in Europe Forum” recruitment events bring together in Brussels and Berlin several hundred graduates very strictly selected among many thousands from across Europe and international recruiters representing major international groups. Prestigious hotels in Brussels and Berlin are transformed into a recruitment centres for the occasion with bedrooms set up as interview rooms. Each event lasts two days during which more than 1500 private interviews are held between applicants and recruiters for among the best graduate positions available on the market with many companies looking for engineers. The Forum concept is unique in Europe because of its 100% pan-European nature. BEST has agreed to be an official partner of the Careers in Europe Forum in order to position itself as a leading European student association able to present top candidates to top-employers. The Forums benefit from very strong marketing campaigns and BEST logo is a part of them. Careers in Europe, through BEST, has been able to present to multinational companies excellent BEST members who had, on top of a strong academic background, language skills and international experience. Many companies are discovering BEST through this partnership.
Some of the companies that have attended the 2005 event or will attend the 2006 event include: Arcelor, Bertelsmann, Booz Allen Hamilton, Bouygues Construction, Bridgestone, Brose, Cargill, Commerzbank, Deloitte, Deutsche Post World Net Business Consulting, Dupont de Nemours, Henkel, Hochtief, Masterfoods, part of Mars Incorporated, Nestlé, Philip Morris International, PSA Peugeot Citröen, Reckitt Benckiser, Roland Berger Strategy Consultants, sanofi-aventis, Siemens Management Consulting, Swift, Total, Tyco, UCB, Unilog, Yves Rocher, Wolseley, World of TUI, etc… For further information, please visit http://www.careersineurope.com/forum or lalberghini@careersineurope.com Stephane Wajskop Managing Director, Careers In Europe
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Cooperating with other Organisations BEST is an organisation used to multi-cultural work and cooperation. The same way that sharing internally between 70 groups from 29 different countries helps us become stronger, sharing externally with other student organisations can be just as useful for our development. This is why we are always open to other students’ organisations. We share ideas for the same target group or teach and learn new things about approaching NGO-specific issues and strategies. We have two official partner-organisations and contacts with several others, all of which are supervised and maintained by our Ambassador.
IFISO The Informal Forum of International Students (IFISO) constitutes an informal cooperation among 20 of the biggest student organisations around the world that are represented in Europe. BEST is an active member of IFISO, because we believe in sharing as a first step in finding solutions to any problem a student organisation may face and because we feel the need of a platform in general matters concerning European NGOs. The informal sharing takes place virtually, through the online IFISO group, and face-to-face, through yearly meetings that are spontaneously and voluntarily organised by the members. BEST was represented in both IFISO meetings organised this year where the main topics discussed were: NGO regulations, obtaining funds from grants, external relations, membership process.
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bonding The bonding-studenteninitiative e.V. is an association run for students by students in order to develop their path to the professional life. We achieve this through a big variety of projects with students and companies in our 11 locations in Germany. By cooperating with BEST, we are able to give an international insight to our students. We participate in the Season Course programme of BEST and have the possibility to send German students across Europe. Last year we attended each other’s internal events: August 2005
- bonding-BEST Ambassadors’ meeting, November 2005 BEST Presidents’ Meeting, January 2006 - bonding Gesamtvorstandstreffen (President’s Meeting), April 2006 - BEST General Assembly Zagreb. We want to thank BEST for nine years of valuable, productive and fruitful cooperation! Christian Banik President of bonding (PR, IT, International Matters) 2005/06
CFES International relations between CFES (Canadian Federation of Engineering Students) and BEST have hit new highs! In January, we were pleased to have Bram and Nadina attend the CFES Congress, our annual national conference. Bernard Goupil, our VP Finance and Administration, attended BEST General Assembly in Zagreb in April, returning impressed once again with BEST.
All of our attendees to BEST courses thoroughly enjoyed their experience. Finally, with the kickoff of the International Engineering Competition project, cooperation is better than ever before! Thank you again for a great year of cooperation, and on behalf of the CFES, we look forward to many more years of accomplishments between our organisations!
Following that, we had one participant in your spring season – Daisy Yee attended LBG Sofia’s course. From talking with her, she had a great time. During the summer season, we had many Canadians and BESTies coming and going which was fantastic to see. We had the pleasure of hosting Sofijia Cali, Daniel Andersson and Nuno Machado.
Sincerely, Kyle Ruttan CFES International Relations Commissioner 2006-2007
30 GEOLOGY/GEOPHYSICS PETROPHYSICS PRODUCTION TECHNOLOGY PRODUCT/PROCESS RESEARCH ENGINEERING: RESERVOIR/PETROLEUM WELL PRODUCTION PROCESS ASSET MAINTENANCE PROJECT/FACILITIES DISCIPLINE
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Finances of BEST in 2005-2006 BEST is a constantly growing and evolving organisation. As such, its finances have to follow the move and take into account the impact of the changes. The expenses are defined and voted according to the directions the organisation
needs to follow to continue a sustainable growth. The revenues are ensured by cooperation with corporate partners and grants, based on trust and on the added value BEST brings to the society.
Expenses BEST offers services to students of technology. Those services aim at developing by taking actions, being responsible and innovative. BEST is the challenge that prepares students for their future life. As such, the organisation has a complete structure and working meetings.
The organisation covers the expenses related to its functioning: organisation of working meetings, general meetings, delivering quality-training, production of promotional materials and covering representation expenses. We want all members to develop fairly, and the organisation to spread properly.
Board and Coordinators 14,30% Representation 2,20% Not Fixed Meetings 9,90 % International Teams 6,60% Administration 4,40% Training 3,30% Company Meetings 2,20% Competition Event 0,44% Events on Education 1,65% PR 9,90% Unexpected 0,00% Extra-expenses 1,10% General Meetings 44,00%
Revenues As much for grants as for partnerships with companies, the positioning of BEST as an organisation and its added value (compared to others) are crucial. BEST presents its activities and its goals to foundations and to the European Commission every year, giving evidence of how it brings European students of technology together and develops them to be responsible and active in the society.
Corporate partners support BEST for its activities, services for students offered by students, as those soon-to-be graduates will drive these companies in the next years. All the support and partnerships allow BEST to sustain its development and set its position in Europe.
Corporate partners 32,32% Career Support Partners 28,28% Supporters 2,02% Project Partners 3,03% EU Grant 27,27% Extra revenues 2,02% LBGs contributions 5,05%
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Starting a Cooperation with BEST Bain & Company input BEST is an open gate to generations of skilled technical students; and we share the keys to this gate with our partners! There is a possible access through Local BEST Groups in the case of a specific interest in a university of the network. This can also be extended to cooperation with a panel of groups together for some bigger impact, national for example. And, for a European target group, a cooperation with the entire organisation allows diverse opportunities. The content of partnership can go from a presentation, case studies or training sessions to challenge the students and contribute to their development, until some very complex common projects BEST-partner on a common topic of interest. BEST looks forward to find the perfect door to fit with a potential partner and improve the links between the talented students of technology and companies. For any information, one password to open BEST doors: info.corporate@BEST.eu.org
Very similar to BEST, Bain & Company is striving to create an exceptional environment where passionate individuals are challenged, able to make a difference and supported in continuously learning new skills. Our objective of the cooperation was therefore very clear: to show our passion in creating results by applying a typical Bain & Company case approach on a strategic topic within BEST. With strong support from the BEST International Board, an interactive session was prepared covering historic growth within BEST and some of the strategic choices BEST made. Bain’s goal was not to give answers but to stimulate the thinking around Strategic choices BEST can take with a focus on its Career Service. Sharing Bain industry insights and applying some frameworks stimulated students in thinking around the topic. Positive feedback, numerous discussions after the session and seeing the session resulted in strategic choices BEST recently made, proved the concept to be successful. As a company, we hoped we gave everyone a flavour of Strategy consulting. Many former BEST members have joined Bain & Company and are sharing our passion to deliver results. We hope more will follow. Alexander De Mol Senior Consultant, Bain & Company
Corporate Partners
Career Support Partners
Supporters
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Partners: Shell Since I g raduated f rom BEST t wo y ears ago, I s ee more t han e ver how t he experience t ranslates into r eal world skills t hat a re w ell aligned w ith a company l ike Shell. At Shell, my colleagues and I work across borders and cultures everyday to face challenges from technical, logistical, environmental, social e tc. W e see something similar happening i n BEST, w here e very y ear g roups o f students love to “go the extra mile” to interact with colleagues a cross Europe v irtually or face to face to m ake their initiatives a success. This requires you to b e motivated, r esourceful, and c ross-culturally capable. These “soft” skills combined with sound technical knowledge is celebrated at Shell, hence our continued partnership with BEST. as when we interact we can constantly learn from each other. We have been partners for some years now and we hope that more BEST members will join us to help tackle the global energy challenge. Gert Kloeck Project Engineer at Shell BEST Leuven 2002-200
Partners: Schlumberger Schlumberger i s a place where diversity, excellence, technology and innovation have become a way of life for the people in all levels of the organisation. We are always looking for engineers who are fond of continuous learning, challenges and responsibilities, and BEST has proven itself to be a valuable partner in our search. C onsidering last y ear’s collaboration w ith BEST, the largest E uropean network o f engineering students, on both local and E uropean l evel – t he number and quality of the events we have attended or collaborated being and strengthen our bond in the future, and we are looking forward to the challenges we will meet together in the following years.
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www.BEST.eu.org