Annual Report 2013/2014 by BESTorg

ANNUAL REPORT 2

board of european students of technology

ANNUAL REPORT 2

Board of European Students of Technology Avenue Roger Vandendriessche 18 1150 Brussels BELGIUM BEST.eu.org info@BEST.eu.org facebook.com/BESTorg flickr.com/photos/BESTorg twitter.com/BESTorg linkedin.com/company/best

Ricardo Nuno Oliveira Coordinator

Patrícia Pires Designer

Cenk Savaşçıoğulları Photography Selection

Writers Alejandro Sánchez Medina Alexia Spyridonidou Ana Rita Gonçalves Ana Rosa Çağrı Başaran Corina Stirbu Harald Rupprechter Ioana Jivet Javier Martin João Pacheco

Judit Gyenese Katerina Koutsonikoli Klemen Krulecˇ Libor Šeda Majd Mekouar Ouazzani Mathieu Vandenberghe Michele Damato Mihai Cepoi Mihai Tociu Natalia Mazur

Olcay Sarı Oscar Marginean Oya Merve Duman Patricia Diaconu Pedro Cardoso Raili Vunk Tiago Monteiro Vicente Mauricio Quintana Vlad Gliga Yasemin Baran

A WELCOME WORD FROM THE BOARD It is 1987, an event called International Week takes place in Stockholm, Sweden, having as purpose to support the exchange of students between several universities. Sadly, the meeting had no clear conclusion. It is 1988, the second International Week takes place in Grenoble, France, where the idea of creating a European Association that will strengthen the relations between European Universities emerges. This association would be called BEST. It is now one year later in the late 80’s, 1989. BEST has its most important meeting in Berlin, Germany, where the statutes and the strategy of the organisation were created. Exactly 18 founding members participated to shape the core and identity. Far into the future, 25 years later. Twenty five years! An important milestone for BEST. For 25 years BEST has grown exponentially and beyond the dreams of the founding members. Starting from 18 local groups and reaching 95 this year, BEST has had a huge impact not only on its members but also on its stakeholders. The past year has been an adventurous journey with new dreams, projects and challenges. It was a year of reflection where often we would question our working methods and take a look at the big picture to see if our structure was aligned to our services which we provide to our stakeholders. Our organisation has managed to have a true impact on the lives of students of technology via our services and we continually try to live up to their expectations. It was a visionary year, where we re-evaluated what our aim are and what should BEST focus on the upcoming years. Lastly, it was a year of celebration, where each member felt proud to be part of the biggest European organisation of students of technology as we looked back upon our accomplishments and celebrated our achievements during our 25th anniversary of BEST. For 25 years the organisation has remained true to its values and they have guided its members to reach for the stars and create a bigger impact for our stakeholders: companies, universities, and of course, students! We would like to acknowledge everyone who has contributed in making the past year a great one for BEST. Thank you for your support and believing in us. We hope you will enjoy reading this Annual Report, where every part reflects upon the daily work done by passionate students’, for students. Yours faithfully, The XXVI International Board of BEST

Mihai Tociu – President Patricia Diaconu – Treasurer Katerina Koutsonikoli – Secretary Klemen Kruleč – Vice-President for External Services Javier Martin – Vice-President for Internal Support Vicente Maurício – Vice-President for Local Group Support

CONTENTS

6 16 22 32 44 56 62

ABOUT BEST WHAT IS BEST? STRUCTURE OF BEST INTERNATIONAL MANAGEMENT PROFILE OF BEST MEMBERS

7 8 10 12

MEMBERS AND STATISTICS RELATIONS WITH ALUMNI GROWTH OF BEST

HIGHLIGHTS OF THE YEAR BEST ANNIVERSARY PROJECT KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT MARKET RESEARCH

SERVICES BEST COURSES EBEC PROJECT BEST CAREER SUPPORT BEST CAREER DAY

17 18 19

MARKETING STRATEGIES OF BEST PUBLIC WEBSITE

20 21

23 24 26 27

BEST CAREER CENTER

28 29 30

EDUCATIONAL INVOLVEMENT

EVENTS ON EDUCATION

INTERNAL ACTIVITIES FINANCIAL OVERVIEW TRAINING SYSTEM

QUALITY ASSURANCE IN TRAINING

33 36 37

IT SYSTEMS INTERNAL EVENTS

EXTERNAL RELATIONS YOUTH IN ACTION SEFI FEANI PARTNER NGOS

12 14 15

45 46 47 48

YOUTH FORUM JEUNESSE ROUND TABLE PROMOTING VIRTUAL MOBILITY IN PLACEMENTS

INTEL BUSINESS CHALLENGE

PUBLIC RELATIONS PARTNERS OF BEST

38 40

50 50 52 53

WEEF 54 INTERNATIONAL ENGINEERING COMPETITION 55

ABOUT

BEST 6

WHAT IS BEST? The story of BEST (Board of European Students of Technology) dates back to April 1989, when the idea of an international, non-political student organisation was born with the aim to connect Europe. Twenty five years later, we are far more than the sum of our 95 Local BEST groups (LBGs). Our work impacts students, universities and industrial partners in 33 countries across Europe.

reer prospects by using the BEST Career Support (BCS) services and learn skills relevant to their professional development and reach their full potential. These activities are all about developing students, giving them an insight to different mindsets, thereby reaching a better understanding of cultures and societies. Our events give students the opportunity to develop the capacity to work in a culturally diverse environment so as to improve their soft-skills.

Although over the years our members have come and gone and our activities have matured and developed, the vision of BEST has always been the same: Empowered diversity. By providing complementary education through BEST Courses and Competitions, we bring added value to formal education. We provide a structured way for engineering students to give input on their education and therefore give them the chance to improve their learning. Students have the opportunity to develop their ca-

BEST is a constantly growing organisation always seeking improvement and achievements. All of the work is done for students and by students and we aim to broaden the horizon of students of technology. Our actions are inspired by our values. Through flexibility, we are open to quickly respond to change. We always aim for improvement by continuously raising the standards in everything we do. We value friendship through build-

ing good personal relations and supporting teamwork. We strive to make our activities enjoyable to everybody who is connected to them and value everything we learn through the experience of being involved in our activities where we have the freedom

to share and develop ideas. After 25 years, BEST is still challenging perceptions related to the development of technical students. What we have accomplished so far is only the beginning of our story.

STRUCTURE OF BEST Covering 33 countries and reaching 1.300.000 technical students, BEST has grown into a substantial European organisation. There are 95 Local BEST Groups, spread around Europe, forming the core of the organisation. Each group is present at exactly one university, has its own local board, its own practices, traditions and culture. Like pieces of a puzzle, each of them has its own shape and place in BEST. The groups are connected with each other by the common values of BEST which every BEST member endorses as their own. This connection empowers BEST as a strong organisation providing services for European students of technology.

educational involvement to career support, training and competitions. The biggest international teams, the BEST Committees, can be seen as an equivalent to corporate departments. There are six committees of BEST and each has a distinct area of expertise. These areas are Educational, Financial, External Events, Training, IT and Marketing. Each of these is led by a coordinator who ensures the coherence of the activities with the other bodies of BEST. Another indispensable aspect of the international work in the organisation, are the BEST projects. Various projects take place every year and involve members of different committees as well as local group members who are not otherwise internationally involved. The need to move towards a structure with a bigger focus on projects than committees was highlighted among the outcomes of the Structure Eval-

Built on the basis of the local groups, several international teams work to provide support to the groups. Spread over international teams of diverse size and aim, approximately 15% of our active members work in all sorts of domains - from marketing to IT, from

uation project which took place this year.

facilitates the global development of programmes and activities. It consists of the President, Secretary, Treasurer, Vice-President for External Services, Vice-President for Internal Support and Vice-President for Local Group Support.

At the top level, BEST has an International Board that represents the organisation, coordinates the different bodies of BEST, ensures good communication between them and

EBEC

LBGs EEC

GWG

ITC

BAP

fT EEC ITC TiGro EduCo mT

MR PWS BAP KM

GWG EBEC

EduCo

Financial Team External Events Committee Information Technology Committee Training Group Educational Committee Marketing Committee

Market Research Public Website BEST Anniversary Project Knowledge Management

PWS

COMMITTEES SMALL PROJECTS

LBG

Local BEST Group

Regional Advisor (11 in total)

Grants Working Group European BEST Engineering Competition

PROJECTS 9

INTERNATIONAL BOARD

TiGro

INTERNATIONAL MANAGEMENT OF BEST At General Assembly Valladolid 2013, the International Management of BEST was elected for the year 2013/2014. The team prepared and ensured the execution of the Annual Action Plan of BEST for the respective mandate. The work of the International Management was highly inter-connected with intense joint efforts and cooperation to ensure the accomplishment of their respective responsibilities. Additionally, each coordinator had responsibilities and teams related to their respective field of work.

President Mihai Tociu Treasurer Patricia Diaconu Secretary Katerina Koutsonikoli Vice-President for External Services Klemen Kruleč Vice-President for Internal Support Javier Martin Zamora Vice-President for Local Group Support Vicente Maurício

Educational Committee Coordinator Mikhail Tikhonov External Events Committee Coordinator Pedro Cardoso Financial Team Coordinator Andreea Nicu Information Technology Committee Coordinator Alejandro Sánchez Medina Marketing Committee Coordinator Judit Gyenese Training Group Coordinator Harald Rupprechter

PROFILE OF BEST MEMBERS Internationally Minded

Experienced in Managing Local and International Teams

Proactive & Creative

Undergraduates

Succesful in

or Recent Graduates

Project Management

Trained in Soft-skills Work and Study Experience in International Environments

Comfortable with Travel throughout Europe Experienced in Working in Virtual Teams Team Players

MEMBERS AND STATISTICS BEST by COUNTRIES

2011

2014 2013 2012 BEST MEMBERS

2011 GENDER

RELATIONS WITH ALUMNI The Alumni Network of BEST is aimed at maintaining and developing connections between former members. This network serves as a platform for professional networking for the thousands of alumni based throughout the world. Moreover, the Alumni Network also provides a medium through which the former members can provide support and keep in contact with the current members. The Alumni of BEST use several online channels to keep in touch: mailing lists and dedicated groups on social networks. Additionally, multiple events are organised throughout the year where former members meet to discuss and network. Alumni Meetings

took place in parallel to the General Meetings in November 2013 in Brno, Czech Republic (20 participants) and April 2014 in Bucharest, Romania (55 participants). In October 2013, the 3rd edition of the Alumni Business Camp was held in Brussels, Belgium and gathered 89 participants at the event itself and 117 people at the official dinner. This year the alumni world embarked on a journey to create more value out of the network. New initiatives towards creating a new Alumni Directory, initiating a mentoring programme and maybe even incorporating the Alumni Network as a non-profit entity are currently being developed.

GROWTH OF BEST BEST has always strived for diversity and sustainability and therefore has always welcomed new groups while simultaneously ensuring the stability of our existing groups. New groups bring fresh perspectives and new ideas to the organisation.

1989 12

In 2014, BEST established a second group in Germany, extending its reach in the country, providing its services to an even wider audience and developing further relationship with German universities.

LOCAL BEST GROUPS 1994 1999 2004 2009 COUNTRIES

2014

HIGHLIGHTS OF THE

YEAR 16

BEST ANNIVERSARY PROJECT The year 2014 is a very special one for every BEST member. BEST is celebrating 25 years of existence. Since 1989 we have had various and significant achievements which established us the role of one of the most important youth associations in Europe. During this year we celebrate precisely this. We celebrate our growth, evolution and our strong belief in our values; mission and vision of BEST.

our Local Groups, alumni and specially invited guests. We have had many things worth celebrating lately, both live and virtually. Virtually, through social media, we are well-known across Europe for our accomplishments in all our organisationâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s focus areas; namely Education and Career Support. We have also published three booklets dedicated to our services in order to promote them and also thank our stakeholders for their support. These booklets focus on: Educational Involvement, EBEC and Seasonal Courses.

Together with this important milestone, we also celebrate five Editions of EBEC Final and 10 years of Engineering Competitions, has led us to create the BEST Anniversary Project to recognise all these achievements.

During the last two years, we have strengthened the bonds between the members of our organisation, alumni and our stakeholders. Without all of these people, BEST would not be the vibrant and special organisation it is today and we would like to thank all of you for all your support over the years.

In terms of events, we have organised to celebrate the five editions of EBEC, an evening dedicated to our accomplishments, where we invited EBEC participants and company partners. During General Assembly Bucharest 2014, we celebrated our 25th Anniversary with representatives from all

KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT One of the focus areas of the Long Term Strategic Plan 2012-2015 (LTSP) is Knowledge Management. The objectives of this focus area include having a well-structured, sustainable, and easily accessible Knowledge Management System, as well as promoting a culture of documenting our work, sharing knowledge, in addition to using and developing existing knowledge. In March 2013, the Knowledge Management workshop took place in Riga, Latvia, as a first step towards achieving the goals of the Knowledge Management focus area under the current LTSP. This workshop had a very direct impact on how BEST members work, in any scope of their activity - from new members joining LBGs to trainers, committee members and international management. The concrete outcome of the workshop is a set of 24 projects that are planned to be implemented in the final two years of the current LTSP under the Knowledge Management

Project. For the previous year, ten projects were selected. Several of the projects address the Knowledge Management infrastructure on our internal database Private Area (PA): a design of a page dedicated to Knowledge Management in BEST, a map of all the knowledge of BEST, the development of a tool to facilitate easy access to all of our knowledge (the BEST Library) and the redesign of our committee pages. Other projects are aimed at improving the social aspect of Knowledge Management, including the redesign of our knowledge management training for BEST members, the introduction of Knowledge Fairs as a sharing platform during BEST events and a redefinition of the purpose of our common sharing mailing lists. Most of these projects are planned to be finalised by the end of the current BEST year.

MARKET RESEARCH and expectations towards complementary education, educational involvement and career support. In total, 2.900 students were reached throughout Europe. Universities were reached through interviews to assess their perceptions on the impact student organisations should have towards universities, to investigate what services such organisations should provide and to seek out opportunities for future collaboration. Finally, companies were approached through phone call interviews with the intention of assessing the contribution student organisations have and to seek potential cooperation in other fields.

In a diverse and evolving environment, adapting to changes is the key to maximising our contribution towards our stakeholders. BEST, aiming to evolve and meet challenges efficiently, places the Strategy of External Services as a major focal point. We initiated this effort in order to observe how the needs of our stakeholders change and how our services align to these new needs. BEST Market Research is the project through which we reach our stakeholders, get insights regarding their needs and our role in fulfilling them. It is our way of transmitting the voice of the external world to the relevant bodies and supporting the decision making process regarding the strategic planning process of BEST as an organisation.

â&#x20AC;&#x153;Research is to see what everybody else has seen, and to think what nobody else has thoughtâ&#x20AC;?, as Albert Szent-Gyorgyi once said. BEST Market Research represents the beginning of a beautiful status, a status no one else has thought of.

This project is structured according to our three different stakeholders: students, universities and companies with all three reached through three individually designed surveys. Regarding students, BEST Studentâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; Survey was launched in February 2013 with the goal of gathering insight concerning their experience

MARKETING STRATEGIES OF BEST In 2009, ten years after establishing a defined identity of BEST, we decided to develop an advanced Marketing Strategy and since 2006 no major changes were made. However, the Marketing Strategy Project was started by the XXI BEST Board and since then it has had several outcomes such as the BEST Brands Book and the Communication Plans and Marketing Strategy Guidelines.

tion and during International Projects’ Forum Lisbon 2014 the five services of BEST were defined. These services were: BEST as an organisation, complementary education, career support, educational involvement and EBEC. For each service, a defined message for each stakeholder was developed, selling points were evaluated and the communication channels for the current situation were adapted.

In 2010, there was an Identity Workshop in Ghent, Belgium, to evaluate if the identity we had was appropriate for our organisation. As we became more enveloped in the digitised era and surrounded by digital bits, once again, the Marketing Strategy project came back again in the BEST big picture in 2013. The purpose was to create an advanced marketing plan for BEST that clarified its image and served its needs and it became part of the Long Term Strategic Plan of BEST.

The marketing side of BEST made a step forward and adapted all its activities to this new market in order to clarify the BEST image.

During the Marketing Strategy Short Intensive Meeting Vienna, Austria, all the BEST services were re-analysed. European BEST Engineering Competition (EBEC) got more atten-

As Robert Rose said: “Marketing is telling the world you’re a rock star. Content marketing is showing the world that you are one.” Nowdays, BEST is a rock star and we showed it during these 25 years by sharing the same values and mission, organising ten years of competition and five years of EBEC. In the end, challenges will drive the teamwork across borders and a rock star will never stop showing its success.

PUBLIC WEBSITE The World Wide Web started in the early â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;90s by being a simple set of hypertext documents accessible by browsers; now websites have a substantial impact on the institutional image of an organisation. In BEST, the website serves as the primary platform for students to interact with the services we provide. Due to these factors and the feedback from our stakeholders, creating a new website for BEST has been considered a strategic priority for the organisation for the period 2012-2015.

During this year, we focused on assessing the technical feasibility and creating the structure of one application, as well as developing a topnotch Content Managing System. In order for this process to go as smooth as possible we have assembled a team which is responsible for implementing everything we planned to do. After this step is completed, the only thing remaining is the launch of the new website between April - May.

For this endeavour, we have decided to stick to our culture of developing projects in-house by harnessing the technical knowledge we possess along with our network of alumni with professional experience in the area of web design.

www.BEST.eu.org

SERVICES

BEST COURSES One of the complementary education activities BEST provides to students are BEST Courses. Courses, organised by the 95 LBGs all over Europe, give students the opportunity to combine traditional lectures with alternative forms of education. Furthermore, with the social and cultural activities courses provide, students can experience a multicultural environment and gain new and wonderful friendships. Every year, more than 2.000 students take part in BEST Courses. Applications for BEST Courses are submitted through the BEST website. Participants are chosen based on their motivation letters, interest on the topic of the course and the culture of the country. Cultural diversity is one of the most important aspects when selecting participants. At the end of the course, participants are evaluated on their knowledge or skills acquired during the course. Participants, who successfully pass evaluation, obtain a BEST Course certificate and a Course Information Form (CIF). CIFs can be

recognised by the participantâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s home university and used towards to studentâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s degree. With over 20 years of experience, BEST has developed course standards. All LBGs follow these in order to sustain and constantly improve the quality of their courses. Both these aspects make BEST courses widely recognised by students, universities, companies and partner associations across Europe. After every course, students are asked to fill an evaluation form which BEST gets a chance to control the development of our courses. BEST is always striving to improve the services offered to European students of technology. Above all, BEST Courses bring students unforgettable memories and unique experiences of interacting with people from different backgrounds, cultures and traditions; all while learning and developing themselves through complementary and atypical university education.

EBEC PROJECT European BEST Engineering Competition (EBEC) Project is one of the biggest real-time based engineering competition organised by students in Europe. It brings its main stakeholders: companies, universities and students together under a competitive environment where participants present and develop their skills, thus not only practicing their theoretical knowledge, but also developing their role as a member of European society thanks to tackling real world problems. In the past years, EBEC has been very successful due to its sustainability and permanently increasing standards. Having started as an initiative in 2008, the project has reached a strong position among the services that BEST provides towards technology students. The EBEC project has two competition categories: Case Study and Team Design. The project welcomes teams in groups of four, who are currently enrolled in an educational programme where an EBEC round is present. Complementary education is the main focus of the EBEC project. The application of theoretical knowledge

into practice is expected by involving participants in real life problems with time-limited conditions. The EBEC Project is kicked-off by a local round in all participating Local BEST Groups; the winners of local rounds are invited to national or regional rounds. The winners of these secondary rounds qualify for the EBEC Final event where they compete for the title: â&#x20AC;&#x153;BEST Engineers of Europeâ&#x20AC;?. Last year, EBEC Final 2013 was held in Warsaw, Poland. The event itself was supported by Warsaw University of Technology, as well as several important institutions such as the Ministry of Science and Higher Education, the Copernicus Science Center and leading industry partners such as Procter & Gamble, GSE, IVECO, Deutsche Bahn, GE and the European Patent Office. After the accomplishment of EBEC Final 2013, BEST has set its sights to EBEC Final 2014. This year EBEC Final 2014 was held in the European Capital of Culture, Riga, Latvia. The project has enjoyed its largest number of participants; with Local EBEC Rounds

held at 87 leading technical universities in 32 countries where BEST is present.

The EBEC Project serves as a platform for technology students and is voluntarily organised by BEST members who are also technology students of European universities where BEST is present. The project strives to bring its stakeholders closer and to enable further interaction among them so that future engineers - the citizens of Europe - will benefit the most.

EBEC Final 2014 has been supported with interest by several institutes such as Riga Technical University, UNESCO Latvian National Commission and the International Federation of Engineering Education Societies (IFEES).

LOCAL ROUNDS 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 NATIONAL/REGIONAL ROUNDS 10

BEST CAREER SUPPORT One of the features that makes BEST a really unique non-profit organisation is being a wide-spread one, unified under a common mission and vision. Established in 95 European technical universities, BEST ensures a broad range of students. Since one of the purposes of BEST is to connect students with companies, several international bodies of this organisation, helped by LBGs, have developed many services to reach this goal: one of which is BEST Career Support (BCS). On the one hand, BCS is a service that every student can take advantage of, the only prior requirement is that the student attends or attended a university in which there is an LBG. The procedure to use this service is really simple: firstly there is the subscription to BEST website; then, there is the filling of Curriculum Vitae with personal data and relevant work information according to the European standard model and finally there is the subscription to the BCS service. On the other hand, BEST engages in partnerships with companies, providing them high quality services. These companies cover all engineering fields and this is because of the broad range of students reached through BEST. Companies can present themselves and job offers to all the students who subscribed to BCS. Furthermore, companies can have access to the BEST CVs database to recruit students who fill their criteria and interests.

Student diversity is also clearly observable during live events. Over one year, BEST takes care of the organisation of several job fairs and engineering competitions around Europe. The most important ones are organised during the three biggest BEST events during an academical year: Presidentsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; Meeting (PM), BEST Career Day (BCD) during General Assembly (GA) and EBEC Final. In these kind of events, companies have the opportunity to meet talented engineering students who likewise have the chance to interact with top companies in the engineering field. In conclusion, BCS is divided in two main categories. The first one is represented by our online tools and takes the name of BEST Career Centre (BCC). The second one consists of the in-person events with students such as job fairs and engineering competitions.

BEST CAREER DAY After the success of inviting external students to participate in Official Opening Day in GA 2013, we provided this opportunity again this year. Following the rapid uptake of these events, we have developed this service into a new brand: BEST Career Day. Recent or graduating students from 95 top engineering universities can apply for this event. After pre-selection, a list of the most promising applicants is delivered to partners, who can select the participants they want to meet during BCD..

terviews take place, so partners can interact directly and personally with over 400 future engineers who match their participantsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; profile. The CVs of all participants were available for partners before the career fair, thus enabling access to a large and detailed database of potential applicants. At the end of the day there is a cocktail party, allowing networking with a selected group of engineers.

BCD allows students to personally discuss their career with top managers and international recruiters. They get the chance to learn about the lastest industry trends and most lucrative career opportunities. The first part of the day includes presentations and workshops for students held by partners. During the second part of the day the job fair and personal in-

BEST CAREER CENTER BEST Career Center is the collection of all the online recruitment opportunities BEST Career Support offers. Here, students can find detailed information about our partners including job and internship opportunities they provide. Such information is available to anyone who visits the BEST website. In order to be up to date with all the opportunities our partners offer, an account on the BEST website and subscription to BEST Career Support is needed. This account also serves as the CV of the students as it collects information regarding their career, educational and extra-curricular activities. This year, more than 6.200 CVs were created. This tool not only makes it easier for our partner companies and universities to have an overview of the students in our database, but also

enables us to define the appropriate target groups for our services, so that relevant opportunities can reach only interested subscribers. The most apparent function of BEST Career Center is through BEST Career Newsletters. These are targeted e-mails that we send out to our 37.000 subscribers which include career opportunities of a partner. Since these e-mails are targeted, our subscribers receive the newsletter only if they have the necessary qualifications such as language proficiency or educational background. All of the aforementioned online services form the BEST Career Center and through these BEST is able to offer valuable opportunities to students and recent graduates to start their career in their home country or throughout Europe.

EDUCATIONAL INVOLVEMENT In collaboration with Thematic Networks and Higher Educational Institutions, BEST provides technical students with opportunities to express their opinions about European Engineering Education (EEE). We believe students have an essential impact on their own education, therefore BEST transmits studentsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; opinions to the key players for EEE.

ent the outcomes of the aforementioned EoEs. This year, topics related with BEST engineering competitions, interdisciplinarity, virtual mobility and employability were presented. During this year, BEST cooperated with EUROEAST and PROVIP as educational institutions. Via social media, BEST promoted mobility programmes provided by EUROEAST. Through collaboration with PROVIP, members of the Educational Committee participated in partner meetings in order to express the studentsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; point of view on the topic of virtual mobility. Moreover, the Educational Committee collaborated with PROVIP in an Event on Education in Timisoara, Romania.

The Educational Committee of BEST provides students every year with opportunities to express their opinion on EEE topics through surveys and by gathering students in live events named Events on Education (EoEs). By attending conferences in the field of Higher Education, BEST is able not only to network with experts on educational matters, but also to pres-

EVENTS ON EDUCATION Besides Courses and Engineering Competitions, BEST also organises Events on Education (EoEs). These are seminars that last approximately six days, gather up to 25 students with different nationalities and focus on evaluating and contributing to the development of higher engineering education in Europe. During these events, students can gain knowledge and share their opinions on the latest trends in the field of European Engineering Education (EEE). There are two types of EoEs: BEST Symposium on Education, which gathers students and academic representatives and BEST Academics and Companies forum, that in addition to students and academics includes industry representatives. During EoEs, participants exchange opinions and share experiences via discussions, workshops and case studies. In summer 2013, three EoEs were organised around the Europe and each of them tackled a different topic. ‘Next station, sustainable education’, organised by BEST Madrid, was a follow-up event to an earlier symposium organised by BEST Vienna in 2012. The main goal of this event was to discuss the effect of EEE on Sustainable De-

velopment as well as catalysing ideas for projects that will be run by students of technology in the future. “Bringing education and entrepreneurship under students’ scope”, organised by BEST Timisoara, dealt with the topics of virtual mobility and entrepreneurship. The main objective of this event was to introduce students to the topic of virtual internships and gather input for PROVIP, one of BEST’s partners. “EdYOUcation - Raise your hand, make a change”, organised by BEST Aveiro, gathered both international and local students who approached the topic of accreditation and attractiveness of EEE. At the event, among other stakeholders for EEE, Attract, a European project on engineering education, presented their ideas and gathered information on the topic of student retention in higher education. In order to reach the desired outcomes, the atmosphere during an EoE tends to be more informal than in a lecturing hall which encourages students to speak their mind and share their opinions. It is of great importance to us to establish a dialogue between our partners and find a solution to common challenges.

” IT IS OF GREAT IMPORTANCE TO US TO ESTABLISH A DIALOGUE BETWEEN OUR PARTNERS AND FIND A SOLUTION TO COMMON CHALLENGES.”

INTERNAL

ACTIVITIES

FINANCIAL OVERVIEW BEST is a student organisation with strong ambitions and a wide range of activities. Therefore there is a need for an adequate budget to support the work and the development of the organisation.

meetings where important decisions about the future of the organisation are made. Therefore, in order to manage the organisation and keep it sustainable, BEST is closely cooperating with industrial partners, universities and European institutions. The most significant part of the income comes from Career Support Partners, followed by the contributions from the European Commission (under a 3 year Framework agreement, part of the Youth in Action programme of the European Union) and University Partners.

We are constantly working on fulfilling our mission: developing students and towards reaching our vision of empowering diversity. In this sense, we provide career support to our students as one of our services. However, through career support, we also manage to ensure our financial stability. In order to provide the adequate services to our students, we need to organise several internal and external events, and support a variety of projects, all of which cost money. This money is spend on ensuring the development of the organisation through: travel refunds for BEST members, developing the training system, maintaining our IT systems, support for internal events and the organisation of statutory

Considering the status of revenue and expenses, we can conclude that our organisation is in a stable financial position. The status and details of the finances can be followed and checked by each member in the accounting tool available in our intranet. The detailed financial report of BEST for the 2013-2014 financial year is available on request.

Framework Agreement

REVENUES

41%

Corporate Partners

Supporters

University Partners

Project Partners

Others

Career Support Partners

Administration

23%

International Teams

International Management

EXPENSES

Internal Events Support

Internal Training

6% 5

10% 7

Company Trips

Marketing Materials

Educational Events Coordination

Competitions Coordination

External Relations

Unexpected Expenses

” BEST - A SUCCESS STORY FOR 25 YEARS. AN ORGANISATION INSPIRED BY CHANGE, YET ALWAYS DRIVEN BY THE SAME UNQUENCHED ELEMENT: BEST MEMBERS” 35

TRAINING SYSTEM BEST - a success story for 25 years. An organisation inspired by change, yet always driven by the same unquenched element: BEST members. These are unique individuals who strive to acquire and develop useful skills in order to be effective in the organisation and later on in their future endeavours. The body of BEST responsible for such development of skills is the Training Group. Being one of the six committees of BEST, the Training Group’s mission is to provide adequate coordination between the needs of Local BEST Groups for training and the trainers who are able to satisfy those needs and deliver the required sessions.The structure of Trainers’ Community comprises two elements: Trainers’ Community is represented by an impressive number of more

than 400 trainers, who are also BEST members. The primary role of trainers is to deliver training. Apart from this, they continuously share knowledge and materials amongst each other, support, give feedback and advise to each other. This knowledge management guarantees that BEST trainers never stop their professional growth and continually improve themselves through cooperation. Training Group members consist of 49 members of BEST who provide the coordination of training to BEST members in order to ensure they can contribute to the organisation in an effective way. The Training Group’s daily activities business revolves exclusively around BEST members, as its mission is to ensure coordination of training in BEST.

QUALITY ASSURANCE IN TRAINING Trainers Meetings on Trainer Camp - TRAP

Since the establishment of the Training System in 1999, quality assurance has always been a hot topic. Over the years, a few methods have been established that assure the quality of training as a service to all BEST members on all levels. The following methods have proven the most successful and long lasting:

The education of trainers starts at Trainer Camp, therefore the quality assurance process starts already at this level. In intervals of 3 to 5 event editions (between 1,5 to 2,5 years), the event is evaluated in all its aspects during a gathering of competent trainers (who either already delivered training at the event or have relevant expertise). This ensures that the knowledge and methodology used and transmitted during this crucial event stays up to date.

Train the Trainer Meetings

Second level trainer education is an integral part of a trainerâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s life cycle. These three to four days events are organised to prepare trainers for delivering topics requiring more refined delivery techniques (e.g. communication models with a deeper psychological background).

Quality Content Project

This project evaluates the relevance and factual validity of knowledge that has been gathered throughout the years since the establishment of the Training System. The working methods include literature research, sharing and live, as well as online meetings. The desired outcome is to have up-to-date and professionally correct content in our training material, thus ensuring that the knowledge delivered to BEST members adheres to high quality standards.

IT SYSTEMS BEST relies on relatively complex IT systems to support its activity. These range from our own mail servers to the application system, which help LBGs process the thousands of applications received for seasonal cour-

ses. As a result of the efforts made by the organisation, BEST currently has strong internal communication and knowledge management tools that keep being further developed.

Private Area

Innovation Platform

Private Area is the internal information system used by BEST. Its development dates back to the mid-nineties and it is the result of the unification of the IT platforms that supported the services of BEST. In essence, this system is the link between all the online tools of the organisation.

One of the goals of this yearâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s mandate was improving the innovation process inside the organisation. As BEST has grown, it has become harder to keep track of and start working on plausible ideas due to the increase in the complexity of communication. The newly planned Innovation Platform aims to tackle this issue. This tool has been defined to aid three areas of the innovation process: brainstorming and sharing, for presenting and developing ideas; storing and browsing, in order not to lose ideas and keep track of previously discussed topics; and implemening these ideas.

When it comes to documentation for knowledge management, Private Area contains the Document Archives and the Wiki. With these two tools, all the written knowledge of the organisation is properly stored and available for the generations to come. HR management is also an inherent part of the system. By using the HR tool and the Task Manager, BEST bodies can easily overview and update the progress and skills of their members, as well as assign appropriate tasks to them and keep track of the work progress.

This tool will take the shape of a forum, including the complex functionalities required to assist the innovation process. The development started soon after the design was finalised after IPF Lisbon.

Private Area has undergone many development and design phases culminating with its current version. Its usability is constantly being improved, and new features and tools are systematically planned, designed, implemented and launched. Some highlights of this year are improvements on data visualisation (with a more graphical approach), the redesign of the Task Manager tool and the design of Innovation Platform.

INTERNAL EVENTS Over the previous pages, we have been talking about the mission and vision of BEST. About how BEST’s activities and services aim to develop students to empower diversity in the future. But how is all of this managed? The internal structure of BEST exists to manage and support every service that BEST provides to our stakeholders and internal events play a key role in this. As an international organisation, much of our work is being done online, nevertheless, live events are an inherent part of the working culture of our organisation in order to function properly. Internal events fulfil this need by providing the foundation for developing our projects and facilitating the discussion among the members of our organisation. Last year, 69 internal events contributed to the achievement of BEST’s goals for the year. Having one of the most developed internal training systems among student NGOs in the world represents not only a great asset for our organisation, but also a great example of what internal events are. BEST TrainShops gather selected members of our local groups in a week-long internal event during which they get trained on a specific topic related to their current and future responsibilities inside the organisation, such as leadership, fundraising, graphic design, human resources management or marketing. Over the next few pages we will introduce other major internal events needed for the proper

functioning of our organisation, such as General Meetings, which gather members from every local group of BEST or International Project’s Forum, which is a clear example of BEST’s working culture.

Presidents' Meeting Brno Between 7th and 13th of November, the 19th Presidents’ Meeting took place in Brno, Czech Republic. It was a chance for more than 160 students from all Local BEST Groups as well as partner NGOs of BEST to gather and to discuss about the development of our organisation. From each Local BEST Group, one delegate had the chance to represent their group together with international committee leaders and delegates, project coordinators, the International Board of BEST and representatives of our partner organisations. During this event, they attended several training sessions, workshops, discussion groups and above all, four full days of plenary sessions. Presidents’ Meeting Brno started with an Official Opening Ceremony, held at Brno University of Technology (BUT) on the 8th of November. Participants, together with 80 invited students from Brno University of Technology, listened to speeches delivered by Prof. Michal Kotoul, Vice-rector of BUT; Michal Kotzian, PhD from the City Hall of Brno; Prof. Ladislav Musílek from SEFI; Mihai Tociu, President of the International Board of BEST and Libor Seda, the main organiser of the event.

The Official Opening was a perfect place for interaction between students and our partners: SKODA AUTO, KTH, KIC InnoEnergy, Whirlpool, Vlerick Gent Business School and Brno University of Technology. The day was concluded with training sessions on topics such as knowledge management, strategic networking and communication and leadership all of which were delivered by skilled BEST trainers.

which international teams presented their ideas for developing our organisation and their working methods. Likewise, the delegates had a chance to express support and provide feedback for international teams. For Local BEST Group Brno, it was the biggest event they have ever organised and a great honour to host such an important event in the decision making of BEST as well as a possibility to present Czech culture and tradition.

After Official Opening, four days of plenary sessions followed during

International Projects' Forum Lisbon The international scope of work in BEST is based on projects managed by international teams or the Board. Regardless of their nature or leader, this is how the on-going development in BEST is arranged; clustered in small chunks, each with their own goal, human resources and usually a deadline. Most importantly, sooner or later, some project will cross paths with others, influence them and cause a snowball effect that will push BEST forward. Due to the geographical spread, collaboration in projects is usually done through virtual communication channels. Nevertheless, some projects require in-person meetings of the team working on it. Once per year a very special event takes place to gather all of international BEST in one place to create a platform for them to discuss and work: the International Projectsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; Forum (IPF).

During the last IPF which took place in February in Lisbon, Portugal, more than 70 participants, including Board members, committee members, regional advisors and project leaders met to work on high-priority issues that concerned the whole organisation. Important issues, such as the evaluation of the structure of BEST, Knowledge Management, Market Research, the Public Website and the BEST budget for 2014/15 were tackled during the 45 sessions that happened over the four days of the event. From a planning and performance point of view, IPF is more than an important milestone in the BEST calendar. It is the personification of BESTâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s vision and mission, where people from all corners of Europe meet to work voluntarily on developing students, share their passion and grow a better tomorrow for the engineering education world.

General Assembly Bucharest Over time great organisations grow and change is part of this process. BEST, falling into this category, is no different, much can change in any organisation in 25 years. Even so, there is at least one thing that didnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t change: the General Assembly of BEST. Every year, members of the local groups gather to discuss and vote the most important aspects of the organisation. This year Bucharest, Romania had the chance to host this event and for one year, all of the members of BEST Bucharest worked hard to make this dream come true.

this day ended, the delegates and organisers headed off to Neptun, a city 250 km from Bucharest, for General Assembly working days, where the alumni were already waiting. After six days of hard work and plenary time, followed by social activities during the evening, the event ended and the time has come for another local group to take up the dream of organising General Assembly of BEST. To sum up the event, the numbers were: BEST CAREER DAY

250 70 60 DELEGATES

General Assembly of BEST 2014 started with a Round Table where delegates from BEST and representatives from eventâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s partners prepared the Official Opening Day. Meanwhile, participants of BEST Career Day and delegates from BEST arrived and went for a city tour. The very next day, everyone put on their suits and attended the Official Opening Day. When

ORGANISERS

60 ALUMNI

PARTICIPANTS

DAYS

ONE DREAM

EXTERNAL

RELATIONS 44

YOUTH IN ACTION Youth in Action is a programme created by the European Union for the period 2007-2013, aimed at developing and supporting European cooperation in the field of youth. The Education, Audiovisual and Culture Executive Agency (EACEA) is entrusted with the implementation of the Youth in Action Programme.

In 2013, the final year of partnership with Youth in Action, BEST was granted with the maximum possible amount (50.000 â&#x201A;Ź) to support the annual work programme for the period 2013-2014. The financial support from the European Commission covered planned operating expenses of BEST, mainly related to travel costs of the management, organisation of internal events, marketing and administrative expenses.

As a European NGO exclusively dedicated to youth, BEST activities have been recognised by EACEA as contributing to youth active citizenship, mobility of young people, their intercultural dialogue and mutual understanding. For the period 2011-2013, BEST has put its focus on several key development areas during this threeyear cooperation with EACEA under the Youth in Action Programme. Every year, the annual activity plan and budget were submitted for evaluation by EACEA.

The renewal of the Framework Partnership Agreement is a strong pillar for BEST, allowing the organisation to strengthen its internal structure and increase its impact among European students of technology. This partnership plays a major role in assisting BEST internally and in gaining recognition for BEST activities among its stakeholders.

SEFI It has been over 15 year that BEST and SEFI has been collaborating. Throughout these years, we have collaborated on many various projects and this year wasn’t any different. Continuing the tradition that started in 2011 during the world’s first Engineering Education Flash Week in Lisbon, Portugal, once again BEST and SEFI came together in organising SEFI Annual Conference: “Engineering Education Fast Forward 1973<2013<<”. During this conference in Leuven, Belgium from 18th to 20th September 2013, BEST had the responsibility for the participating students as well as contributing with workshops and sessions for all other participants. BEST was responsible for organising the students’ participation in the conference by promoting the event to European students, organising conference activities tailored to students needs, covering multiple practical needs, as well as organising a social programme. During this event, over 300 people, students and professors, gathered to discuss the latest trends and hot topics within European Engineering Education (EEE). Among all the topics that were tackled during various sessions, topics like sustainability of EEE, physics in engineering and information and telecommunication technologies were tackled. Moreover, a paper reporting outcomes of Symposium in Vienna 2012 “Importance of interdisciplinarity” was presented, together with several smaller presentations

conducted by BEST members as well as a workshop: “Train the trainers” for professors showing various teaching methods that could be applicable in lecture halls. Through this event, students had an opportunity to not only learn about developments in EEE but also to start creating a valuable network. In addition to the conference, SEFI representatives have collaborated with BEST on an Educational Symposium in Madrid, Spain, that happened during summer. More about that event can be read in the article about Events on Education.

FEANI FEANI is a federation of professional engineers that unites national engineering associations from 32 European countries. Thus, it represents the interests of over 3.500.000 million professional engineers in Europe.

BEST and FEANI have been in contact since 2006 and have identified the need to increase the synergies between present and future engineers thus creating a strong collaboration between our two organisations. During this 8-year-long cooperation, several joint workshops on topics concerning the mobility of engineering and the exchange of representatives at both of our organisations’ events have been organised.

Through its activities and services, FEANI aims at facilitating the mutual recognition of engineering qualifications in Europe and strengthening the position, role and responsibility of engineers in society.

During the last year, this partnership was strengthened with the transfer of BEST’s headquarters to Brussels, Belgium; directly under FEANI’s headquarters. This year’s focus has been to identify potential joint projects which both organisations can address.

The organisation is a founding member of the World Federation of Engineering Organisations (WFEO) and collaborates with many other organisations dealing with engineering and technology issues, as well as engineering education.

PARTNER NGOS Over the course of its existence, BEST has developed strong bonds with several other major student and youth organisations. BEST fosters communication and a mutual exchange of best practices with these partner NGOs, enabling us to increase our organisational knowledge. In addition, a mutual exchange of members between our partners leads to new ideas and improvement. BEST has five official partners: AEGEE (European Students’ Forum), bonding, CFES (Canadian Federation of Engineering Students), ELSA (European Law Students’ Association) and ESTIEM (European Students of Industrial Engineering and Management). This year’s emphasis was on developing the partnerships we have and disseminating the opportunities they bring with them. This year that process resulted in over 110 cases of delegates and participants being sent to each other’s events, which led to the sharing of a great deal of information and knowledge.

AEGEE is Europe’s largest interdisciplinary student organisation. It promotes cooperation, communication and integration among young people in Europe. It consists of 13.000 members active in more than 200 universities. AEGEE has been a partner of BEST since 2010. Over the years, communication on topics like the dissemination of educational achievements, grants, and quality assurance has

been established. Additionally, a joint Youth in Action grant with AEGEE was submitted in September 2013 and was accepted, leading to a series of joint training events over the coming years.

‘bonding’ is a student association that bridges the gap between students and employers. They offer German students a broad range of projects aimed at increasing student insight into companies for their future career. bonding has over 350 members and local groups in 11 cities in Germany. bonding has been a partner of BEST since 1997. As a result, the exchange of members between our organisations is still strong: in the course of 2013-2014 over 70 participants were exchanged during various events. bonding has also been supportive of our new BEST groups in Germany: Aachen and Erlangen.

CFES is a national bilingual orga-

spread around 300 universities in Europe.

nisation, representing approximately 60.000 engineering students across Canada. CFES aims at providing opportunities for an all-encompassing education for engineering students in Canada to become unparalleled professionals in their field.

ELSA has been a partner of BEST since 2011. In previous years, BEST and ELSA mainly exchanged legal and technical advice, though now cooperation revolves about sharing best practices on a variety of topics (such as organisational structure, alumni and grants).

CFES has been a partner of BEST since 2000. This year, CFESâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; organisation of the first International Engineering Competition (IEC) marked a milestone in our cooperation. BEST was able to send several participant teams and therefore was mostly responsible for the participation of Europe in the IEC.

ESTIEM is the organisation for European Students of Industrial Engineering and Management (IEM). Founded in 1990, ESTIEM was established in order to connect IEM students all over Europe and provide them with a unique platform to support them in their personal and professional development.

ELSA is the worldâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s largest independent association for law students. ELSA offers law students a perfect platform to develop new and existing skills, and network. It has a membership of around 35.000 students,

ESTIEM has been a partner of BEST since 2011. This year, our cooperation has strengthened significantly due to increased participant exchange on a variety of events. Contacts have been initiated on matters of educational involvement, marketing, alumni, competitions and knowledge management. Seeking additional opportunities, BEST is also a member of IFISO (Informal Forum of International Student Organisations): a platform of 21 international student organisations. It enables its members to easily collaborate and strengthen their capacities. The Ambassador of BEST is part of the management organising the next IFISO meeting in Utrecht, the Netherlands.

YOUTH FORUM JEUNESSE YFJ (Youth Forum Jeunesse) or commonly known in English as the European Youth Forum, is an international organisation established by national youth councils and international non-governmental youth organisations in Europe. It strives to be the voice of young people in Europe, where young people are equal citizens and are encouraged and supported to achieve their fullest potential as global citizens. YFJ provides a support platform for its 99 member organisations and helps them develop and become more recognised. YFJ works closely with the Council of Europe, European Union and United Nations.

Since April 2013, BEST has been an observer member of the Youth Forum and through this platform, BEST aims to become further engaged in European matters such as youth employment, mobility, non-formal education and much more. This year, BEST has been able to be present at the YFJ Council of Members which took place in the European Youth Capital of 2014, Thessaloniki, Greece and as well at the ERASMUS+ event in Brussels, Belgium. The opportunities of being involved are abounding, therefore exploration are the next steps.

ROUND TABLE Every year, BEST organises Round Tables in order to meet with our current and potential partners in the technical field. Representatives from companies, institutions, technical universities and business schools have opportunity to get to know BEST more. We present our services, activities and ongoing projects of our organisation and hold discussions about how to bring companies and universities closer to talented, creative and internationally-minded students of technology from all over Europe. Another important goal of our Round Table is to talk about the needs and expectations of our stakeholders, ask for their input to determine missing points in

our services and then work together on finding ways in which BEST can meet those expectations. This way, we are able to develop our Career Support service and provide a better value for our partners and students. This year, we organised two Round Tables in different cities of Europe. The first one was held in Brno, Czech Republic before our Presidentsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; Meeting in November and the most recent one took place in Bucharest, Romania before our BEST Career Day & General Assembly in April. Representatives from BRD - Groupe Societe Generale, Deutsche Bahn, EIT ICT Labs, IE Business School, FEANI, KTH - Royal Institute of Technology, Misys, P&G,

Skoda, UPM - Technical University of Madrid and Whirlpool were together with us during these events.

stakeholders and set the premise for long-term and successful collaborations.

These events give us the opportunity to discover new ways of improving the cooperation with our participant

PROMOTING VIRTUAL MOBILITY IN PLACEMENTS Promoting Virtual Mobility in Placements (PROVIP), is a project under the Lifelong Learning Programme where over ten partners from six different European countries work together to develop a new concept: virtual internships. The project, coordinated by KU Leuven, Belgium, is a follow-up to Enterprise-University Virtual Placements (EU-VIP), which concluded in 2011. EU-VIP focused on virtual mobility in order to enhance the quality of international work placements, and aimed to develop a framework which would allow the three stakeholders: students, companies and universities, to conduct a fruitful virtually supported internship. The results of EU-VIP include guidelines and training material for these stakeholders which were developed over a number of pilot projects organised by business partners. Students also provided input which was gathered via two symposia that were organised by BEST in cooperation with EU-VIP. The same results helped to lay the foundation of PROVIP, which started in October 2012 and will last until November 2014. The main goal of PROVIP is to disseminate the outcomes on virtual mobility from EUVIP to numerous stakeholders, but in particular to companies as it is commonly believed that virtual mobility has a low impact for industry. For PROVIP, several pilot projects and

training events are taking place to raise corporate awareness. Moreover, an online platform has been developed to provide stakeholders with the tools needed to arrange and manage virtual internships, including the promotion of internship offers, an application system, communication tools between the interns, companies and university and tools to gather feedback. BEST is contributing to all areas of the project coordinated by different partners. Our main role in the project is to provide student’s input via the organisation of two Events on Education. The first of these took place in July 2013 in Timisoara, Romania, under the the theme: “Bringing education and entrepreneurship under students’ scope”. The event gathered extensive input from students on their opinion of virtual internships and internships as a whole, in addition to evaluating and providing feedback to the online platform which has been developed to support virtual internships. Topics on entrepreneurship and its relation with virtual internships were also covered, which presented new perspectives on the subject. The second Event on Education, “LINK: Let’s Introduce the Network of Knowledge”, will take place in Gdansk in July 2014. It will tackle the topics of virtual mobility and continue to explore its relationship with entrepreneurship. From our cooperation with PROVIP, BEST gains insight into future work practices, provides students’ input for

the development of these projects and makes sure students needs are satisfied, while gaining knowledge on exciting and relevant issues such as virtual mobility. In this way, we are able to keep improving the outcomes of our events and present them not only to PROVIP, but also the other engineering associations, leading to

a better future for the students who will have more options when taking the decision of applying for an internship. We are hoping to continue with these fruitful collaborations and partnerships which benefits all of our stakeholders.

INTEL BUSINESS CHALLENGE Intel Business Challenge Europe (IBC Europe) is part of Intel Global Challenge, which gives business development opportunities to young entrepreneurs and start-ups with potential. The contest is supported by affiliate networks and business experts across Europe. Individuals and groups have the possibility to develop their business idea into operational start-ups and co-create on a European and global level.

but also a programme for the development of skills for young people. The role of BEST is to disseminate information about the competition to engineering students across Europe, as well as provide feedback on certain parts of the competition. Involvement in IBC Europe gives us access to a broad network of institutions and industry representatives, as well as experts in the engineering and business fields. Furthermore, as IBC is a competition, we see cooperation as a learning opportunity for both sides to further develop our own competitions.

BEST, by becoming part of the IBC Europe affiliate network with the 2014 edition, supports activities under IBC Europe, as it is not only a competition,

WORLD ENGINEERING EDUCATION FORUM Even if BEST has its European boundaries, external relations do not know the definition of borders. The International Federation of Engineering Education Societies (IFEES) is an umbrella organisation that aims to establish effective engineering education processes of high quality around the world and to assure a global supply of well-prepared engineering graduates for the engineering field. In September 2013, BEST had the opportunity to attend a distinguished

event organised by IFFES, the World Engineering Education Forum (WEEF) in Cartagena, Columbia. The topic of the event was innovation in Engineering Education as there is a general need to search for innovated solutions in order to help optimise processes and services in the field of Engineering Education. After the successful involvement in WEEF, BEST is currently discussing its involvement in the 2014 and 2015 editions which will take place in Dubai, UAE and Florence, Italy, respectively.

INTERNATIONAL ENGINEERING COMPETITION The International Engineering Competition (IEC) is an event organised by the Canadian Federation of Engineering Students (CFES) of which BEST was a partner, along with several other international partners. It seeks to gather participants from all over the world to compete in the categories: Design competition and Consulting competition. As in other competitions, creativity and good teamwork are important factors to win, and students learn by solving novel problems together in an innovative way.

While the IEC is not officially linked to any part of the EBEC pyramid, nonetheless several teams composed of BESTies and EBEC participants travelled to Canada in order to compete, and as such BEST was responsible for a large part of the European teams in the event. One of these teams would even go on to win the Design competition! IEC is the main intercontinental project that BEST is engaged in, and as such its organisation (and the collaboration with CFES) forms one of BEST’s most important projects. Both CFES and BEST have already started the preparation of the next IEC edition, currently scheduled for September 2015.

In September 2013, the first ever edition of IEC was organised in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. It brought together students from Canada, the United States, and Europe, resulting in a total of 16 teams. Shell was the exclusive sponsor of the competition, therefore its official name was the “Shell International Engineering Competition”.

More information about the 2013 competition is available on: www.iec. cfes.ca.

PUBLIC

RELATIONS 56

BEST, as an organisation growing day by day, recognises the value of building a strong external image among its stakeholders in order to assure that all of the services produced by BEST members are well-understood and appreciated by the public. To this end, the Public Relations Project strives to monitor, assess and reinforce the public image of BEST through the use of social media channels, media appearances and collaboration with Local BEST Groups. Since 2009, this project has ensured that BEST remains a well-known brand providing high quality services to European students of technology.

opportunities, together with internal events such as Regional Meetings, General Meetings and Training Events are promoted through social media channels and media coverage. As a result of a careful planning, official social media accounts of BEST have been gaining the attention of a great number of students, companies and educational institutions. To illustrate, the official Facebook account of BEST increased the number of its fans by 47% in less than a year and reached 11.407. Similarly, the official Twitter account of BEST augmented the number of its followers remarkably and reached 1.100. In parallel, the official LinkedIn account of BEST saw the number of 2.702 with an increase of 63%.

Promotion of BEST services is a key element for the public relations practices of BEST as they hold an importance in strengthening the public image of BEST. Therefore, BEST courses, European BEST Engineering Competition, career-related and educational

Media coverage is also an integral component of establishing a strong relationship with the stakeholders of BEST. Thus, a notable amount of

media companies were contacted for possible media partnerships. The biggest and most prestigious events of BEST, namely General Assembly, BEST Career Day, Presidentsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; Meeting and European BEST Engineering Competition, were publicised through a notable number of different media channels. Young Petro, an international student magazine focused on the petroleum industry, was also

involved in this process by being the media partner for General Assembly Bucharest 2014 and European BEST Engineering Competition Final Round 2014. The Public Relations Project is determined to continue its high-quality and dedicated work in the following years to make sure that BEST is in its rightful place among its stakeholders.

FACEBOOK STATISTICS 11.407 7.759 5258 3.731

4341 3038

SEASON EVENTS

2013

2014 58

LOCAL

BEST

GROUPS

UNIVERSITIES & PRESIDENTS LBG Aachen

Norman Schaffer

RWTH Aachen University of Technology

LBG Aalborg

Daniel Hillerström

Aalborg University, Aalborg Universitet

LBG Almada

Tiago Cardoso

New University of Lisbon

LBG Ankara

Ahmet Mert Ozcelik

Middle East Technical University (Orta Dogu Teknik Universitesi)

LBG Athens

Myriam Sarantea

National Technical University of Athens (Ethnico Metsovio Polytechnio)

LBG Aveiro

Cátia Alves

University of Aveiro

LBG Barcelona

Albert Poti Jove

Technical University of Catalonia

LBG Belgrade

Daniel Mijailovic

University of Belgrade

LBG Brasov

Adrian Marcean

Transilvania University of Brasov

LBG Bratislava

Matej Čupka

Slovak University of Technology, Bratislava

LBG Brno

Jan Mazáč

Brno University of Technology

LBG Brussels

Laurens Raes

Free University of Brussels (VUB)

LBG Brussels ULB

Flavius Ivan

University of Brussels (ULB)

LBG Bucharest

Andrei Frincu

Politehnica University of Bucharest

LBG Budapest

Kristóf Andrzej Baran

Budapest University of Technology and Economics

LBG Chania

Aggeliki Marini

Technical University of Crete (T.U.C.) (Polytehnio Kritis)

LBG Chisinau

Dorin Russu

Technical University of Moldova

LBG Cluj-Napoca

Andrei Popa

Technical University of Cluj-Napoca

LBG Coimbra

Cristina Bento

University of Coimbra

LBG Copenhagen

Thomas Bruun Bertelsen

Technical University of Denmark, Danmarks Tekniske Universitet

LBG Delft

Sebastian France

Delft University of Technology

LBG Eindhoven

Nawshad Chowdhury

Eindhoven University of Technology

LBG Ekaterinburg

Elvira Yakupova

Urals State University of Railway Transport

LBG Ekaterinburg UrFU

Ksenia Burlakova

Ural Federal University

LBG ENSAM

Antoine Van Der Borght

Arts et Métiers ParisTech

LBG ENSTA ParisTech

Grégoire Varillon

ENSTA ParisTech

LBG Erlangen

Marius Bregulla

Friedrich-Alexander-University Erlangen-Nuremberg

LBG Faro Algarve

Artem Yultyyev

University of Algarve

LBG Gdansk

Maciej Kopania

Gdansk University of Technology

LBG Ghent

Eline De Buyser

Ghent University

LBG Gliwice

Mateusz Ryba

Silesian University of Technology in Gliwice

LBG Gothenburg

Mats Lindstrom

Chalmers University of Technology, Chalmers Tekniska Högskola

LBG Graz

Philipp Miedl

Graz University of Technology

LBG Grenoble

Sylvain Bouvet

Grenoble Institute of Technology

LBG Helsinki

Timo Salo

Aalto University, Aalto-yliopisto

LBG Iasi

Mariana Doroftei

"Gheorghe Asachi" Technical University of Iasi

LBG Istanbul

Mertcan Öztürk

Istanbul Technical University (Istanbul Teknik Üniversitesi)

LBG Istanbul Yildiz

Tunc Sahin

Yildiz Technical University

LBG Izmir

Veysel Anil Gunay

Ege University (Ege Üniversitesi), Izmir, Turkey

LBG Kaunas

Justinas Mažonas

Kaunas University of Technology

LBG Kiev

Marina Shalko

National Technical University of Ukraine "Kyiv Polytechnic Institute"

LBG Kosice

Marcela Markovičová

Technical University of Kosice

LBG Krakow

Michal Kulbat

AGH-UST - University of Science and Technology

LBG Las Palmas

Maria Ramos

Las Palmas of Gran Canaria University

LBG Leuven

Laurens De Smedt

Catholic University of Leuven (KUL)

LBG Liege

Anthony Marchand

University of Liège

LBG Lisbon

Ana Rita Medeiros

University of Lisbon

LBG Ljubljana

Tanja Abramovic

University of Ljubljana

LBG Lodz

Marta Wadowska

Lodz University of Technology

LBG Louvain-la-Neuve

Louise Noël

Catholic University of Louvain (UCL)

LBG Lund

Ellen Persson

Lund University, Faculty of Engineering, Lunds Tekniska Högskola

LBG Lviv

Oleh Kozak

Lviv Polytechnic National University

LBG Lyon

Rémi Chateau

INSA Lyon

LBG Madrid

Pedro Garcia Chas

Technical University of Madrid

LBG Madrid Carlos III

Irene Romero

Carlos III University of Madrid

LBG Maribor

Katja Čuš

University of Maribor

LBG Messina

Giuseppe Sgrň

University of Messina

LBG Milan

Michele Damato

Politecnico di Milano

LBG Moscow

Pavel Sukhov

Bauman Moscow State Technical University

LBG Mostar

Nermina Baljic

University "Dzemal Bijedic" of Mostar

LBG Nancy

Adrien Carpinteiro

University of Lorraine

LBG Naples

Mario Salomone

University of Naples "Federico II”

LBG Nis

Pavle Djordjevic

University of Nis (Univerzitet u Nisu)

LBG Novi Sad

Marko Vasiljevic

University of Novi Sad

LBG Paris Ecole Centrale

Aiman Sokhal

Centrale Paris

LBG Paris Polytechnique

Boris Azimi

Ecole Polytechnique

LBG Patras

Anastasios Alexopoulos

University of Patras (Panepistimio Patron), Patras, Greece

LBG Podgorica

Pavle Knezevic

University of Montenegro (Univerzitet Crne Gore)

LBG Porto

Felipe Afonso Vieira

University of Porto

LBG Prague

Adam Uhlíř

Czech Technical University in Prague

LBG Reykjavik

Daniel Eldjarn Vilhjalmsson

University of Iceland, Háskóli Íslands

LBG Riga

Zane Feldmane

Riga Technical University

LBG Rome

Tatiana Quercia

Sapienza University of Rome

LBG Rome Tor Vergata

Daniele Rossini

University of Rome Tor Vergata

LBG Saint Petersburg

Olga Osipenko

Saint Petersburg State Polytechnical University

LBG Skopje

Vesna Markovska

University Ss. Cyril and Methodius (Univerzitet Sveti Kiril i Metodij)

LBG Sofia

Dimitar Dimitrov

Technical University of Sofia

LBG Stockholm

Riccardo Borgani

Royal Institute of Technology, Kungliga Tekniska Högskolan (KTH)

LBG Supelec

Adam Smiarowski

Supélec (Ecole Supérieure d'Electricité (Supélec))

LBG Tallinn

Andres Ruul

Tallinn University of Technology

LBG Tampere

Emil Hagstrom

Tampere University of Technology

LBG Thessaloniki

Olga Vrousgou

Aristotle University of Thessaloniki

LBG Timisoara

Paul Finta

Politehnica University of Timisoara

LBG Trento

Roberta Dainese

University of Trento (Universita’ degli Studi di Trento)

LBG Trondheim

Franz LaZerte

Norwegian University of Science and Technology

LBG Turin

Davide Modesti

Politechnic of Turin

LBG Uppsala

Nemer Achour

Uppsala University, Uppsala Universitet

LBG Valencia

Irene Sánchez Martínez

Polytechnic University of Valencia

LBG Valladolid

Álvaro Gutiérrez González

University of Valladolid

LBG Veszprem

Futó Dániel

University of Pannonia

LBG Vienna

Bernhard Stecher

Vienna University of Technology

LBG Vinnytsia

Inna Melnyk

Vinnytsia National Technical University

LBG Warsaw

Pawel Kociuba

Warsaw University of Technology

LBG Wroclaw

Marcin Majczyk

Wroclaw University of Technology

LBG Zagreb

Vitka Gres

University of Zagreb

LBG Zaporizhzhya

Sasha Kravtsova

Zaporizhzhya National Technical University

PARTNERS OF

BEST

CAREER SUPPORT PARTNERS

UNIVERSITY AND INSTITUTIONAL PARTNERS SUPPORTERS EDUCATIONAL PARTNERS PRO

VIP

PARTNER NGOS European Students’ Forum

With the support of the Youth in Action Programme of the European Union

With the support of the Erasmus+ Programme of the European Union