Speakers 2016

Tomasz Saryusz-Wolski

Director of the International Faculty of Engineering at the Lodz University of Technology and an expert of the Educational Research Institute in Warsaw. Coordinator of many projects related to internationalization and implementation of innovative teaching and learning methods. His areas of expertise are mainly focused on innovations in Higher Education – ECTS, Diploma Supplement, the concept of a mobility window as well as Qualifications Framework.

Between 2006 and 2009 he represented Poland as an expert of the Bologna Follow Up Group. He was also a member of ECTS/DS National Contact Point for Poland, held a position of ECTS/DS Counselor, Bologna Promoter and later on also a Bologna Expert. Since 2006 he has served as a member of various expert groups related to development and implementation of the Polish Qualifications Framework. While working as an expert for the Ministry of Science and Higher Education, he has been supporting implementation of Qualifications Framework in HEIs and IVET on level 4. Recently he has focused on the professional orientation of higher education towards better employability of graduates. He has been involved in the development of the concept of level 5 qualifications and permeability of the education system. As a representative of Poland he was involved in the process of ECVET development on EU level. From 2011 he has served as a member of ECVET Users’ Group and is now a member of Polish ECVET Expert Team.

Monika Domańska

Chief specialist at the Career Centre of AGH University of Science and Technology in Cracow where she monitors university graduates career paths and conducts research on employer requirements, both within her routine tasks at AGH and projects co-financed by the EU, e.g. HEGESCO. Additionally she serves as a counsellor and trainer for students and graduates of the university on all matters related to labour market.

Ms. Domańska was an expert in numerous projects of The Ministry of Science and Higher Education in the area of employability (Bologna expert in 2008-2013).  In 1997- 2008 she served as a Director of the Career Service (CS) at Cracow University of Technology - considered a leader among Polish CSs – and coordinated the CS network in Poland. She developed close links with business representatives seeking employees. Moreover, Ms. Domańska conducts trainings for job counsellors of newly emerging CSs both in Poland and abroad.

Przemysław Sękalski

Director of IT Centre at Lodz University of Technology, lecturer in Department of Microelectronics and Computer Science, co-founder of Open-RnD company. His main interest involve embedded and mobile system development, including FPGA programming. Mr. Sękalski is a system architect as well as a co-author and leading executor of more than 10 projects with a total value of app. 100 million PLN. He is an expert in research, technology implementation, transfer of innovations from science to business, infrastructure and soft-skills development.

Mr. Sękalski is a member of Top 500 Innovators alumni programme. He finished a 2 month course regarding research commercialization organized at Stanford University. He was nominated by students as a Teacher of the Year and is a honoree of The National Education Commission. He serves as an expert of the National Centre for Research and Development.

Dorota Piotrowska

Researcher and academic teacher at the Lodz University of Technology, where she also serves as a vice-director of the International Faculty of Engineering. Within her academic activities, she has implemented numerous innovations related to new teaching techniques, quality assurance systems and widely understood internationalization projects. Within her research activities, she has conducted and supervised many projects devoted to strategic management in Higher Education Institutions, change management, validation of non-formal and informal learning, lifelong learning strategies etc.

For several years, she has served as a Bologna expert appointed by the Ministry of Science and Higher Education. In 2014 she was also chosen by the Ministry as an expert to supervise the implementation of EHEA project entitled Pursuing the Goals of the Bucharest Communique in Poland related to recognition of learning outcomes and employability of graduates. Recently, she has carried out research projects and pilot implementation studies related to VNIL, ECVET implementation and development of institutional strategies within LLL.

Kristīne Bērziņa

Lecturer, researcher and senator at the University of Latvia Faculty of Economics and Management, where she is teaching Practical Entrepreneurship, International Management and other subjects related to international business and economics. Her research areas are linked to service industry, especially tourism industry and networking. By participating in EU projects on franchising networks and on sustainability development, she cooperates with Junior Achievement Latvia and other youth organisations.

Applied lectures, online studies, workshops, colloquiums, summer schools and study trips help her to make study process active, attractive and comprehensive. In student start-up development activities she enhances creativity as one of the skills that helps thinking out of the box and look for innovative solutions, and her standpoint is that in addition to competitive advantage study it is necessary to supplement it with collaborative advantage.

Dorota Bociąga

Initiator and creator of the Design Thinking Workspace (DT4U) at Lodz University of Technology. She gained knowledge and first experiences in the design thinking methodology at Hasso Plattner Institute of Design at Stanford. Ms. Bociąga has been developing her skills in the dt area since 2012, carring out projects at the University within the 1st and 2nd study cycle, conducting workshops, trainings and combining dt initiatives with PBL (problem/project based learning) projects. Currently she leads the international project DiamonDT “Development of Innovative AcadeMy ON the basis of DT teaching” initiated by DT4U team.

As an certified trainer she conducts trainings and workshops related to project management, design thinking methodology, implementation of R&D projects outputs and certification of medical devices. Apart from dt, Ms. Bociąga specializes in biomedical engineering, both in the area of didactics and research. She is an author of numerous scientific articles as well as a co-author of patents and implementations. Ms. Bociąga is a member of the academic staff at TUL’s Institute of Materials Science and Engineering.

Ignacio Bravo

Ignacio Bravo received his BSc (1996), MSc (2000) and PhD (2007) from the University of Alcala (Madrid, Spain) in the area of Electronics. He is currently an Associate Professor (2009) in the Electronics Department of University of Alcala. His research areas are focused on Embedded Systems applied to image and/or data processing oriented to the development of Smart Spaces. He is a co-author of more than 35 articles published in JCR and has more than 100 contributions for conferences.

Dr. Bravo has participated in Erasmus+ KA2 since 2014. #europehome project (2014-2017) has been his first collaboration focused on the promotion of international placements and cooperation with companies. In project #EMPL-OI (2015-2018), Dr. Bravo is promoting social entrepreneurship and placement activities for students. CAPQI (2016-2018) will be another KA 2 project in the area of student internships aimed at establishing student placement standards as well as the evaluation and classification of placements based on the opinion of students. He has vast experience in International Mobility promoting bilateral collaborations, in particular in Brazil, US, UK, Ireland, France or Finland.

Vikrant Janawade

Vikrant Janawade is a researcher and an associate professor at the IAE, Graduate School of Management of the University of Nice-Sophia Antipolis. His research activities are oriented to the field of Marketing, Services management and International Management. His teaching activities include Marketing, Relationship marketing, Information Systems, Procurement Management, Marketing Research, International Strategy, Organizational design and Organisational behaviour.

Mārtiņš Jansons

Mārtiņš Jansons is a founder of Adepts Creative Industries and a co-founder of Collective Intelligence Research Centre. He is a lecturer and workshop leader focusing on the following topics: Games, Learning Games, Gamification, Swarm intelligence. Martins Jansons is also a mentor at the Young Entrepreneur University, at the University of Latvia, Faculty of Business and Management.

Elisabeth Pereira

Elisabeth Pereira is an Assistant Professor at the Department of Economics, Management, Industrial Engineering and Tourism (DEGEIT) of the University of Aveiro (Portugal), where she teaches at the undergraduate and graduate levels, and coordinates International Mobility programmes. She is full researcher in the field of Competitiveness and Innovation at GOVCOPP research unit. She was Chair of the Subject Committee of Economics and Business Administration of Campus Europae – European University Foundation. She has been Member and Chair of the Economics and Business panel of the Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT). She holds a MSc in Economics and a PhD in Business and Economics Competitiveness.

She has been supervisor and examiner of national and international M.Sc. and PhD theses. She has been visiting professor in some European and Brazilian Universities. She is author of several dozen articles published in international indexed scientific journals and conferences, as well some books, book chapters and institutional reports. She is also reviewer of national and international journals. At a project research level she is involved in several national and international projects, as coordinator and researcher, in the fields of competitiveness and innovation. She has been involved as coordinator and lecturer in several international summer schools, as well as chair and member of scientific committee on international conferences.

Joachim Wyssling

Project manager of the European University Foundation, Joachim Wyssling has been in charge of network and project management activities since 2011. His main mission is to identify the needs and challenges of member universities and students and to find European solutions by following the EU policy developments and monitoring the available/appropriate funding channels.

In his capacity of project manager of EUF he has therefore successfully developed and supported project proposals and is currently supervising them. As a former Vice-president of the Erasmus Student Network he has in-depth knowledge of policies and indicators for quality student mobility.