On 27-28 June 2024, the final conference of the SMILE project took place at the Hamburg University of Technology. The conference, held in a mixed format (in-person and online), brought together participants from different countries to discuss innovation and entrepreneurship in smart manufacturing.
The conference was attended by university researchers, including:
- Head of the Department of Food Technology Equipment, Dr. Sci. Eng., Professor Tetiana Vitenko;
- Professor of the Department of Innovation and Service Management, Dr. Sci. Econ., Professor Liliya Melnyk;
- Associate Professor of the Department of Physics, PhD, Associate Professor Yuriy Skorenkyy.
The conference’s main topics covered innovative practices and methods of entrepreneurship, mutual learning, and open approaches to entrepreneurship. During the conference, the results of the international consortium’s work were systematized and discussed, with interviews and panel discussions covering key innovation and entrepreneurship issues in smart manufacturing. The meetings brought together representatives of Ukrainian and European companies, universities, innovation ecosystems, and students.
The conference program began with a panel discussion on “Innovating in the Face of Change: Mutual Learning in Innovation Ecosystems”. Key insights gained from various interviews were discussed, emphasizing the importance of interaction and knowledge sharing to accelerate innovation.
During the session “Creating a Culture of Internal and Entrepreneurship in Smart Manufacturing: Deep Dive and Practical Insights,” the main entrepreneurial methodologies and real-life case studies from projects of companies such as Gellify (Milan, Italy) and Synergeticon GmbH (Germany) were considered.
The conference concluded with a panel discussion featuring students participating in the Hackathon on Innovation and Entrepreneurship in Smart Manufacturing. This discussion included students from the Hamburg University of Technology and Ternopil National Technical University, named after Ivan Puluj. TNTU was represented by first-year student Liudmyla Shved from the specialty 192 “Civil Engineering” and second-year student Bohdan Butsiy from the specialty 133 “Industrial Engineering.”
The main achievements of the project are:
- Assessment of the regional innovation ecosystem, technology transfer, and innovation activities at the participating universities;
- Scouting, training, and mentoring.
- Development of digital training materials and creating a digital training laboratory.
Together, these results enabled a successful international student hackathon, which led to active students being invited to internships at enterprises to develop their ideas.
The project consortium is already preparing final recommendations and a guide to implementing innovative practices and developing ideas for future actions, enabling universities to become drivers of innovative regional development.
Based on new competencies acquired during the SMILE project implementation, events will be organized at TNTU to transfer SMILE results and methodologies, strengthen the university’s innovation orientation and institutional capacity to participate in international projects of such level in the future.
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