For the fourth consecutive year engineering students from the University of Cairo have attended a Study Abroad programme at the URV which finished on 29 July. The students are assigned to three different courses at the School of Engineering and the School of Chemical Engineering

The group comprised 39 students of chemical engineering and other engineering disciplines and was accompanied by Fatma Ashour, director of the Department of Chemical Engineering at the University of Cairo and group coordinator. They were welcomed to the URV in a meeting held on 11 July in the conference room of the Schools of Engineering (ETSE) and Chemical Engineering (ETSEQ) by the deputy head ETSEQ, Allan Mackie, the deputy head of the ETSE, Xavier Vilanova, and the vice-rector for Internationalisation, Mar Gutiérrez-Colon.

The young Egyptians were assigned to three courses each of which lasted three weeks. Two courses were coordinated at the ETSE by Domènec Puig, namely Power electronics for renewable energy systems and electrical vehicles and a new course entitled Multimedia security, robotics and computer vision and image processing. The third course was coordinated by Allan Mackie and Dieter Boer at the ETSEQ and was entitled Advanced process simulation and control.

The three courses had the same structure. Classes were taught from Monday to Friday, with the exception of Wednesday when the students went on a visit specifically relating to their area of study. Among the places visited were the companies Repsol and Dow, the Barcelona Supercomputing Centre and the Seat plant in Martorell. On 20 July all three groups visited the Port of Tarragona. Outside the classes there was a programme of cultural activities so that the students could get to know the local area. The programme concluded on 29 July.

The URV Foundation has extensive experience in providing Study Abroad courses for foreign students. The programme helps to promote “internationalisation at home” and thus enriches the URV and increases its international visibility.