Training in FST and EPSM among students: new ‘Capacity Building’ approaches
The UNIPR delegation in Rwanda is now halfway through its stay. Various activities were carried out by the delegation in these first two weeks of work, characterised by meetings and trainings scheduled one by one as well as visits to Institutions and private companies by the UNIPR team.
As anticipated in the last NEWS, the delegation is composed of 5 UNIPR students, 3 from the Department of Food Science & Technology and 2 from the Department of Civil Engineering, led by Project Coordinator Prof. Roberto Valentino. As for the students, they were selected by UNIPR through a public call for applications that evaluated not only their academic ability but also their intrinsic motivation to be part of a mobility within a “Capacity Building” project financed by the European Commission.
Following this selection, the students prepared, in agreement with their academic tutors from UNIPR, some intensive trainings in the framework of the FST and EPSM to be proposed to the Rwandan students during their mobility. These trainings took place on a daily basis and dealt with various topics of “strategic” interest: as far as the trainings related to the FST are concerned, these dealt with subjects such as “Milk: supply chain overview and primary treatments“, “Food chemistry and Maillard reaction” and “HACCP system” and have so far been held first for students from INES_Ruhengeri and then for those from UR and IPRC, and will continue in the coming days at UTAB.
The EPSM ones, in turn, were also held first at IPRC_Musanze and then at INES_Ruhengeri, and dealt with Rocscience topics including “Basic features of a FEM software“, “Barriers and collectors” and “Limit equilibrium slope stability programme“. At the end of these trainings, the Italian students submitted an evaluation questionnaire to their Rwandan counterparts, which summarised positive opinions not only on the subjects covered but also on the teaching and innovative methodology applied, i.e. the student-to-students approach.
In the same days, Prof Valentino also held, along with a Master Student in Civil Engineering and Engineering Geology, a Short Course for staff of Rwanda Water Resources Board (RWB) in which several topics related to the “Implementing loads and supports (piles, geosyntetics, tiebacks)“, “Performing a complete slope stability analysis“, “Studying Drawdown Analysis for slope and Element groundwater” were discussed. Moreover, Prof Valentino is currently holding an intensive curricular course in Soil Mechanics for INES-Ruhengeri students, both theoretical and through laboratory exercises, which will end with a final exam whose grade will be included in the single student’s portfolio.
During the mobility, there was no lack of meetings and exchanges concerning the research carried out and future areas of cooperation and project planning, as is usual during the EnRHEd mobilities, and there were also many visits to the four HEIs partners of EnRHEd with their laboratories. All this, of course, with a view to the “Enhancement of Rwandan Higher Education in strategic fields for sustainable growth“.
We don’t miss anything….but keep an eye on the News, soon we will update you on new exciting mobilities 😉
