University of Žilina
Faculty of Civil Engineering
Slovakia

At present, there are about 8,000 students being educated at seven faculties in 184 accredited fields of study in all forms and degrees of university studies at the University of Žilina. In its over 65 years of successful existence, it has become the alma mater for more than 80,000 graduates, highly skilled professionals specialising mostly in transport and technical fields as well as in management, marketing and humanities. The quality and readiness of our graduates for the needs of practice are proved by long-term high interest in hiring them by employers that cooperate with the University in the recruitment process. In the field of science and research, our University participates in 200 national and 41 international scientific projects and organises about 60 scientific and professional events annually. Results of science and research activities of the University have an important influence not only on the educational activities but also on the development of international cooperation or interconnection with practice. Cooperation with foreign universities and institutions is crucial for our University. The University has signed bilateral cooperation agreements with more than 150 foreign partners and it belongs among the most successful universities within the Erasmus Programme.

The Faculty of Civil Engineering, as a part of the University of Žilina, has eight departments, Centre of Excellence in Transport Engineering, Centre for Applied Research, Centre of Research in Transport and Accredited laboratory. The core field of the faculty is an education in the fields of transport engineering for construction design, reconstruction, and maintenance of railway tracks, roads, highways, urban roads, bridges, and tunnels. At present, about 600 students study at the faculty. The credit system of study has been applied to all courses of study since 1995. This system widens the possibilities for our students to realize their ideas about their professional profiles. In its research and professional activities, the faculty is interested in solving theoretical and practical problems of designing transport structures, modelling, strain analysis, and computer-based numerical calculations. Significant results have been achieved in the theoretical analysis, measuring and diagnostics of transport structures subjected to dynamic loading.

 

Silesian University of Technology
Faculty of Transport and Aviation Engineering
Poland

The Silesian University of Technology (SUT) has a history of 74 years. It has become an important public culture and opinion-forming institution, deeply rooted in the city of Gliwice and the Upper Silesia region. The Silesian University of Technology is the biggest technical university in our region and one of the biggest in Poland, currently educating about 18 000 students in 15 Faculties in 48 engineering disciplines. Nowadays the University offers courses within over 140 specialities in 34 majors. The Faculties cover the whole range of engineering disciplines, as well as elements of management, sociology, and administration. Educational and research activities benefit from a large number of modern lecture halls and advanced laboratories and are carried out by a remarkable university staff consisting of over 1700 academic teachers including 300 professors and DSc degree holders. The Silesian University of Technology is an active partner of the European students' exchange within the framework of the LLP-Erasmus program, based on over 145 bilateral agreements with European universities.

Faculty of Transport and Aviation Engineering conducts scientific research in the Department of Automotive Vehicle Service, Department of Automotive Vehicle Construction, Department of Logistics and Industrial Transportation, Department of Railway Engineering and Department of Transport Systems and Traffic Engineering. The Faculty employs 36 professors as well as 45 PhDs. The Faculty conducts scientific research in the following areas: transport nets optimization, transport logistics, microprocessor technique and simulation tests in transport, mathematical modelling of combustion processes in engines, alternative fuels usage, wearing out of transport machines’ elements, supporting computer designing transport machines’ units, vibroacoustic diagnosis of machines and vehicles, dynamics of vehicles’ suspensions, applying numerical methods in designing and optimizing wheel units and wheel-rail system, telematics, and transport safety. Every year the Faculty employees carry out approximately 90 scientific projects including grants financed by the Ministry of Science and Higher Education, the Ministry of Infrastructure and the European Commission; they carry out implementing activities as well as service work and they also participate in designing new communications solutions in the region. The Faculty also organises 11 cyclic international conferences. Many scientific works conducted by our employees have been awarded prizes by the Polish Prime Minister, the Minister of Education and Sport and companies such as Fiat and ABB. Faculty also cooperates with numerous Polish universities, institutes, and scientific research centres, especially in Silesia, and cooperates with many firms and companies in Poland and abroad: Fiat Auto Poland, Opel, Alstom, Bombardier, Lucchini, Siemens and others.

 

Azerbaijan University of Architecture and Construction
Transport Faculty
Azerbaijan

At present, over 10000 students study at seven faculties in three major degrees (BSc, MSc, and Ph.D.) of study at the Azerbaijan University of Architecture and Construction (AzUAC). The University was founded in 1975. AzUAC supports and encourages exchange activities with the EU Member States, following the priorities set by the Azerbaijani government in reforming the education sector in terms of quality, socio-economic relevance, human resource competency, and governance, to extend participation and facilitate access to education. These issues were specified in a document approved by the Presidential Decree in October 2013 and entitled State Strategy on Development of Education in the Republic of Azerbaijan, in which the government expressed its willingness to adapt as much as possible the Azerbaijani education system to European standards, to ensure its students the greatest competitive involvement on the European scene. In November 2017 in Brussels, on the occasion of the Eastern Partnership Summit, EU leaders met with the institutions of six countries - Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, the Republic of Moldova and Ukraine - to agree on future priorities for the partnership, aimed at strengthening cooperation in the fields of economics, governance, connectivity, and social policies. Together, the EU and the Partner Countries have chosen to invest in skills by implementing strategies and policies for youth employment and entrepreneurship, and by developing education systems aimed at increasing youth employment and innovation. Therefore, according to the report, 20 Deliverables for 2020: Bringing tangible results for citizens, the most effective and urgent actions to be promoted are investments in skills, entrepreneurship and youth employment and the integration of education systems and research and innovation programs between the Eastern Partnership and the EU. Since joining the Bologna process in 2005, Azerbaijan has had some of the tools, notions, and objectives of the European Higher Education Area (EHEA), but there is still no quality assurance system for higher education that is compatible with the European one; to support the reforms needed for this purpose, it is essential in Azerbaijan to strengthen the capacities of education providers – teachers, administrators, directors/managers, trainers/masters, and responsible administration/ management, even in many educational institutions, a radical overhaul is urgent and necessary.

The faculty was created in 1975. Aims the main direction of teaching subjects in the Transport Faculty are and other engineering things and its project in these roads, the building and its exploitation with solving all the scientific-technical problems. Transport roads, transport expiation till the development of investigating method, the designing of citizen, industry, hydro-technical building, roads and tunnels, construction and exploitation, geodesic work, city soil, trade centre, the exact mark of engineering brunch, and to use it, preparing agents. An excellent result is not only due to the quality of the teaching or the infrastructure of the university, but also depends to a large extent on the complexity of factors that contribute to the complete training in the field of transport, namely the exchange of relationships between teaching, research, business, and cultural institutions.

 

Brno University of Technology
Faculty of Civil Engineering
Czech Republic

The Faculty of Civil Engineering (FCE) is the largest and oldest faculty at Brno University of Technology (BUT). There are plenty of contacts between the Institute of Railway Structures and Constructions Brno University of Technology and the Department of Railway Engineering and Track Management University of Zilina. Cooperation features mostly in education, and staff exchanges. Less cooperation is in scientific activities where institutions are complementary because each institution is focused on different particular problems. The project activities will focus on the definition of common tasks in the field of rail infrastructure structures.

 

Czech Technical University in Prague
Faculty of Civil Engineering
Czech Republic

The Department of Railway Structures is a part of the Czech Technical University in Prague (CTU) and specialized in the design, construction, and maintenance of railway structures which is in line with the aim of the conference STRAHOS. Their contribution to the project lies in the enrichment of the conference topics focusing on hi-speed tracks, railway sub-structure, and maintenance. The project partnership with the department will help to increase the mutual information flow and provide a good environment for a strong team for the STRAHOS conference and also for future cooperation within V4. UNIZA has not yet participated with the department in a project.

 

The project is co-financed by the Governments of Czechia, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia through Visegrad Grants from International Visegrad Fund. The mission of the fund is to advance ideas for sustainable regional cooperation in Central Europe.