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Annual Report of Board of European Students of Technology 2010/2011
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ANNUAL REPORT 2010/2011Board of European Students of Technology
Coordinator: Samuel OliveiraContent: Gabriela Barreira
Research: George GramescuDesign: Dominika KamolaPhoto editor: Ceylan Sayın
Photos: BEST photos
More info:www.BEST.eu.orgfacebook.com/BESTorginfo@BEST.eu.org
Address: BEST, Maison de Grenoble INP, BP 153, 38404 St Martin d’Heres, FRANCE
3Annual Report 2010/2011
Welcome word from the XXIII BoardDear friends of BEST,
Today BEST consists of around 3000 students of technology from all over Europe, staying connected through
their passion for volunteering, developing students and empowered diversity. At the same time we must not
forget the large network surrounding BEST: the universities, industry, organisations and other students, all
believing in the work and efforts done by our members.
Another BEST year has passed and what a year it has been! The Annual Report guides you through the
highlights and other areas our organisation has been focusing on. 2010-2011 has been the year where BEST
has aimed at improving the internal work optimisation, strengthening the organisation as a whole, addressing
the student needs and increasing the overall impact of BEST on its stakeholders.
As the world is becoming more and more globalised, the competition is getting tougher and the needs of
our stakeholders are continuously changing, thereby becoming more demanding. As a student organisation
we have to strive to keep being dynamic and innovative, constantly working on improving our organisation
and services, but most importantly - making sure that we enjoy what we do and see its true purpose. So even
if we are exploring new fields and constantly analysing our potential – we are grateful that the values and
spirit of our organisation will never change, as it defines who we are and what connects us in the first place.
We would like to address everyone who has contributed in making the past year a great one for BEST, thank
you for your support and believing in us. We hope you will enjoy reading the Annual Report, where every
part reflects upon the daily work done by passionate students, for students.
Yours truly,
XXIII International Board of BEST
Monica Kviljo, President
Laura Hellebrandt, Treasurer
Matija Lukic, Secretary
Christophe Jouret, Vice-President for Internal Support
Myriam Teicher, Vice-President for External Services
Andrei Ganci, Vice-President for Local Group Support
6 Board of European Students of Technology
7Annual Report 2010/2011
8 Board of European Students of Technology
We are more than 3000 young, vibrant, competent
and confident young engineers. We have been
providing complementary education and
international exchange for European students
since 1989 and we are constantly growing both
in numbers and in scope. We have found that our
differences makes us stronger, so we embrace them.
We are about adding value to the environments
we are part of - putting smaller universities on the
map, connecting students with our partners, closing
the gap between companies and universities. True
to our motto of “Empowered Diversity” we never
compete - instead BEST provides those services
that others can or will not. Services like BEST Career
Support, European BEST Engineering Competition
(EBEC), BEST University Center, BEST Educational
Involvement, our cooperation with organisations like
SEFI, our input into thematic networks like EUGENE
and EU-VIP, our long and valuable relationships
with our partners, under which we not just count
companies or universities, but also fellow student
organisations like bonding, CFES and AEGEE, are our
testament to that.
BEST is about students; about learning and
participating. Providing value to students is what
got us going 21 years ago with what still is one of
our core services: BEST Courses on Technology and
on Career Related Skills
In 2010 alone, 9689 students applied to the 95 BEST
Events we provided that year, out of which 1992
participated, extending their academic knowledge,
gaining valuable insights in different cultures and
mindsets and ever improving their soft-skills. Many
more students took part in one or more of the
multitude of local opportunities provided by our
90 groups. They took part in our BEST Engineering
Competitions (part of EBEC), they were trainees
in our soft-skill training sessions, they took the
opportunity to visit one of our many annual local
and national job-fairs, and visit companies with us.
Almost always for free, but never for nothing.
BEST is about not standing still, about always
wanting to improve. Instead of looking at what
we have already accomplished, we are looking
at what we still can do. We are about flexibility -
always adapting our services to the current needs of
our stakeholders. We evaluate what we do constantly
and we are not afraid to stop no longer needed
services or to start new and exciting opportunities
for our students, our companies and our universities.
We believe in learning by experience - that is why
we outsource nothing. It is why we are so cost-
effective, it is why each and every one of us grows,
be it in project-management, in event organisation,
in negotiation, in fundraising, in public relations, in
software-development and server-administration,
in quality management, in marketing and design, in
our interpersonal-skills or in such little things as our
level of English.
This is the 22nd year of BEST and, if we have anything
to do with it, only the beginning.
About BEST
We like to think that BEST is many different things: BEST is an independent international student organisation, not for profit and not political. We are from Europe. We are trying to do good. We are students, we do not work for money and would not have it any other way. We are far more than the sum of our 90 constituent groups and our work impacts students, companies and universities in 30 European countries.
Who and what is the Board of European Students of Technology?
BEST is about personal deve- lopment too, and not just for our students.
9Annual Report 2010/2011
The basis of our organisation is formed by our 90
Local BEST Groups spread in 30 European countries,
each one being present at exactly one technical
university. Each of these groups has its own local
board and local statutes, its own practices, traditions
and culture. Like pieces of a puzzle, each of
them has its own shape and place in BEST,
but the connection between all of them are
the common values of BEST which all of them
endorse as their own. The local groups organise
various local and international BEST activities for the
students. Also, they actively participate in steering
the organisation’s development by voting at general
meetings and the online voting system.
Structure of BEST
It is not hard to imagine that the communication
between 90 different groups could easily become
chaotic. With the aim to avoid that situation, BEST
has developed and is continuously refining its
international structure. A number of international
teams smoothen the communication between the
local groups and provide support to them in all
sorts of domains - from marketing to IT, from writing
grant applications to knowledge management. And
on a top-level, the work of international bodies is
coordinated by the management which consists of
the International Board and the Coordinators of the
six BEST Committees.
The International Board represents BEST in the
external world, facilitates the global development
of programmes and activities and always promotes
the values, aims and purpose of BEST. It consists of
President, Treasurer, Secretary, Vice-President for
External Services, Vice-President for Internal Support
and Vice-President for Local Group Support. The
Coordinators of the BEST Committees are aiding in
maintenance of the organisations essential activities:
Educational Involvement, Corporate Relations,
External Events, Trainings, Marketing and IT.
In practice, the communication is mainly done
through mailing lists. Some say even too many - a
couple of hundred mailing lists are active on a daily
basis - but are the driver for BEST members to practise
and perfect the skill of virtual communication.
Even more, BEST is proud to have its own intranet
system, developed by its members from scratch.
The intranet is used for archiving documents and
communication with the whole organisation (e.g.
via news for all BEST members) and much more.
10 Board of European Students of Technology
NUMBER OF MEMBERS
11Annual Report 2010/2011
Full MemberName President UniversityAalborg Sune Enevoldsen Aalborg University
Almada Ana Rita Nunes New University of Lisbon
Ankara Anil Sahin Middle East Technical University
Athens Athina PatsiaNational Technical University of
Athens
Barcelona Diana Cantó Technical University of Catalonia
Belgrade Stefan Karadzic University of Belgrade
Brasov Adelina Haulica “Transilvania” University of Brasov
Bratislava Miroslava Pindiakova Slovak University of Technology
Brno Hanka Bortlova Brno University of Technology
Brussels Jelle Smekens Free University of Brussels (VUB)
Brussels ULB Charlotte François University of Brussels (ULB)
Bucharest Horia Alexandru AndreiPOLITEHNICA
University of Bucharest
Budapest Zsófia MezeiBudapest University of
Technology and Economics
Chania Stefanos Konstantinidis Technical University of Crete
Chisnau Ciprian Placinta Technical University of Moldova
Cluj-Napoca Florin PopaTechnical University
of Cluj-Napoca
Coimbra Sandro Norim University of Coimbra
Copenhagen Lasse Korff Technical University of Denmark
Delft Warren Gebbett Delft University of Technology
Eindhoven Onur OkutmanEindhoven
University of Technology
Ekaterinburg Darya IvantsovaUrals State University of Railway
Transport
Ekaterinburg, UrFU Katya Reznik Ural Federal University
ENSAM Marie Pierré Arts et Métiers ParisTech
ENSTA ParisTech Pierre Amiot ENSTA ParisTech
Gdansk Piotr Skoracki Gdansk University of Technology
Ghent Gert Willems Ghent University
Gliwice Marek OlczykSilesian University of Technology
in Gliwice
Gothenburg Erik GallnebyChalmers
University of Technology
Graz Jakob Redlinger-Pohn Graz University of Technology
Grenoble Thomas Auzelle Grenoble Institute of Technology
Helsinki Ville Rimali Aalto University
Iasi Daniel Brunescu“Gheorghe Asachi” Technical
University of Iasi
Istanbul Gülçe Çiringel Istanbul Technical University
Istanbul, Yildiz Mert Öskan Yildiz Technical University
Kaunas Raminta Petrauskaitė Kaunas University of Technology
Kiev Alona ShamedkoNational Technical University of
Ukraine “Kyiv Polytechnic Institute”
Kosice Julia Dumbalova Technical University of Kosice
Kraków Łukasz JaromiAGH University of Science
and Technology
Leuven Jef Cambré Katholieke Universiteit Leuven
Liege Birsen Gülsu University of Liege
Lisbon Mário N’ZualoInstitute of Technology (IST),
Technical University of Lisbon (UTL)
Ljubljana Pierre Robert Stare University of Ljubljana
Lodz Adrian Karpiński Technical University of Lodz
Louvain-la-Neuve Georges Castin Catholic University of Louvain
Lund Johanna GuthLund University,
Faculty of Engineering
Lviv Sofiya KholyavkoLviv Polytechnic
National University
Lyon Scarlett Nalpas INSA Lyon
Madrid Isabel PinoPolytechnical
University of Madrid
Madrid Carlos IIIÁlvaro Monasterio
AlcázarCarlos III University of Madrid
Maribor Luka Gasperic University of Maribor
Milan Gabriel Poussif Politecnico di Milano
Moscov Nikita ZverevBauman Moscow
State Technical University
Nancy Pierre JollivetNational PolytechnicInstitute of Lorraine
Naples Giovanniluca De Vita University of Naples “Federico II”
Nis Milena Dostanic University of Nis
Novi SadJohn Milan
van der BerghUniversity of Novi Sad
Paris, Ecole Centrale
Angelos Cacouros Centrale Paris
Paris, Polytechnique
Amaury Dutilleul-Francoeur
Ecole Polytechnique
Patras Panos Sotiropoulos University of Patras
Porto João Fernandes University of Porto
ReykjavikSara Björk
SigurðardóttirUniversity of Iceland
RigaLasma
Bergmane- BehmaneRiga Technical University
Rome Paolo Giannandrea Sapienza University of Rome
Rome, Tor Vergata Emiliano Varriale University of Rome “Tor Vergata”
Saint Petersburg Ekaterina BalunovaSaint Petersburg State
Polytechnical University
Skopje Bojan NajdenovUniversity
“Ss. Cyril and Methodius”
Sofia Vicktoria Antonova Technical University of Sofia
StockholmChristophe
Van der KelenRoyal Institute of Technology
Supélec Taylor EdouardSupelec - Ecole Superieure
d’Electricite
Tallinn Märt Pakats Tallinn University of Technology
Tampere Lauri JuholaTampere University
of Technology
Thessaloniki George AndreadisAristotle University
of Thessaloniki
Timisoara Svetlana Ivana“Politehnica” University of
Timisoara
Trondheim Jarle Alexander MøllerNorwegian University of Science
and Technology
Turin Vincenzo Bruni Politechnic of Turin
Uppsala Henning Hammar Uppsala University
Valladolid Fernando Guerra University of Valladolid
Veszprém Anna Borbála Martos University of Pannonia
Vienna Harald Rupprechter Vienna University of Technology
Warsaw Paweł Kujawski Warsaw University of Technology
Zagreb Ana Habijanec University of Zagreb
Zaporizhzhya Yuliya ScorobogatayaZaporizhzhya
National Technical University
Baby MemberName President University
Aveiro Joana Fernandes University of Aveiro
Faro Algarve António Carvalho University of Algarve
Izmir Mert Özden Ege University
Messina Riccardo Zanghì University of Messina
Miskolc Márton Czene University of Miskolc
Prague Jaroslav MarekCzech Technical
University in Prague
Vinnytsia Oleg BondarVinnytsia National Technical
University
Wroclaw Agnieszka Sarlińska Wroclaw
University of Technology
Observer GroupName President University
Las PalmasJuan Lorenzo Alonso
AfonsoLas Palmas of Gran Canaria
University
Southampton Alexandru Puia University of Southampton
12 Board of European Students of Technology
It was a very good year...
The most important thing first: 2010/2011 was a very
good year for BEST. In BEST, many things happen
constantly. In one day, in one week, let alone in one
whole year. What you are reading comprises only the
most important developments for BEST as a whole -
we could not list all the developments in BEST, locally
and internationally, even if we’d tried.
The Key Performance Areas that we defined
for 2010/2011 were internal work optimisation,
strengthening BEST and increasing the impact of our
cooperation with external bodies. Looking back we
are sure in our decision to dedicate this year mostly
to internal improvements and external cooperations.
Since 2006, BEST has doubled in size, making growth
one of the constants of BEST. This year we had the
great pleasure to welcome our new Local BEST
Groups; Faro Algarve, Miskolc, Prague and Vinnytsia,
and 2 new Observer Groups; Las Palmas and
Southampton.
BEST has been growing in scope as well. SEFI[1]
(European Society for Engineering Education) and
BEST started cooperating for SEFI’s 1st Engineering
Education Flash Week[2]. BEST does not only provide
substantial contributions to the content of Flash Week,
such as case studies and training sessions, but is also
one of the main contributors of students for it. We are
proud to have been selected by SEFI for this project
and are very much looking forward to it. We are also
proud to have entered into a framework agreement
with the European Commission (EC) concerning a
3 year partnership. This and our cooperation with
SEFI shows us and Europe that our impact makes a
difference.
In addition to bonding and CFES, we are now also
cooperating with another student organisation,
AEGEE. We have already begun to enjoy its benefits,
for instance in the form of our joint training-week on
fundraising for both members of BEST and AEGEE.
Independent of our external success, we also
focused on internal changes as a response to new
challenges. After recognising that our constant
growth has potential issues, BEST members gathered
in Gothenburg to design a new membership system
which will take us safely through the 2020’s. Important
outcomes were the increase of the requirements
for the continued membership in BEST for current
groups and also drafting an improved support
system for them.
Another aspect of internal streamlining is the new
regional division of our groups, it will ensure more
sharing and diversity while maintaining a suitable
travel-distance. We look forward to the new dynamic
this step will bring to BEST.
Administrative changes alone are not enough to
keep us strong. Therefore we began evaluating our
working structures, bodies and our assumptions
about our work. This process will proceed next year
to ensure that we have time to look at all aspects of
BEST.
Continuing our strategy of cooperating closely with
other student NGOs we were proud to host the 2nd
edition of the BEST Trainers’ Forum[3], with more
than 80 trainers from 26 NGOs gathering to learn
from each other.
Connected to our effort to improve the quality of
our training system, we created a training strategy
designed to ensure that all of our groups get trained
with the needed quality. Our training system was
always a source of pride for us, and it will continue for
the foreseeable future.
We would like to thank all of our partners, students
and all our members. Without your support BEST
would not have come so far this year.
[1] www.sefi.be [2] www.wee2011.com [3] trainersforum.best.eu.org
13Annual Report 2010/2011
In the year of 2010, BEST trainers delivered a new
record of 3870 hours to our members, but still we
knew that we were not always the most efficient
when it came to planning ahead. It was hard for our
trainers and trainees to plan beforehand when they
would not always know which training opportunities
were yet to come.
What we wanted was a training strategy which
could utilise and direct the effort of our trainers in a
planned way, so that BEST could benefit even more
than it did with the mostly laissez-faire approach
to scheduling and resource allocation we had
previously.
In January 2011, members of the BEST Training
Group (TiGro) met in Nancy, France, to write a new
After thousands of trainer hours, we are still not satisfied!
chapter of the training system of BEST: A yearly training
plan for all of BEST (local training sessions excluded)
according to our strategic needs.
At the foremost, we designed the strategy to make
sure that the leaders of BEST would receive enough
training and at the right moments.
A very important goal of the BEST training strategy
is to ensure that knowledge management continues
to stay on par with our increasing size, therefore
having a longer lasting effect of each single training.
The table below provides an overview of the new
training strategy.
Training Strategy
JointBoard Training
Presidents’Meeting
MidtermBoard
Evaluations
RegionalMeetings
RegionalMeetings
TrainShopsbePROUD beRICHER
TrainShopsbeMORE beKNOWN
GeneralAssembly
Trainers’ Forum
LBG / Joint LBG Training LBG / Joint LBG Training
The new strategy will be implemented in 2011/2012.
[1] Joint Board Trainings where 2 or more boards of BEST Groups are trained together [2] The BEST Presidents Meeting gathers all the local presidents of BEST along with the international bodies of BEST [3] BEST features 4 TrainShops, each lasting about a week: beMORE (Human Resources), bePROUD (Leadership), beRICHER (Fundraising), beKNOWN (Marketing and PR) [4] Regional Meetings are preparatory meetings for the BEST Presidents Meeting and the BEST General Assembly, attended by 4-5 members of each BEST group [5] A Joint LBG Training gathers members of two or more BEST groups [6] Midterm Board Evaluations are often attended by trainers and offer a great opportunity to training sessions [7] General Assembly of BEST, gathering up to 300 BEST members [8] TRAP is the main Train-the-Trainer (TtT) event of BEST. inTRAP is a TRAP focusing on internationally involved members.
Board of European Students of Technology (BEST)
is a European association present in 30 countries.
However, with contacts being established with
universities from new countries where BEST is
not yet present and a team of so-called “coaches”
starting to spread their motivation and knowledge
about BEST, we have in the past year been trying to
increase this number. This is all a part of the current
Growth strategy.
The Growth Project has been in action for two years:
during the first year the goals of the project were
set, and the strong team that will fulfill these goals
was also created.
As a result, BEST is proud to have three new Observer
Groups, with one being from a new country. These
groups are:
• Observer Group Las Palmas from Gran
Canaria, Spain,
• Observer Group Southampton from England,
United Kingdom,
• Observer Group Vinnytsia, Ukraine.
As Observer Groups they still have a path to walk
in order to become full members of the association
and we wish all of them good luck and a lot of BEST
Spirit for taking these challenges.
The Growth Project
It is said that money is not everything, but everything
needs money. And this is true also in our non-profit
organisation. To fulfill our vision of empowering
diversity and bringing complementary education,
career support and intercultural cooperation to our
students and to ensure the sustainability of BEST,
we need to organise many internal and external
events and run several projects, which cost money.
Every LBG has their own accounts and finances,
which are needed to run local projects, and we
have also a common account of BEST. This money
is needed to manage the organisation and IT tools,
produce marketing materials, help local groups with
Financial Report
14 Board of European Students of Technology
organising larger events and enable BEST members
to travel.
Most of the incomes come from industrial partners,
but we also try to seek grants and university partners.
To support these activities, the Financial Team, the
Grants Working Group and BEST University Centre
were created. At this moment, BEST has three
Corporate Partners: Procter & Gamble and Bekaert.
Other revenue sources are represented mostly by
career support partners, project partners, university
partners, other supporters and bank account
interests.
Revenues
Corporate Partners 22 000,00 15,97 %
Career Support Partners 42 000,00 30,48 %
Supporters 11 000,00 7,98 %
Project Partners 7 500,00 5,44 %
Partner Universities 2 500,00 1,81 %
Statutory Meeting Partners 43 400,00 31,49 %
EBEC Partners 7 000,00 5,08 %
Other 2 400,00 1,78 %
Total 137,800,00 100,00 %
Expenses
Internal Communication 40 979,00 32,74 %
External Relations 6 487,00 5,18 %
Administration 3 135,00 2,50 %
Public Relations 6 346,00 5,07 %
Statutory Meetings and EBEC 52 300,00 41,79 %
Support for organising working (“inter-nal”) events 10 260,00 8,20 %
Training 4 135,00 3,3 %
Unexpected Expenses 1 512,00 1,21 %
Total 125 154,00 100,00 %
To manage the organisation and keep it sustainable,
money is used on international management,
international teams and internal training, coordination
of educational events and competitions. Another
important area is the promotion of BEST and
relations with the external world, so we need to
cover production and distribution of marketing
materials for external relations and company visits.
Considering the status of revenues and expenses,
we can conclude that our organisation is in a good
financial position. The status and details of finances
can be followed and checked by each member in
the accounting tool available in Private Area, our
intranet.
15Annual Report 2010/2011
17Annual Report 2010/2011
The number of Local BEST Groups (LBGs) and thus
the number of members is constantly growing.
A BEST member needs to acquire and develop useful
skills in order to be effective and successful in the
organisation as well as in a future profession.
One of committees of BEST, Training Group (TiGro),
is a body used for such development. Its mission is
to provide coordination between the needs of LBGs
for training sessions and the trainers who are able to
deliver them.
The structure of Trainers’ Community comprises two
elements:
• Trainers’ Community itself. It is represented
by over 310 trainers delivering trainings who are
simultaneously BEST members. They mutually
share their knowledge, materials, as well as sup-
port each other.
• Training Group members. 42 members of BEST
provide coordination of training to BEST mem-
bers in order to ensure they contribute to the as-
sociation and develop useful skills for their future
profession.
The Training System is aimed in several directions:
• Strengthening TiGro. To consolidate and coor-
dinate the System and to ensure the conformity
of generations, TiGro is developing a member-
ship system, monitors new members, involves
them in the active work and creates a database
of materials which facilitates the exchange of
knowledge.
• Strengthening the Trainers’ Community.
Each trainer is extremely valuable. In order to
ensure trainers’ active participation in training, a
new mentoring system was introduced for bet-
ter support and motivation. TiGro provides them
with materials, training opportunities, assistance
in traveling refunds and a sharing platform.
• Training delivery. TiGro is constantly working
on ways to improve delivery.
• Training Strategy. It structures training sessions
and delivery techniques.
• Preparation of Train the Trainer events where
new trainers are brought. In November 2010
TiGro initiated working events called Trainer’s
Meeting, which aim to evaluate and develop
such events.
• Quality projects. They are aimed at gathering
new knowledge, evaluating current trainings
and developing new ones.
• Knowledge Management. Being a separate
project, KM ensures sharing of experience, skills
and information within BEST.
• PR project. It promotes training services to local
BEST groups.
• Training Database. It provides statistics, in-
cludes “a call for trainer” tool and registration for
trainings.
• External Relations. TiGro is improving its Exter-
nal Relations in the field of training to gain new
knowledge, techniques of training and opportu-
nities for BEST trainers to broaden their horizons.
The results of the effective BEST Training Strategy are
as follows:
• BEST members acquire knowledge about BEST.
• BEST members are trained in basic soft and tech-
nical skills (FR, PR, HR).
• Leaders of BEST are trained properly.
• Project teams of LBGs are trained to perform ef-
fectively.
• Knowledge Management and Knowledge Trans-
fer work properly in LBGs.
In one year (July 2010 – June 2011) TiGro involved 127
active trainers who delivered 852 training sessions
lasting in total 2.788 hours. Impressive, isn’t it? And
there is still great potential for development!
Training System in BEST
18 Board of European Students of Technology
What is the key to success? It is the people -
motivated people with vision, because the vision is
an engine, which makes us go forward. And that
is BEST – students with a vision of empowered
diversity in multicultural Europe, where people
understand and respect other cultures and are
able to work on an international basis, to use
their full potential, act responsibly, to be open
to new things, to care for the people, to gain
news skills, to strive to improve in everything
they do and last but not least: enjoy everything
they do. To achieve these goals, we provide
students from all our 90 universities in 30 countries
an opportunity to participate in our academic and
non-academic events, engineering competitions
and educational symposia. We provide them
complementary education, career support and
increase their educational involvement.
However, only a working
and well organised
student network can
provide these high-
quality services for the
students. To ensure this,
we have many
tools.
Organising internal events is one of them. Internal
events help the organisation to work on a high-
quality level and also gives the people a chance
to get motivated and to improve their skills. The
number of internal events we organise increases
linearly with the number of local BEST groups in
order to sustain the organisation. This year we
organised around 70 Internal Events.
Having skilled members is needed to sustain
the organisation. That is why we organised nine
TrainShops and trainer camps on various skills such
as Public Relations, Human Resources, Fundraising,
leadership, project management and also delivering
training sessions themselves. All the participants are
now ready to use their skills working for BEST.
We have a great variety of working meetings for the
international bodies. We had four board meetings
and 18 committee meetings including Trainers‘
Forum and International Project Forum. These are
needed to help to maintain and develop BEST in an
indirect way, e.g. by further developing the way the
organisation works, improving inner communication,
gaining resources, thinking of new services,
improving the training system and IT support,
finding more possibilities on how to bring students,
universities and companies together, trying to
improve cooperation with companies and
providing better career support for students.
19Annual Report 2010/2011
Mostly it begins with local ones in their local groups,
then they can work on international projects,
workshops, join an international team, committee
or become part of another body of BEST. This
international work is very important to ensure
sustainability of the organisation and good quality of
our activities. Most of this work and communication
is done virtually, using e-mails or other sophisticated
communication channels.
However, once a year comes an event, which
gives the people working in international bodies
an opportunity to meet, discuss, to build stronger
personal connection and also to see customs of the
hosting country. This event is called the International
Projects‘ Forum (IPF) and it gives the participants the
crucial boost for their work in a very motivational
atmosphere, which is also important because
motivation gives us a reason to do our best and to
achieve great outcomes.
International Projects’ Forum 2011
BEST members may face many challenges. More than 70 participants including board members,
members of the committees, regional advisors,
knowledge management working group members
and people involved in the EBEC (European BEST
Engineering Competiton, final round) project
worked on top-level issues of the organisation. In
February, they gathered in Tallinn, Estonia to focus on
common projects, issues of the whole organisation,
attend strategical sessions and received training.
We got valuable outcomes on the regional division,
BEST University Centre, online competitions, annual
report content and goals, features and tools on our
intranet, (such as databases for training sessions),
fundraising, media relations, application systems
and many other topics. There were so many of
them, that making a schedule for all the participants
became a complex mathematical problem, but
nothing which an engineer could not cope with.
However, the hard work and preparation paid off as
IPF brought us many useful results.
In 2010/2011 we had ten of them, including Growth
and Grants meetings and meetings concerning the
European BEST Engineering competition (EBEC). As
we are growing all the time and on the last General
Assembly in Belgrade we reached the number of 90
groups, the growth topic has become very relevant.
We had more meetings regarding the final round of
EBEC and national or regional rounds as the project
becomes more and more prestigious and a big
challenge to organise. Since the number of local
groups increases, also the number of participants is
bigger. The same rule applies also to the organsing of
General Meetings, which is even more challenging.
To prepare the delegates for them and also to
discuss the problems, share experiences, get more
knowledge and get to know the BEST members
from the region we organised 19 regional meetings
including a Regional Advisors meeting. Regions
were also one of the hot topics of this year, as we
tried to find the best division.
We also have Workshops where the hot topics are
discussed and every interested BEST member can
apply. Putting together fresh and more experienced
members, we create valuable outcomes. In 2010/2011
we had two of them, one about membership and
another about the identity of BEST.
We also can not forget our alumni, who did a lot for
our organisation, but have had to move on in their
lives. However, they did not forget BEST and they
met two times on alumni meetings.
Thus we can conclude that we did lot of hard work
this year, let’s hope it will be even more next year.
We also work on diverse proj-ects to improve the organisation in an indirect way, so the project meetings are needed.
During the past year we tried to build further on
the cooperation with BEST and transform it into a
sustainable relationship. We chose to look at BEST
as a partner and not as a recruiting tool - this is why
we decided to be more involved and to follow-up
the evolution of the organisation and its members
closely.
Among the several BEST events we have joined, the
one that stood out was the International Project’s
Forum in Estonia in February 2011. We chose to go
for a special approach of taking one of our well-
established methodologies that could also benefit
students in their organisation management roles
in BEST, but also in their future career. We took
our internal Decision Making process, generalised
it and transformed it into a 2.5 hours training and
workshop. The result was an eye-opening session
for both P&G and BEST: the students were keen
on understanding and relating what our company
does to their own experience, we were interested to
listen to new ideas and feedback. All in all, we were
happy to be able to bring external knowledge to
the organisation and get a fresh view on how we
do things.
The good fit between the BEST profile and what
we are looking for in P&G has been confirmed
once more: BEST members work in an
international and multi-cultural environment,
they are very advanced in virtual work, they
have a technical background and a high level of
soft-skills and they prove strong leadership and
ownership.
Because of the close cooperation with BEST we
were able to fill our ad-hoc openings in a timely and
qualitative manner in 2010-2011 and we count on
the same success rate in the future!
We are looking forward to continuing to build this
strong connection and to welcoming more BEST
members and students of technology into the P&G
world!
The BEST Campus Team
Procter & Gamble
P&G Testimonial from International Projects’ Forum
20 Board of European Students of Technology
21Annual Report 2010/2011
Presidents‘ Meeting in KrakowThe XVI Presidents’ Meeting (PM) took place be-
tween 11th and 17th November 2010 in Krakow and
Limanowa, Poland. The schedule contained presen-
tations, discussion groups and training sessions.
On the first day all the participants attended the of-
ficial opening, which was held at the AGH-University
of Science and Technology. The Official Opening
Day consisted of company presentations, VIP pres-
entations, a job fair and workshops in small groups.
The Workshops were held by ING, P&G, Professor
Erik de Graaff (SEFI) and international bodies of BEST:
the Educational Committee, External Events Com-
mittee and Training Group. Although the resources
were limited, the organisers never lost heart. They
were following the slogan of the event – ‘If you can
dream it, you can do it.’ – and they did their BEST to
solve every problem always full of enthusiasm.
The sessions in the following plenary days were
divided in a few logical blocks: International
Management, Projects, Proposals, Membership,
External Relations, LBG Show, Let’s Talk About BEST,
General Meeting organisers and Speaker’s Corner.
The hot topics of the event were regional division
strategy, educational involvement, identity of BEST,
country categories and external relations in BEST.
We voted upon proposals and also changed the
membership status of some groups.
General Assembly in BelgradeThe XXIX BEST General Assembly (GA) took place
between 14th and 22nd April 2011 in Belgrade and
General Meetings
Tony Robbins said that it’s our decisions, and not our conditions, that determine our destiny. As this is
very true, decision-making bodies are the essential part of each organisation. We also know that and that
is why we organise two General Meetings every year. The events are the Presidents’ Meeting in autumn
and the General Assembly in spring. The representatives of all the Local BEST groups, Observer Groups and
international teams gather to introduce the results, evaluate the work, discuss the issues, decide the future
of BEST and last, but not least, to socialise with people they might know from prior virtual communication.
During the General Assembly the new international board is also elected.
Kladovo, Serbia. Two delegates from each local
group and representatives of observer groups,
project teams and international bodies met ‘With
passion for technology at the crossroads of Europe’,
as the slogan of the event said.
On the first day all the participants attended the
official opening of the General Assembly which
was held in the Student Cultural Centre and Youth
Centre. Seven international partner companies were
present at the event, in order to meet BEST members
as their potential future employers at the job fair,
workshops or reach them through presentations.
Participants could choose from three company
workshops, a workshop from SEFI (European Society
for Engineering Education) and seven different
training sessions. Everything was organised in a very
professional way. The participants appreciated the
suprise of Tunak Tunak Tun (a typical song for our
organisation with a special dance) playing in a square
in Belgrade while BEST members were passing.
The plenary days of GA took place in Kladovo. There
was time dedicated to represent the progress in
international projects such as Flash Week, Training
Strategy, EBEC (European BEST Engineering
Competition, final round), BEST University Centre,
Growth, BEST Image, NGOs and other hot topics were
discussed including the Membership Evaluation
Workshop and regional division. We shared a lot
using Open Space Technology, elected the GA 2012
host and the next international management, as
well as changed the status of a few Local Groups.
After the event we had 90 LBGs in 30 countries.
22 Board of European Students of Technology
The turnover of generations is an ongoing process
in such an organisation as BEST. People come and
go and keep being active for a quite short period
of time.
For this reason knowledge management (KM) and
knowledge transfer (KT) are two of the building
blocks in BEST that ensure sharing of experience,
skills and information between its members.
Going from a new to an experienced member re-
quires knowledge about structure, procedures, tra-
ditions and the spirit of BEST, as well as knowledge
on how to make successful projects. KM and KT are
the foundations for passing the necessary informa-
tion to members. The international body of BEST
that deals with this area is called Knowledge Group.
The Knowledge Group is aimed at organising all
knowledge and materials that BEST has accumulated
since its foundation. As BEST grows constantly and
welcome new Local BEST Groups annually, effective
Alumni are former members of BEST holding valu-
able experience and knowledge about the organi-
sation, attached to BEST spirit and traditions. BEST
Alumni Network (AlumniNET) brings together thou-
sands of alumni from LBGs. It is a way to keep alumni
together, involved in and informed about BEST.
The goal of it is to enable mutually beneficial
cooperation within the alumni community and
between alumni and active BEST members. This
cooperation is aimed at exchange of experience
and knowledge, establishment partnerships and
development of business relations between current
and former BEST members.
For the accomplishment of these goals certain actions
are initiated by AlumniNET. In November 2010 in
Poland and in April 2011 in Serbia, Alumni meetings
were organised with around 20 participants in each.
Knowledge Management in BEST
knowledge management contributes to maintaining
the unity of BEST.
Knowledge Group works in close cooperation with
Training Group (TiGro). Together they are helping
Local BEST Groups to have efficient knowledge-
transfers and management and to carry out suc-
cessful training sessions on those topics. There have
been many steps towards this point. One example
is the Knowledge Management Workshop that was
first done during spring Regional Meetings last year.
Another larger project of Knowledge Group is the
archive of Local BEST Group materials. It includes
the Local BEST Group handbook that provides an
overview of the structure and practices of BEST and
explains how to establish and become a Local BEST
Group.
There is still a world to discover on this topic and
Knowledge Group definitely has a great potential.
BEST Alumni NetworkBesides AlumniNET is working on the establishment
of the Entrepreneurship Working Group (EWG). The
Group will support alumni initiatives to start up their
own businesses and share valuable experience.
The first step is the Alumni Business Camp in Berlin
(70 - 100 participants).
The establishment of the EWG is expected to lay
the base for development of new independent
working groups in various professional areas,
gathering alumni with similar interests thus boosting
cooperation among them, external organisations,
companies and experts from the academic and
industrial worlds.
And there is always place for a casual conversation!
AlumniNET is also promoting friendly and informal
meetings between alumni and current BEST
members.
24 Board of European Students of Technology
Since 1991, courses have been one of the main
activities of BEST in the field of complementary
education. This year BEST celebrates its 20th year of
organising courses with high academic standards
for students from all over Europe. These courses
represent our mission: developing students and
helping them in becoming internationally minded.
In addition, BEST courses give the opportunity to
work together with other students and getting in
touch with other cultures and traditions.
The BEST courses are taught by university lecturers
or by experts from companies. The academic part is
accompanied by company visits, practical sessions,
case studies, etc. The courses are aimed at providing
new knowledge or skills for the participants. Two
types of BEST courses exist, the BEST Courses on
Technology, for increasing the knowledge in a
specific field of technology and BEST Courses on
Career related skills, where the aim is developing
personal skills.
Though only from 1998 non-Summer Courses were
also organised and only from 2007 onwards, BEST
had four seasonal courses each year! BEST has had
a steady growth in number of courses since 1998.
Since 2008, there are more than 90 academic
courses each year. Thanks to the great efforts of our
90 local BEST groups, in average each local BEST
group organises more than 1 course per year!
Since 1992, there have been more than 56 000
students who applied for one or more BEST courses.
About 18 500 (33.2%) of them have been accepted
one or more times for a course. The total number of
applicants is now reaching more than 10 000 a year,
with more than 17 500 applications per year!
In BEST, it is not only the organisation of these BEST
courses, but also the recognition of the courses that
is getting important. Recognition can be achieved
in several ways. First of all, all local BEST groups are
encouraged in making the academic materials of our
courses public. In this way, not only students who
attended the course can access the materials, but
also other students who did not participate in the
course and are interested in the topic, university and
the companies can access the course documents
as well. Making the course documents available to
everyone should start during the Summer Courses
of this year!
Seasonal Events and Recognition
Since BEST started organising seasonal courses, there have been more than 1 200 courses!
Engineering competitions have been an integral
part of the services offered by BEST, both locally and
internationally, since 2003. Since their conception,
the popularity and diversity of organised
competitions have increased dramatically year by
year. To date, more than 80 Local BEST Engineering
Competitions (LBECs) are held on an annual basis
giving the opportunity for students, from technical
backgrounds, to challenge and prove themselves. In
doing this, participants are given the chance to put
their abilities and knowledge towards endeavours
outside those in the lecture room and to improve
upon their soft skills such as communication and
creativity. It is our aim to encourage educational
institutes to support these events to complement
traditional education.
BEST aims to encourage self-development and the
BEST Engineering Competitionspromotion of engineering amongst engineering
students in addition to working closely with its
stakeholders; namely universities and companies.
Towards these objectives, a basic structure common
to all competitions within BEST has been established;
the Case Study and the Team Design. In the Case
Study format, competitors are challenged to provide
a conceptual solution to a given problem, whilst for
the Team Design a working prototype is the main
deliverable.
Despite their common underlying format, BEST
engineering competitions have evolved to become
opportunities for the wide range of varying
stakeholders related to BEST, not only university
students. One example of an innovative adaption is
the competition format currently adopted by Local
BEST Group Ghent. Here they have a symbiotic
25Annual Report 2010/2011
NUMBER OF APPLICANTS2005
TOTAL: 74902011
TOTAL: 97372010
TOTAL: 96892000
TOTAL: 3873
TYPES OF EXTERNAL EVENTS
75Engineering
Competitions
Symposiumon Education
Courses on Career Related Skills
Leisure events
PartnerOrganisation
EventsOtherEvents
Courseson Technology
relationship with their university where they run
their competitions concurrently with a competition
for local high school students. The benefits for the
Local BEST Group are clear; it self-promotes itself
to potential new students whilst maintaining an
excellent relationship with the university. Likewise,
the university is able to promote itself to engineers
of the future.
An example on the other end of the spectrum is the
new format to be employed during local BEST group
Tallinn’s next LBEC. In their ambitious competition
structure they have two rounds, of which the first
rounds consist of eight different Case Studies. These
range from traditional engineering specialisations
such as mechanics and construction, to newer fields
like informatics and power, to more generic fields,
for example; marketing and finance. This format
has the advantage of being more attractive to
companies, of which local BEST group Tallinn has
had much success with examples of Case Study
solutions being implemented by satisfied partners.
No doubt the greater selection of Case Studies is
also appealing to the students. The second round
then sees the winners of the eight respective first
round Case Studies take on a more general Case
Study and a Team Design. The end result is a better
relationship with local companies and higher quality
competitors due to a pooling from a wider selection
of students.
In line with BEST’s vision of empowered diversity
and our mission towards developing students
and creating an international mentality, a large
contribution in reaching this goal has been from
the consolidation of all the LBECs into a larger, more
international event now known as EBEC (European
BEST Engineering Competition) in 2008. By using
BEST’s expertise in organising large events such as
General Meetings with the student orientated focus
found in BEST courses, EBEC was the next logical
step. This augmented service now provides an
international stage for the best and brightest
engineers from all over Europe to showcase
their skills and to gain recognition in addition
to understanding and learning from new and
different cultures.
Since then, two editions of EBEC have taken place (in
Ghent, Belgium and Cluj-Napoca, Romania) and the
third edition took place this year in Istanbul, Turkey.
To exemplify the size to which EBEC is currently
at, the second edition of EBEC saw 104 finalists
competing over six days in what was a ten day event.
With broadcasts over six TV channels, three front
page newspaper articles and almost 200 references
over 89 websites, the event was widely publicised
on an international scale.
26 Board of European Students of Technology
27Annual Report 2010/2011
True to the EBEC motto: ‘Design the future. Today!’,
EBEC aims to make this a reality. As a large European-
wide project with support of many of the better-,
and lesser- known educational institutes; companies;
engineering institutes, including SEFI (European
Society for Engineering Education); and the IGO,
UNEP (United Nations Environment Programme); we
believe that combined with our fresh perspective
on problems and large potential, we can change our
future for the better. This is why we constantly strive
to involve more of our stakeholders throughout the
whole EBEC structure; right from the base with the
Local BEST Engineering Competitions to the EBEC
finals.
However, before participants can go to the EBEC
finals, they must first prove themselves at each of
the stages of EBEC. The first stage, the Local BEST
Engineering Competitions, are held by each and
every Local BEST Group. Although all Local BEST
Engineering Competitions use the format of a
Team Design or Case Study, or a combination, their
exact nature vary widely; from a single day event
to one over several days including Case Studies
and a 24 hour Team Design. Through these local
competitions, students and universities are shown
the merits of applying theory to practice and
relationships with local companies are enforced.
During the second edition of EBEC in 2010, BEST saw
71 Local BEST Engineering Competitions involving
more than 5 000 students.
During the second stage, known as the National
or Regional BEST Engineering Competitions,
the winners of the local rounds compete on a
national or even international level to reach the
EBEC finals. The competitions at this level are more
homogeneous with a combination of both a Team
Design and Case Study resulting in a winning
team for each competition format. From the 5 000
students competing at the Local BEST Engineering
Competitions, only 600 made it to the 13 National
or Regional BEST Engineering Competitions, from
which 104 made it to Cluj-Napoca.
The final stage sees a similar structure as above,
albeit for one difference; finalist teams only
participate in the competition category won earlier.
This allows the best teams from Europe to compete
at the highest possible level. The second edition
of EBEC saw a number of prestigious multinational
organisations and corporations backing the Team
Designs and Case Studies with support from the
European Commission and local municipality.
European BEST Engineering Competition Project
A particularly original format that is gaining
popularity for Local BEST Engineering Competitions
is one first devised by Local BEST Group Porto in
2009: the 24-hour competition. The concept is
simple: teams have exactly one day and one
night to tackle a problem and return with
the deliverables. In this manner competitors
experience a more realistic format reflecting the
nature of engineering projects in industry and
emphasis is placed on the development of soft skills
such as team management and dedication.
As a local BEST group that has organised no less
than six LBECs, of which three have taken the 24-
hour format, Local BEST Group Vienna has had
much experience with this sort of competitions.
After hearing about the success local BEST group
Porto had with this format and its popularity with
students, Local BEST Group Vienna ran its first 24-
hour competition. For them, the main appeal from
this format was the attractiveness this format had
for students; not only was the concept of working
24 hours straight challenging, it also meant that
students would lose less study time compared to
the traditional two or three
day event. Since then, the net result of using such
a format has been less resources required from
the local BEST group, both in promotion and in
organising the event itself. Furthermore, over the
three 24-hour competitions, local BEST group
Vienna has learnt to increase its visibility during the
final presentations; mostly in aspects of timing and
location. For example during the competition in
2010, the whole event took place in the main hall of
TU Vienna. This has made it easier to promote their
services throughout the university.
On the corporate side, local BEST group Vienna
has also enjoyed better collaborations and interest
from industry. As for students, a one day event is
more attractive and effective for companies than
a multi-day event and so fundraising has become
easier. In addition the popularity of the events
and the increase in visibility has done nothing
but to increase the attractiveness of Local BEST
Engineering Competitions sponsorship. No doubt
the relationships between industry and students are
more intimate over 24 hour intensive competitions
then through other formats.
24-hour Competitions
28 Board of European Students of Technology
It is called a full circle. The core activity of BEST is
providing complementary education to students of
technical universities. This core activity is ensured
with technical courses, organised by every Local BEST
Group at least once per year. Most of the courses are
supported by companies, who are interested in the
same field as the course’s topic. Companies strive to
search and employ students, who seem to spend
their free time educating and improving themselves
through extracurricular work. These students are
searching for something university cannot give
them. Applying for a BEST course is then an option.
BEST tends to cooperate with companies in a
longterm perspective. Very often a cooperation on
an event becomes a cooperation lasting for several
years. BEST generated a virtual platform called
BEST Career Support, which helps students and
companies come closer together and find a suitable
fit. Another way of bringing students together with
companies are our career related events. Our JobFairs
are events, where students can meet company
representatives and talk about the company culture
and job possibilities. BEST also arranges company
presentations, visits and other events. The easiest
way to get the overview and apply to participate in
such an event is to simply go to our official website
and choose a suitable event according to type or
location.
Many graduates found their current job thanks to
some of our career events. Every participant can
directly influence the image of the company they
represent, because students can actually see and
talk about the work every company actually does.
Also, being in contact with your possible future
employees is a great benefit these events bring.
29Annual Report 2010/2011
BEST is connecting students and companies. As
a student organisation, we see the exact needs of
students and we try to match those needs with
those of our partners. We help students increase
their chances of developing their careers as well as
we help companies to find the talents they need.
One of the tools we use for this connection is BEST
Career Support.
We create cross-European connections, which bring
diversity, benefits and generates development.
Information from BCS can be accessed directly by
all interested parties, making BCS a very effective
tool for students to find their dream job and for
companies to find a perfect fit.
BEST Career Support
The students can simply create an account and
fill in their curriculum vitae online. This service has
become very popular among students who are in
search for a career opportunity. Our CV database
is becoming larger on a daily basis, approaching
20 000 CVs from students and graduates. All the CVs
can be browsed easily with the help of very detailed
search options, which makes the system very
efficient for companies to find the candidates who
meet their requirements. Through BCS, students
can also receive a regular newsletter, informing
about the latest internships, job offers and special
programmes. The selection criteria are also added
here; students can see the offers that match their
requirements and wishes.
All job offers, internships and programmes can
also be posted on the external web page in our
career section, leaving it accessible by all students
who browse our website. In this way, students can
experience the advantages of BCS and then register
for the full service.
30 Board of European Students of Technology
BEST Career Support is a virtual platform which connects students of engineering and technology with our partner companies.
Career events are the BEST way to connect students
and companies. Obviously, the direct contact
between students and company representatives
brings the ultimate glimpse of the company world.
We can divide career events into three main
categories. There are the official Opening Days of our
General Meetings, Closing Days of our BEST
Engineering Competitions and there are local career
events. All events are listed on our official website,
sorted according to the categories. Students can
choose to attend company presentations, Case
Studies, Jobfairs, Round Tables and other career
events like training sessions or seminars. We invite
our partners to official openings of our largest
events, where they have the chance to access
our network and promote their image among
students. The Closing Day of the European final of
Career Events
the BEST Engineering Competitions is a place where
companies, media and the brightest students of
technology meet all together. The companies
and media welcome the solutions invented by
the students and equally the students enjoy the
presence and attention given to them from the
company representatives and media.
The biggest advantage of our career events is that
they are so easy to attend. All interested parties can
simply go to our website, to the section of career
events and apply.
With a number of career events reaching one
hundred per year, students and companies have
endless possibilities to meet and find a perfect
career or employee. Join us today and become
one of our satisfied partners.
31Annual Report 2010/2011
Testimonial from BekaertBekaert continuously searches for young engineers
from all over the world. Since BEST is an international
organisation targeting engineering students from all
over Europe, it is a valuable partner for us. Our co-
operation started in 2006 and today a fair number of
our employees are former BEST members.
Bekaert is a global technological and market leader in
advanced solutions based on metal transformation
and coatings, and the world’s largest independent
manufacturer of drawn steel wire products.
Bekaert is a global company with headquarters in
Belgium, employing 28 000 people worldwide.
Serving customers in 120 countries, Bekaert pursues
sustainable profitable growth in all its activities and
generated combined sales of € 4.5 billion in 2010.
The objective of BEST is to provide communication,
co-operation and exchange possibilities for
students all over Europe and to help them become
more internationally minded, by reaching a better
understanding of diverse cultures and developing
capacities to work on an international basis.
We acknowledge and can relate to the ambitions
of BEST. Our main field of cooperation is through
recruitment events, company presentations and
career newsletters. We send advice newsletters
through BEST, for example “How to prepare for
your first interview?”. With these tools we try to
broaden the scope of young graduates towards
doing business in an international context. BEST
and Bekaert have built up a strong relationship
throughout the years which results in a win-win
situation for both BEST and Bekaert. It’s another
proof of our baseline better together.
31
BEST has no limits when it comes to offering the
students and companies the opportunities to meet
each other, offering them the best environment to
discuss future career opportunities.
Since the needs of the companies, e.g. annual
partners, are not only to recruit students or recent
graduates from international events like General
Meetings which they may support, BEST tries to
facilitate the cooperation between annual partners
and Local BEST Groups all over Europe. Sometimes
these companies are also interested in other ways of
recruiting new people, they want to know what the
Local BEST Groups are doing, they want to participate
in local events, especially local career events, and be in
contact with local students. Therefore, BEST gives the
companies the possibilities to come in contact with
local BEST groups regarding local events in specific
countries, cities and/or universities.
A tool is available for Local BEST Groups to announce
any kind of local career event like job fairs or other event,
such as company presentations, BEST courses, etc. In
this way, these events can be promoted to companies,
which facilitates the contact between the companies
and local BEST groups to form a new partnership in
order to reach the companies’ expectations.
Schlumberger is one of those companies which
took this opportunity by seeing the different
advantages for the company. Schlumberger set up
quite some local partnerships with different Local
BEST Groups around Europe, such as
• a job fair organised by Local BEST Group Kraków in
Poland in March 2011 (at the AGH-UST - University
of Science and Technology),
• a job fair organised by Local BEST Group Ankara in
Turkey in March 2011 (at the Middle East Technical
University),
• a Local BEST Engineering Competition organised
by Local BEST Group Istanbul in Turkey in March
2011 (at the Istanbul Technical University),
• the Schlumberger Careers Day organised by local
BEST group Bucharest in Romania in May 2011 (at
the University POLITEHNICA of Bucharest). This
was a three day recruitment event dedicated to
Schlumberger.
This is just a part of the beginning of the cooperation
between Schlumberger, BEST and the local
partnerships. The company is eager to continue
the partnership with BEST and participating in
similar events in the future. Some of these events
are already planned for the near future. In this way,
Schlumberger and other companies, can combine the
benefits from the international promotion offered by
the annual partnership through Career Newsletters,
promotion on www.BEST.eu.org and internal events,
with the benefits of the local promotion during local
career events in their target countries and universities.
Local cooperation
32 Board of European Students of Technology
It creates a platform, in order to raise the awareness
of students on educational matters and to provide
impartial student input to the stakeholders of
European Engineering Education (EEE). The need
for this service comes from the current low level
of unbias student input in the field and the
rapid development of the previous years in the
engineering education.
How does BEST Educational Involvement work in
reality? EEE is comprised by many specific academic
topics, such as curricula development, e-learning,
active learning, recognition and accreditation,
lifelong learning, student mobility, research in
EEE, women in EEE, etc. The BEST Educational
Programme is implementing the whole platform
for BEST Educational Involvement. Information
on educational issues is brought to students
and their input is provided to stakeholders
working on them, at the same time. Student input
is gathered during the Events on Education and via
surveys in BEST. The Educational Committee of BEST
(EduCo) is currently offering more possibilities on
Events on Education, starting with the traditional
Symposia and BACo Forums (BEST, Academics
and Companies Forums). Furthermore, EduCo is
involved in educational matters for the sake of the
delivery of this input to the various stakeholders.
This involvement includes the participation and
work in European Thematic Networks and Projects
and cooperation with associations involved in EEE.
It also includes representing BEST in conferences
and seminars related to Engineering Education.
Furthermore, EduCo supports BEST projects that
are related to academic matters, such as recognition
and BEST University Centre, and is the team capable
of helping Local BEST Groups when they need
assistance to improve their Public Relations with
their host university.
BEST Educational Involvement is a service that BEST currently offers to students all over the Europe.
34 Board of European Students of Technology
The 1st World Engineering Education Flash Week,
organised by BEST, SEFI and ISEL (Instituto Superior de
Engenharia de Lisboa), took place in Lisbon, Portugal
between 26th September and 4th October 2011. This
event is notable for its new and unique concept of
gathering 300 professors and 300 students, pairing
them up in teams and solving various case studies
within topics of interest in engineering education.
The professors and the students are working
together and they can get to know each other and
the city whilst discussing a problem.
Flash Week has an interesting aim and role in the
history of the events on education - to deconstruct
pre-made groups, to deconstruct the concept of
conferences, to have the people in the centre of the
event, to support the interaction of knowledge and
people regardless their origin or job position, as a
mean to empower diversity. It gathers experts from
various European organisations, BEST being one of
the key elements of the event because of its role.
BEST has been involved in promoting the event to
students, in developing the social programme for
the participants, delivering training sessions and
organising small engineering competitions.
The event serves as an umbrella for several other
events organised by different organisations during
that week, so it represents a great opportunity for
BEST to increase its visibility and the recognition
of our organisation in the world of engineering
education.
1st World Engineering Education Flash Week
35Annual Report 2010/2011
36 Board of European Students of Technology
Apart from BEST Courses and Engineering
Competitions, BEST also organises Events on
Education as one of the faces of the external BEST.
Traditionally, these are seminars that last 6 days and
are focused on evaluating and finding new paths
for higher engineering education in Europe.
Hereby students can gain or share knowledge on the
specific engineering topic in the field of education.
Two types of the Events on Education can be held, -
BACo and Symposium on Education.
BEST Academics and Companies Forum – BACo,
where students from all over Europe together
with university representatives and companies are
gathered to discuss a certain topic in the field of
engineering education. They exchange opinions,
share experiences, offer suggestions and find
solutions to common issues. Local BEST Group in Sofia
was lucky to organise the event entitled “University is
not enough? Cross the bridge to real world!”. During
this event students had the chance to know the
actual situation in Europe for all the problems that
affect the transition from the University to the first
job experience. During working sessions, each group
was given valuable input by one of the professors
and a representative from StartPro, Mr. William Lis.
The topics vary on different educational issues: the
topics of this event were Lifelong Learning, Women
in Engineering and Transition from studies to your
first job. The outcomes of the working groups were
sent to StartPro and were used in other occasions,
so that students’ input contributed to the overall
quality of engineering studies in Europe.
BEST Symposium on Education – BSoE’s are
events where students and representatives of the
universities are discovering new issues and solutions
in the engineering education. The topics vary on
different educational issues: they can be proposed
by the Educational Committee (EduCo) or be related
to Educational Projects, run by Thematic Networks
connected to the European Commission, where
BEST, through EduCo, is involved. During July 2010
the BEST Symposium “Work virtually! Boost your
career at student speed” took place in Ljubljana. The
Symposium was led by the Educational Committee
of BEST (EduCo) with the help of EuroPACE, ERABEE
and the hosting Local BEST Group of Ljubljana.
The event was focused on virtual mobility of
students of technology. Existing programmes led
by EuroPACE – EU-VIP, Move-IT and EPICS were
discussed in order to improve the existing methods
used in virtual programs and to develop new ones
for the future. Another topic that was discussed was
about the innovation and creativity in university
Events On Education
37Annual Report 2010/2011
As BEST is involved in different aspects of European
engineering education, in the past year several
members of the organisation attended conferences
in this field in order to bring students’ input on
projects which are meant to improve the education
in Europe.
During the SEFI-IGIP 2010 Annual Conference in
Trnava, Slovakia, which took place in September
2010, the BEST members, together with more than
400 professors and experts, were updated with the
latest results of European and Global Engineering
Education development. BEST also presented there
the outcomes of the Symposium organised in 2009
in cooperation with CFES (Canadian Federation
of Engineering Students), “Improving Engineering
Education? Let’s do it together!”.
During the World Engineering Education Forum
(WEEF) 2010 in Singapore, Myriam Teicher (Vice-
President for External Services) represented BEST and
presented the results of the survey “Grand Challenges
for Engineering in the eyes of the 21st Century
Students” realised together with Dassault Systèmes
in August 2010. This large conference gathered five
international events together, among them the
4th IFEES Summit (The International Federation
of Engineering Education Societies) and General
Assembly. It offered BEST the opportunity to network
with experts on education from all over the world
and to broaden the horizons of the organisation,
by attending and giving input on the topic of the
Presence at Educational Conferences
conference - “Effective collaborations addressing
common and global challenges”.
The EUGENE Scientific Meeting was organised
between 16th-17th December 2010, in Gothenburg,
where topics regarding PhD’s were discussed
(importance of the research in engineering education,
qualifications’framework domain and accreditation).
In addition, there were raised questions on Life Long
Learning, continuous education and attractiveness
of the engineering education.
WISE (World Innovation Summit for Education) in
Doha, Qatar, organised between 7th-9th December
2010, brought together 1000 education, corporate,
political and social leaders from all sectors of society
all over the world. This was the second time BEST
took part and the summit gave excellent networking
opportunities for BEST in a lot of various fields.
Furthermore, BEST was represented in the following
conferences and workshops:
• EUGENE Line A Meeting (Leuven, Belgium, July
2010),
• EUR-ACE SPREAD Final Conference (Brussels,
Belgium, October 2010),
• 3rd partner meeting of EU-VIP (Padua, Italy,
December 2010),
• SEFI Deans’ Conference (Paris, France, February,
2011),
• StartPro kick-off meeting: “Young professional
and managerial staff facing changes in the
working place” (Brussels, Belgium, March 2011).
settings and how it contributes to raising the
attractiveness of engineering among students.
The last topic discussed was delivered by ERABEE
and its focus was on Knowledge Management and
methods which could be used in order to preserve
the information during longer periods of time.
Also there was an interesting event in Riga in August
2011 - “If your life is online? Then make it work”.
The idea appeals to the European Union in such
a degree that a thematic network called EU-VIP
(Enterprise-University Virtual Placements) has been
created in order to gather the input from students
and companies on the topic of virtual internships.
Students had the chance to stand at the basis of this
new concept. Their ideas and feedback are going to
be brought back to the European Commission.
38 Board of European Students of Technology
For many years, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven has had the pleasure of collaborating with BEST in the
framework of European Commission funded projects such as for example REVE, VM-BASE and SPUTNIC in
which both organisations have been partners. Currently, BEST is partner in the K. U. Leuven led project EU-
VIP (Enterprise-University Virtual Placements) [1]. This project looks into the possibilities virtual mobility can
offer in the area of international work placements in order to enhance the quality of these work and learning
experiences. Concretely EU-VIP will result in guidelines and online training material on how to organise
virtual and virtually supported (or ‘blended’) international work placements. Project outcomes are aimed at
the three stakeholder groups with an interest in undertaking such work placements: higher education staff,
representatives of businesses/organisations and of course the students.
BEST was taken on board of EU-VIP to represent the students’ point of view in each phase of the
project. Besides the constructive input at the project meetings, we also highly value the possibility of
organising interactive workshops in the framework of the BEST Symposia on Education. For example,
the outcomes of the symposium “Work virtually! Boost your career at student speed!” that was organised last
year in Ljubljana, Slovenia were used to fine-tune the intermediate EU-VIP project results.
We are already looking forward to the next event and further collaboration with BEST in future projects!
Ilse Op de Beeck
Media and Learning Unit – Katholieke Universiteit Leuven
Dassault Systèmes is a leading provider of 3D design, manufacturing, simulation and innovation software,
as well as product lifecycle management and search-based applications. Used by numerous industrial
employers and educational institutions across the globe, these solutions come to educators with a rich set
of tutorials and curricula to help them create their own leading-edge courses in a wide range of engineering
and non-engineering disciplines.
In collaboration with BEST, Dassault Systèmes has launched an international survey called “Grand Challenges
for engineering in the eyes of 21st century students: new findings from an ongoing global survey based
on the U.S. National Academy of Engineering Grand Challenges”. With the support of the BEST network
of talents, we received 3 397 replies from more than 90 countries. The survey aims to foster dialogue
on the major challenges, and also to develop awareness and curiosity among those who will be required to
provide solutions as part of their professional responsibilities. Dassault Systèmes also works closely with BEST on
several worldwide events related to education, such as the American Society for Engineering Education
Global Colloquium and the 1st World Engineering Education Flash Week.
Charles BONNASSIEUX
Dassault Systèmes
Testimonial from Dassault Systèmes
Testimonial from EU-VIP
[1] www.euvip.eu
39Annual Report 2010/2011
In my capacity as director of a teaching and learning support center at the K.U.Leuven (Belgium), I have been
working with BEST already for a couple of years. We worked together in several (European) projects, where
BEST was one of our preferential partners when it came to raise the student voice on themes like
virtual mobility and lifelong learning. Well-organised, very knowledgeable, ready to engage, making clear
points, but also prepared to make compromises,… just a few characteristics how I got to know BEST, as an
organisation, and especially the students, the human capital of BEST. Recently, there was a new dimension
in our relationship, related to my function as president-elect of SEFI. As this is SEFI’s Year of the Student, we
had the pleasure to incorporate student participation in SEFI in a more structural way and to set up a series
of common activities, which will culminate in our Annual Conference, sorry the first ever World Engineering
Education Flash Week next September in Lisbon. SEFI and BEST are two natural twins, and I hope we can
share our lives together to the benefit of both our organisations.
Although people are coming and going – it was and still is my pleasure working with the young ‘potentials’
of BEST. Looking forward to continue along those lines!
Prof. dr. ir. Wim Van Petegem
SEFI President
Testimonial from EUGENE
EUGENE LLP Academic Network, active since October 2009, has now arrived at a crucial Milestone: the midterm
of the project. It is time for real actions to take place in order to demonstrate that such large cooperation
projects are a concrete measure to enhance the attractiveness of the European Higher Education Area (EHEA),
contributing to the global dimension of Engineering Education.
BEST, a historical partner of Networks in the field of Engineering Education is now leading, together with
Univ. Birmingham, one of the main activities of EUGENE: Line E - Increase attractiveness of EHEA. We
must recognise that the activities are proceeding well in different directions, e.g. learning how to increase
attractiveness from good practice.
The resonance of EUGENE is certainly increasing in Europe, and not only, much thanks to the important
networking support of BEST, connecting engineering students of all European countries and ensuring
a substantial representation of the students in the project activities. We wish therefore to officially
acknowledge the important contribution of BEST to EUGENE and, more in general to the whole sector
of Engineering Education in Europe hoping that this will continue also in the future. Thank you BEST!
Prof. Dott. Ing. Claudio Borri, Dr.-Ing. h.c.
Coordinator of EUGENE LLP Academic Network (eugene@unifi.it)
Dott.ssa Elisa Guberti
Project Manager of EUGENE LLP Academic Network (eugene@unifi.it)
Testimonial from SEFI
40 Board of European Students of Technology
At the beginning of 2011 with help of the Grants
Working Group (GWG), BEST received for the first
time the Framework Partnership Agreement grant
covering a part of the operational costs of BEST
for the years 2011-2013. This is the grant distributed
by the European Comission through the Youth in
Action programme.
GWG is a team in BEST, interested in working on
grant applications and receiving financial support
in a different way than fundraising from corporate
partners.
The European Commission has a double mission: to
develop a framework for political cooperation and
to manage the Youth in Action programme. The
aim is to promote the active citizenship of young
people, to foster their social integration in society
and to ensure that a youth dimension is taken into
account in other EU policies.
Youth in Action (YiA) is a Program created by the
European Union to support youth activities. Amongst
others there was a grant of Youth in Action from LBG
Riga for a Culture Exchange project with LBG Brno,
LBG Louvain-la-Neuve and a student organisation
from Malta – and the amount of the grant was
14 000 EUR.
Cooperation with the European Commission
Cooperation with Institutions and Student NGOs
In BEST we work actively with developing
partnerships with other student NGOs that share
a similar vision and culture to ours. Through
the partnerships we aim to stimulate sharing of
knowledge, resources, best practices and ultimately
provide more opportunities and better services to
our students.
Our Official Partners – AEGEE, bonding and
CFES - are the NGOs with whom we cooperate
the most. AEGEE (Association des Etats Généraux
des Etudiants de l’Europe / European Students’
Forum) is a student organisation that promotes co-
operation, communication and integration amongst
young people in Europe. Their flagship projects
include the Summer University and also European
Schools, which are training events on specific topics.
bonding, our German partner, has been bridging
the gap between technology students and
employers since 1988. In order to fulfil this goal,
students from eleven university cities organise a
wide range of events, focusing especially on job fairs
of different sizes, European Workshops and training
events. CFES (Canadian Federation of Engineering
Students) represents over 65 000 engineering
students and aims to give support to the education of
engineering students so that they can have a greater
impact on society. The biggest project of CFES is
the Canadian Engineering Competition and they
also organise conferences on engineering related
matters annually
As a result of the external relations strategy that
was implemented during this year, we were able to
develop stronger ties with our current Official Partners
and at the same time get in contact with potential
partners such as ELSA (European Law Students’
Association), EFPSA (European Federation of
Psychology Students Associations) and ESTIEM
(European Students of Industrial Engineering and
Management).
During the past year, the partnerships mentioned
above enabled us to co-organise joint training
events where we had trainers and participants
from both organisations involved in each training
event. We organised a training event on Project
Management (May 2011) with bonding and
a training event on Corporate and Institutional
Fundraising (September 2011) with AEGEE.
41Annual Report 2010/2011
One of the main activities of BEST is to provide
training sessions at BEST events, both internal and
external as non-formal education. To assure the
quality of these training sessions, the Trainers’
Forum (Ts’F) has been set up to discuss and
improve the training system.
In March 2010, LBG Budapest hosted the first Ts’F.
About 70 trainers gathered in Hungary and more
than 50 discussions were held on the topic: “What
can we improve in NGOs’ training field?”. This event
resulted in several NGOs building up their own
training system or improving the quality in existing
ones. Since Ts’F 2010 had a huge impact in
terms of networking, knowledge and practice
sharing, the Trainers’ Forum was an important step
for the Training Group (TiGro) in developing trainers
and achieving synergy between different trainer
generations. In order to succeed, a second, even
bigger Ts’F was held in 2011, which focused on
ensuring the quality of training sessions and the
trainers’ development.
The second Ts’F took place near Vienna (Austria),
between 3th-7th March. Prior to the event several
BEST trainers provided training sessions for almost
100 young Austrian students of the Technical
University of Vienna on topics such as presentation
skills, conflict and team management. About
100 passionate trainers from 26 different NGOs
attended the working sessions during the three
days of the event to share their knowledge. They
held more than 70 discussions, presenting their
ideas and concepts and inspiring each other. The
first day of the event was dedicated to Trainers’
Meeting sessions. These sessions are used to work
on specific training topics and as sessions in which
an experienced trainer trains the others on an
advanced topic.
If you are a passionate trainer willing to share your
knowledge with other trainers, then follow the
news on the Trainers’ Forum for our third edition
in Ljubljana!
Cooperation in the field of training
BEST, along with other 26 NGOs is under the umbrella
of the Informal Forum of the International Student
Organisations (IFISO). IFISO provides a platform
for collaboration amongst international students
organisations through knowledge sharing and
common projects. BEST plays an active role in IFISO
and has sent representatives to IFISO’s meetings in
Istanbul (October 2010) and in Krakow (March 2011).
This year was filled with wonderful exchange
opportunities and we had the pleasure of receiving
members from other NGOs in a wide range of
events - from Complementary Education Courses
to Statutory Events. At the same time, our members
were warmly received in the events of the student
NGOs we cooperate with.
We value the partnerships with other student NGOs
because we believe in diversity, in the power of
knowledge sharing and the improvement they
bring for our partners and us. We aim to increase
and improve the cooperation with student NGOs so
that our impact on the technology students, as well
as on the external world will be maximised through
shared growth and learning.
Did you know that? Besides cooperation with
student NGOs, the External Relations Strategy
of BEST covers partnerships with European
and Global bodies involved in matters related
to youth, education in engineering and
volunteering. These partnerships enable us to
fulfil our purpose and have a higher impact on the
external world. In 2007, BEST signed a Memorandum
of Cooperation with FEANI (European Federation of
National Engineering Associations) and in February
2011, the President and Ambassador met with
representatives of FEANI in Brussels, in order to
further develop the cooperation.
In September 2010, four members became the PR
Core-Team in order to take care of social networks,
partnerships and media-clippings. The team
gathered 10 more BEST members interested in
Public Relations development at the end of the year
in Bratislava for a Short Intensive Meeting. Outcomes
of the event became the goals of the year for the
team.
The first dimension of the project was to create a base
of knowledge about media and social networks.
The PR Core-Team is developing training sessions,
presentations and other resources to spread this
basic knowledge in the field of PR to our members.
The second dimension was to increase the
appearance of BEST in the media. With this purpose,
we are following cooperation opportunities with
different international media channels. Since April
2010, Young Innovations Europe is the first
media partner of BEST and they have already
published several articles in their publications.
Next year we want to continue this cooperation and
increase the amount of partnerships and articles.
Apart from that, we contacted a large number of
European and national channels inviting them to
attend and cover our biggest events: Presidents’
Meeting Krakow 2010, General Assembly Belgrade
2011 and the Final of the European BEST Engineering
Competition Istanbul 2011.
The third dimension was to ensure a planned
and coherent presence of BEST in different social
networks: Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter. This year
we will also open a blog where everyone will be
able to post their BEST experiences and connect
with their friends inside the organisation and our
partners.
Thanks to our work and to the support of other BEST
bodies, the Public Relations project has achieved all
those goals and is ready to take on new challenges.
The next steps are the creation of a new section
for press on the BEST Public Website, an increase
of exposure in leading national and international
media channels and an improvement in the support
provided to Local BEST Groups on PR matters.
Cooperation in the field of Public Relations
The Public Relations (PR) project was created two years ago in order to create a stronger external image of BEST and to develop the practices of public relations among the different bodies of our organisation.
Board of European Students of Technology 42
Cooperation in the field of Public Relations
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Photos: Danilo Vidovic, Dominika Kamola, Elena Ivashkina, Leire Barosso, Krzysztof Kowalczyk, Miguel Marzán, Paweł Gocyła, Stas Ivanov BEST archive.
Writers:Alexandra Cota, Andrei Iulian Ganci, Christophe Jouret, Dalibor Benak, Florian Valente, Ivanna Kushniruk, James Salmon, Juan Van Roy, Krzysztof Kobyłecki, Laura Hellebrandt, Leonid Kholkin, Lucia Cibulková,Lucía Marquina, Matija Lukic, Monica Kviljo, Myriam Teicher, Naga Sudha Mangeshkar Vankayala, Yulia Adalshina.
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