ESTIEM Magazine | Autumn 2014 | Business Analytics

European Students of Industrial Engineering and ManagementIssue 47 2014/2 | ISSN 0874-5242 | Price 0 Euro | www.estiem.org

BUSINESSABOUT

ANALYTICS

EVERYTHING

ENGINEERSWITHOUTBORDERS

AN INTERVIEW WITH

THIJSPUTMAN

STUDYPORTALS FOUNDER

LINKED TO COMPANIESLINKED TO ESTIEM

PAGE 20

PAGE 36

PAGE 57

Where innovation starts

Pursue your Industrial Engineering Master’s Program in the Netherlands?

What about the masters Innovation Management or Operations Management & Logistics at Eindhoven University of Technology?

www.tue.nl/masterprograms/omlwww.tue.nl/masterprograms/im

IEM Foundation - a joint initiative of ESTIEM, ESTIEM Alumni and EPIEM to foster IEM caring.

3 ESTIEM Magazine | 47th issue - Business Analytics

Introduction4 Project Leader’s Speech

5 President’s Speech

6 Introduction to ESTIEM

Focus Topic: Business Analytics9 Extracting value from data

11 How can business analytics boost IEM

14 Analytics for Supply Chain

Management

16 Social Media Analysis - Data Mining

Scene20 Engineers without borders

22 Integral IEM as a possible trend in IEM

education in Bucharest

EPIEM26 IEM in Austria: Qualification profiles

and IEM related perspectives of IEM

professionals, IEM students and HR

managers

30 7th EPIEM conference, Graz 2014

Inside ESTIEM31 Board 2014 says Goodbye

36 From Student Guide to StudyPortals

40 Nice to Minsk you

42 Summer Entrepreneurship Training

44 Council Meeting Istanbul-Boğaziçi

46 Mentoring Programme

48 Meet the Baltics

50 The IEM care and its foundation

52 Summer Academy - New mentor’s

experience

54 Project, Committee and Initiative

updates

57 Linked to ESTIEM - Linked to

companies

60 Impressions from College 2014,

Porto

62 Two ESTIEMers, two leaders, two

friends

Explore Europe65 One semester abroad in London

66 Let’s change your life

68 Insights from MADrid

31 16

Table of contents

30 66

INTRODUCTION


Dear Reader,

Society is digitising and with the rise of social media

and the usage of smart devices it is therefore creating a

growing amount of data. This presents a huge potential

in retrieving useful information out of billions of data

pieces, referred to as ‘Big Data’. Business Analytics is

the science of continuous evaluation of past business

performance to gain insight and drive business planning.

Now and even more in the future, Big Data can be

used not only to improve processes, but customer

satisfaction, trading and healthcare as well, or simply

to recommend you a movie to watch tonight, just by

analysing the data we generate every day. Without

a doubt, it can change business as we know it today,

improve decision-making and ensure competitive

advantages. In this issue we will address the question

of how far we can go with this and how to harness this

potential.

Apart from that, you will get an insight into other

forward looking topics on Industrial Engineering and

Management (IEM). In the EPIEM (European Professors

of Industrial Engineering and Management) section you

can read about the outcomes of their last conference

in Graz, as well as about IEM Qualification Profiles in

Austria and perspectives from professionals within this

field. Also, in the Scene section you can discover how

general trends of the IEM specialisation are nowadays

affected by globalization and how the INTEGRAL IEM

system can help us move beyond narrow economic

thinking.

The newest partner of the Vision project, Stora Enso

will be introducing itself through an article about food

packaging and presenting exciting insights from an

ESTIEMer that has been working within the company.

These articles also serve as teasers for the upcoming

issue, which will synchronise its Focus Topic with the

Vision Project’s one: Food from soil to shelf.

Additionally, throughout the pages of this ESTIEM

Magazine, you can read about the last endeavours,

developments and plans of some of our Committees,

Projects and Initiatives, discover how it is to be one of

the leaders in ESTIEM and take an active role on the

central level.

We proudly present you the 47th issue of the ESTIEM

Magazine, which we hope you will enjoy reading!

In high ESTIEM,

Project Leader’s Speech

Mafalda Monteiro,

Magazine Project Leader 2014/2015

Imprint

Project LeaderMafalda Monteiro

DesignMarija MladenovićRéka SzabóYana ZhirnisStijn ZandersMafalda Monteiro

Editorial StaffKoen KoolenRéka SzabóAlaz Ata Şenol Stijn ZandersAnuar BaitulakovLaine ŠildereLydia BinekLassi UusitaloSorana Ioniță

Proof readersMladen LukićTeemu MetsolaPedro SchullerLassi UusitaloGuilherme FriasSiros BadlouSebastian HummelSorana Ioniță

Advertisement AcquisitionSorana IonițăMarija Turanjanin

Photographer Bart Van Eijden

With special thanks toTimothy Byrne, Larry Stapleton,Geert Letens, Esin Korel, Marios Apostolos Kiriakidis and Thijs Putman [email protected]

ESTIEM Permanent OfficePaviljoen B-6P.O.Box 5135600 MB EindhovenThe NetherlandsFax: 0031-(0)40 [email protected]

DisclaimerThe contents may not always reflect the opinion of the publisher. Any reproduction or copy is permitted only with the permission of the editors.

Our Partners

INTRODUCTION


President’s Speech

Dear Reader,

The focus topic of this issue of the ESTIEM Magazine

- Business Analytics - is one of the hottest topics in

the business world today. With the technological

advancements which allow us to draw more meaningful

information from big data, companies are developing

tools and practices in order to make data-driven

decisions which should allow for an increase in business

performance. The truth is that we, as Industrial

Engineering and Management (IEM) students, will hold

the responsibility of using the new tools to drive the

growth of Europe’s industry through innovation.

Several developments marked the year 2014 for ESTIEM

as we have seen our network reach new universities

and new countries in Europe, with a steady growth in

the number of international events we organised. There

was a focus on growing our connections with other

organisations, even outside of Europe in countries

such as South Africa, Brazil, Israel and USA. With these

connections, ESTIEM is positioning itself as the hub

for student development in the Industrial Engineering

and Management field. ESTIEM is also an organisation

where data analytics are used when possible in order to

improve decision making. During this year, our internal

operations have been improved by the work of the

30 ESTIEMers who led our international teams in the

respective Projects, Committees and Initiatives - all of

them students who had the opportunity to learn and

grow as leaders together.

Throughout the summer, we have started the

reviewing of the Vision, Mission and Core Values of

ESTIEM, taking this task with the highest feeling of

responsibility towards what our entire network stands

for, be it friendship, open-mindedness, professionalism

or equal opportunities. In this sense, 2014 was also an

important year thanks to the establishment of the IEM

Foundation, an organisation founded together with

ESTIEM Alumni which aims at being a lighthouse for

social projects related to IEM.

We are looking forward to what the future will bring

us. One could say that the multicultural, friendly and

open minded ESTIEM Spirit which is the backbone

of our organisational culture has spread all over

and inspired others to take action towards a more

sustainable world. ESTIEM will continue to play its role

in the development of European IEM students in this

increasingly interconnected world.

I invite you to take a look inside the 47th issue of the

ESTIEM Magazine and I hope you will enjoy reading it.

In high ESTIEM,

Nuno Carneiro,

President of ESTIEM 2014

INTRODUCTION


INTRODUCTION All over Europe...Back in 1990, students from five different countries founded an organisation, which they named ESTIEM: European Students of Industrial Engineering and Management. Its aim was and still is to establish and foster interrelations among European students of Industrial Engineering and Management (IEM) and support them in their personal and professional development.


After 24 years, it has grown into an organisation

bringing together over 60 000 students from 74

universities in 28 European countries, and it is still

growing. All these universities offer courses in IEM.

Based on this structure, ESTIEM forms links between

students, academia and companies in order to create

a European-wide, multi-level IEM network. ESTIEM

has continuously increased the number of its activities,

thus being able to offer a great variety of events to IEM

students and an opportunity to experience different

cultures, take part in international projects and become

friends with other ESTIEMers from all over Europe.

Naturally, the backbone of ESTIEM is the European IEM

student. The students involved in ESTIEM incorporate

both the skills required for modern business and an

open-minded approach towards other people and

cultural issues.

The decision-making body of ESTIEM is the Council,

which meets twice a year, in autumn and in spring. Each

university, represented by its so-called “Local Group”,

sends two student representatives. The six members

of the Board of ESTIEM are elected during the autumn

Council Meeting. The Board is responsible for the

management, coordination and administration of the

association.

Besides taking leadership positions in the Board and as

Project or Committee Leaders, ESTIEM members can

also take up responsibilities by working in one of the

Projects, Committees or Initiatives. With lots of teams

and tasks to choose from, there is a place for everyone.

For more detailed information about our organisation

and its activities, please visit our website at www.

estiem.org. ■


INTRODUCTION

ESTIEM is also a playground for great ideas developed by highly motivated students. If a student manages to convince ESTIEM’s Council of his idea, he can start his own international project. Currently, there are 10 projects running.

... Students involve themselves invarious international Projects....

The Tournament In Management and

Engineering Skills (TIMES) is the largest pan-

European case study competition for the students

of Industrial Engineering and Management. This

prestigious, highly acclaimed event is the flagship

project of ESTIEM. It has successfully been organised

since 1994 and attracts around 1000 top European

students every year. After Local Qualifications in 75

different universities and 8 Semi-Finals in selected cities,

the winning team of the Final is awarded the title of

Europe’s “IEM Students of the Year”.

Vision seminar series aims to improve the personal

skills and capabilities of the Industrial Engineering and

Management students in Europe. The seminars contain

a balanced mixture of academic lectures, workshops

and company visits, which are combined with cultural

and free-time activities of the organising city. Through

those activities, the participants of a Vision Seminar

develop themselves both personally and professionally.

Each year’s Vision seminar series focuses on one main

topic to which all Vision seminars are connected.

This year’s main topic is Customer Relationship

Management.

The goal of Academic Days is to share ESTIEM

universities’ knowledge with the network. It supports

the personal and professional development of students

across Europe willing to complete their curriculum. In

order to achieve this, each event provides participants

deep insights into a specific topic in which the organising

Local Group’s university has a high expertise.

Europe3D is a seminar series where participants

get a deeper insight of the hosting country in three

unique dimensions: politics, culture and economy.

An environment with a blend of different cultures

helps the participants get a better understanding of

the basic local parameters existing in the European

states. Lectures given by experts from these 3 fields,

combined with trainings about intercultural awareness,

provide participants a theoretical insight. With a high

level of interactive participation, Europe3D is a unique

opportunity to start changing your world.

Through the Summer Academy, ESTIEM recognises

the importance of and takes responsibility for providing

knowledge of ethics and sound leadership among

the future leaders of Europe. It was set up to bring

international students together during summer holidays

to engage in open discussions, group work, debate and

private study under a senior Academic Leader.

The ESTIEM Student Guide is ESTIEM’s guiding

service provided to any student who is interested in

studying Industrial Engineering and Management in

Europe or in travelling to any of the ESTIEM Local

Groups: an online database filled in by students, sharing

academic and practical information on universities,

cities and countries.

The official publication of ESTIEM provides the perfect

platform to reach a target group of approximately 60

000 students of Industrial Engineering and Management

at universities all over Europe. The ESTIEM Magazine

is published twice a year and distributed among IEM

students, graduates and also professors and companies

across Europe, through the ESTIEM network.

businessbooster aims at creating an environment

where all needed information, experience and support

to excel in your future professional endeavours can be

found. The goal of this unique environment is to boost

entrepreneurial spirit and engage ESTIEMers, Alumni

and companies to collaborate with each other.

BrainTrainer is designed to develop leadership,

presentation, business and social skills of participants

through professional trainings lasting one or two

days. Its aim is to coach and develop the participants

to become more professional and successful in their

organisation as well as in their own future career.

The ESTIEM Book project is aiming to create a

Book about ESTIEM’s past and present it for ESTIEM’s

25th anniversary in 2015. Besides presenting all of

our history, it will show all the Projects, Committees

and Initiatives of ESTIEM and present all of our Local

Groups. It will be published at ESTIEM’s 50th Council

Meeting in spring 2015. ■


INTRODUCTION

The committees support the Board in maintaining and developing the organisation ESTIEM further. Students from all over Europe engage themselves in various topics in one of our 8 committees.

... and Europe-wide Committee Work

Corporate Relations Committee

The Corporate Relations Committee coordinates the

relations between ESTIEM, companies and universities

jointly with the Board. The Committee’s work covers

a number of fields with the aim of improving and

simplifying ESTIEM’s relations with companies and

universities, such as updating co-operation proposals,

creating and gathering results for different surveys or

training people on how to approach companies and

universities. The Corporate Relations Committee

also plays an active role in supervising and supporting

Projects and other Committees with regards to

sponsors and academic supporters.

Financial and Legal Committee

The Financial and Legal Committee’s role is to ensure

ESTIEM’s compliance with all laws and regulations.

It supports the Board, other Committees, Projects

and Local Groups in all financial and legal matters.

On one hand, it consists of experienced ESTIEMers

and ESTIEM Alumni, who are motivated to provide

advice whenever requested. On the other hand, active

Committee members work on creating and updating

Best Practice Documents, trainings, templates, etc.

for all related topics, giving advice on event budgets

and proactively giving legal advice. Since many people

are unexperienced with finances and regulations, the

Financial and Legal Committee aims at helping them to

deal with them correctly.

Grants Committee

The Grants Committee supports ESTIEM’s applications

for EU Grants and aims to establish and develop

knowledge on public funding opportunities and

their application procedures. It also wants to share

the existing knowledge with as many ESTIEMers as

possible and to support more and more Local Groups

in applying for an EU Grant for their events.

Information Technology Committee

The IT Committee maintains the e-mail, intranet and

web servers of ESTIEM and coordinates all IT-related

development in the organisation such as the IT back-

end system (.NET framework & C#). To complement

the knowledge of ESTIEMers about ICT and IT systems,

it provides trainings in an open learning environment.

In addition, ITC offers troubleshooting services and

technical advice to all ESTIEMers.

Knowledge Management Committee

The Knowledge Management Committee does

two things. First, updating & creating Best Practice

Documents (BPDs) by documenting the collective

experiences of ESTIEMers throughout time - from

organising a Project to how to be a Leader. These BPDs

are available online on the ESTIEM Portal. Second,

managing the quality of ESTIEM events by collecting

feedback from the event participants in order to make

Event specific and Project Specific Reports, showing the

development of ESTIEM’s Projects and events.

Members Committee

The Members Committee supports the members of

ESTIEM and supports students interested in joining

ESTIEM by forming their own Local Group (LG). It

guides them through the whole process, starting from

establishing contact, via the Guest and Observer

period, all the way until their fully pledged membership.

It takes care of the LG Requirements, helps all LGs

via the Regional Coordinators, and supports LGs and

central ESTIEM in motivation and recruitment issues.

It fosters connections between LGs, tries to figure out

what they need locally and cooperates e.g. with the

Trainers on Tour concept to fulfil the needs for training

topics such as HR, PR, recruitment and fundraising.

Public Relations Committee

The aim of the Public Relations Committee is to take

care of ESTIEM’s outer appearance. The Committee

is responsible for communicating the brand of ESTIEM

and increasing the awareness both inside and outside

of ESTIEM. The PR Committee works with several

different tools to achieve this, for instance designing

PR material, creating design templates and guidelines,

as well as working on press and social media visibility.

Trainings Committee

Personal development is part of ESTIEM’s vision – and

it is what ESTIEM trainings are meant for! By passing on

knowledge, skills and attitude in their sessions, ESTIEM

trainers support ESTIEMers on their path in ESTIEM

and in life. The Training Committee provides training

support to all ESTIEM activities and Local Groups. It

also guides trainers and people who want to become

trainers with their career through ESTIEM, and gives

them personal support and feedback. ■


Extracting value from dataBusiness Analytics is a concept that is being heard more and more in companies and universities. But what does it exactly mean and what is its impact on businesses and consumers? Uzay Kaymak, professor at Eindhoven University of Technology explains.

Today’s society is digitizing and, with the rise of social

media, the usage of smartphones and the coming of

the Internet of Things, are generating an ever increasing

amount of data. This pile of data creates a huge potential

in getting useful information out of these billions of

pieces of data. “A company as Netflix has a business

model that relies on analysing your data. When you

watch something on Netflix they will recommend you

other videos based on the ones you’ve watched. For

this to be possible, the company needs to understand

the preferences of customers, which is closely related

to business analytics.”

Despite the term business analytics getting more

common there is no exact definition of what it is.

Kaymak: “Business analytics is for me understanding

the factors that influence your business. This is done

by focusing on the evidence that your data provides as

opposed to generating understanding based on mere

experience. What makes business analytics unique

is that you analyse much more frequently and you

integrate that in your processes.”

One example is a big retailer in the United States that

monitors its sales numbers, how much is being sold of

what product at what time etc. Within minutes after a

milk spill they spotted that the milk sales went down

and that there had to be a cause. This was even before

the employees were aware of this.

Human and computers

Thus business analytics is an analysis at almost real time

basis. This is mostly automated but for a final analysis

humans are always needed. Kaymak: “The amount of

data that is generated and the speed at which this is

done does not make it possible for humans to do an

‘old’ analysis. This is the reason tools, methods and

models are generated for computers to do the analysis

as well. So the human is more a supervisor that is

steering the process in the right direction. For instance,

getting a quote for your insurance happens mostly

automated. But humans are still the ones that made

up the questions, think of the products to be sold and

handle the difficult cases.”

So humans are still needed to perform tasks that

computers cannot do and make the final decisions

in analyses. However, computers are getting more

intelligent as well. What was perhaps human five years

ago was maybe already taken over by computers, but

then humans will get other tasks that computers at that

moment will not be able to do.

Business value

For businesses, this technology creates an opportunity

for competitive advantage. Kaymak: “If you can analyse

your business data in near real time means that you

understand your business environment, the market and

also your customers better. This brings the advantages

that the responsiveness of your company increases, so

you can react quicker to changes in your environment

and the interaction with your customers also becomes

better, which will lead to a higher customer satisfaction.”

Airlines for example use analytics with algorithms

that optimise the prices. These prices change usually

daily, but sometimes in other time intervals. This has

as consequence that no two seats in an airplane are

sold for the same price. Another sector in which the

analytics of big amounts of data is growing is the financial

sector. The traditional image of a trader is someone in

a suit being busy with looking at screens, shouting to

buy or sell stocks. But nowadays there are also people

that are not in a suit, but behind a computer improving

algorithms for trading. This means that an increasing

amount of transactions is automated, in 2006 around

50% and nowadays around 80% of the transactions. An

advantage of a computer is that it can act fast and a

millisecond gain can be worth millions of dollars.

Prof. D

r. Ir. Uzay K

aymak

Eindhoven University of Technology

FOCUS TOPIC


Kaymak thinks that analytics will be everywhere and

will be an integral part in operations of companies.

For customers this will mean that companies can offer

better services and better products. However this also

has a downside, says Kaymak: “In the future, but also

nowadays, we will be more and more confronted with

questions such as how much we want corporations to

interfere with our lives. For instance in the Netherlands

a card is used for the public transport that can detect

at an individual level which person from which station

departed at what time and where to. You can imagine

that this kind of information is useful for optimizing the

train schedules. But the question is if there is an added

value that this is being done on an individual level or if

it could be done in another way.”

Business Analytics in Healthcare

Kaymak is currently focusing on healthcare due to

his natural interest and because the digitization in

healthcare is coming. “Healthcare is currently going

through the process that the industry went through 20

to 25 years ago. A lot more information is becoming

available which on its turn can be analysed.”

An area that can create value in healthcare is the use

of mobile devices. Currently people first get ill before

they go to the doctor. Then a doctor does tests to see

if and how he can cure the disease. For this system,

people have to get ill first, notice it in time and go to

the doctor in time. In the future, this might be different:

“In the future, health services might offer constant

monitoring and automatically contact of your doctor

if certain values are out of range. Or, when you go to

the hospital, they do not collect information only when

you arrive, but access the information you already

accumulated until the moment of arrival. This might be

a first step to make better decisions. With information

about 100 or 1000 patients it might also be possible

to analyse patterns, so that for example patterns in

cardiovascular diseases might be discovered. So trough

analytical solutions integrated in healthcare the doctor

will not be the one who cures you, but the one that

coaches you to ream healthy.” ■

About Uzay Kaymak

Prof. Dr. Ir. Uzay Kaymak graduated from TU

Delft in computer engineering. His specialisation is

computational intelligence and he has worked on

decision making, improving business decisions and

data modelling. After his PhD in Delft he worked in

the industry for a number of years before joining the

Erasmus University in Rotterdam, The Netherlands.

Currently he is a professor at the Information Systems

Group of the School of Industrial Engineering of

Eindhoven University of Technology. He applies

techniques for business process intelligence in the

healthcare.

FOCUS TOPIC


Luis G

uimarães

INESC

TEC

, Faculdade de Engenharia

da Universidade do Porto

How can Business Analytics Boost Industrial Engineering and Management?In today’s hyper-competitive data-driven world,

business analytics drive business success. Analytics

is the “process of using data relationships and

computer models to drive business value, improve

decision-making and understand human relationships”

(Northwestern Engineering, 2014). The ability to make

sense of large and complex sets of information and

environments comes into play. All the recent business

trends in terms of cloud computing, mobility devices

and social media are both fuelling and feeding the use

of analytics. Notwithstanding, traditional businesses

also need analytic solutions to make smarter decisions

and improve key performance indicators (KPIs) – that

may ultimately lead to increased revenues and/or

lower capital expenditures (CAPEX) and operational

expenditures (OPEX).

The figure below plots the web search interest for

“business analytics” worldwide. Clearly, the interest in

this area is increasing significantly over the years. The

falling cost of gathering, storing and managing data is

leveraging the application of Business Intelligence (BI)

and analytics operations to a wider variety of situations

throughout the companies. Gartner (Gartner, 2013)

predicts that BI and analytics will remain top focus for

CIOs (Chief Information Officers) through 2017.

Advanced analytical methods have different objectives and

are employed in different settings, fostering:

• Better Information: Building on top of large sets of

data to obtain a clear picture of the past/present

(identification of patterns and trends);

• Better Predictions: Obtaining careful predictions

of outcomes and estimates of risk to illuminate

management issues and point toward managerial

problems;

• Better Decisions: Supporting complex decisions for

improving performance in multiple domains and

industries.

These three goals relate to different types of analytics that

are not mutually exclusive, but are collectively exhaustive,

namely descriptive analytics, predictive analytics and

prescriptive analytics (see Figure 2).

Descriptive Analytics use business intelligence and data-

mining. These approaches provide trending information

on past or current events, uncovering details and past

performance (IBM, 2013).

Example: Assessing cross-market reward

programs in retailing using time series analysis

IIn order to quantify the impact of a program run by a

grocery chain in which grocery purchases are rewarded

with a cross-market discount, a descriptive analytical model

to compare actual and predicted purchases, considering a

control group, may be employed. For example, time-series

analysis and statistical analysis could be conducted.

Predictive Analytics resort to algorithms and modelling

techniques (such as forecasting and simulation) to

understand potential future trends in the data. It helps

managers to anticipate likely scenarios, allowing for better

planning and more informed decision-making. However, it

does not recommend actions.

Example: Improving productivity in operation

rooms by surgery duration prediction system

In the process of scheduling surgeries, surgeons have to

estimate empirically how long the combination of surgical

procedures will take in order to book the operating room.

The accuracy of these estimations will define the quality

Figure 1 – Worldwide Web Search Interest for “Business Analytics”.About Luis Guimarães

Luis Guimarães is Master of Science and Doctor of Philosophy

in Industrial Engineering and Management by the University of

Porto. He is currently a post-doctoral researcher at the Center

for Industrial Engineering and Management from INESC TEC.

Specialist in models and quantitative methods for industrial

engineering and management problems. He has been a researcher/

consultant in several projects related to Operations Management

and supported by different types of entities aiming at designing

and developing decision support systems. Author of several

publications in international journals in the field of Operations

Research and Computer Science.

Pedro Am

orim

INESC

TEC



FOCUS TOPIC


of the operating theatre schedule, since every deviation

from the estimates leads either to schedule disruptions

(surgeries exceeding their allocated time) or to unoccupied

time (surgeries finishing earlier than estimated). This wasted

time is valuable, not only for the hospital but to the patients

who see their health conditions and overall satisfaction

quickly deteriorating throughout time. Predictive analytics

allow for an automatic and effective mechanism to estimate

surgery duration, based on historical surgery records,

patient and surgeon information.

Finally, Prescriptive Analytics allow us to derive optimised

or smart recommendations and to simulate the future

outcomes of the decisions, based on descriptive and

predictive analyses of structured and unstructured

data. Through for instance mathematical programming

or heuristic algorithms, it allows for performance

improvement in several processes and across distinct

environments.

Figure 2 – Advanced Analytics: from Information driven to

Optimization driven.

Figure 3 – Sales volume time-series for rewarded customers (on the left) and for the control group (on the right).

About Bernardo Almada-Lobo

Bernardo Almada-Lobo is Doctor of Philosophy in Industrial Engineering and Management by

the University of Porto. He is associate professor at the Industrial Engineering and Management

Department – Faculty of Engineering / University of Porto. He is the coordinator of the Centre for

Industrial Engineering and Management, from the Associate Laboratory INESC TEC, and the Vice-

Academic Director of IBM Center for Advanced Studies Portugal. He is also the coordinator of the

Euro Working Group on Lotsizing. Almada-Lobo’s main area of activity is Management Science/

Operations Research. He develops and applies advanced analytical models and methods to help

make better decisions, solving managerial problems in various domains (manufacturing, health, retail

and mobility), with a special focus on Operations Management.

Example: Optimizing the Annual Distribution

Budget in the Beverage Industry

The beverage market is becoming increasingly

demanding. The results are an increasing variety of

stock-keeping units (SKUs) and the need for a flexible

distribution network to fulfil customer demands,

which in turn produces a very fragmented product

set (i.e., product basket). The combination of a large

portfolio of products, complex distribution networks,

and demanding customers gives rise to very intricate

supply chain planning problems. On a tactical level, the

managers may be faced with decisions about selecting

the right logistics providers, types of contracts to use,

which platforms to operate and their respective activity

levels. Prescriptive analytics allow for the optimisation

of tactical distribution planning decisions and for the

study of alternative scenarios for its supply strategies

and network configuration.

The value delivered from analytics to businesses usually

increases throughout this path from descriptive to

prescriptive analytics. However, this does not mean that

only prescriptive analytics should be applied. Actually,

the success of an analytical project/implementation

will depend on the maturity of the company, the need

of the business and, of course, on the experience of

the team.

All examples presented above can be fit in a common

solving process. Firstly, it is necessary to identify the

business problem to be tackled. The role of the business

analyst is then to translate the business problem into an

analytical model. It is in this step that is necessary to

identify what kind of advanced analytics is necessary:

descriptive, predictive and/or prescriptive. Using the

model and the data from the problem, solutions are

obtained that need to be converted into results. In

this last step, the role of the business expert comes

into play as it is necessary to align the results with the

problem and communicate them.

Bernardo A

lmada-L

obo,

INESC

TEC



FOCUS TOPIC


Figure 4 – Comparison between the estimated duration of surgeries made by surgeons (on the left) and by predictive system

(on the right) and the real values. The diagonal lines show the desirable scenario where the estimated duration would be

always correct (C.Gomes et al, 2012).

Figure 5 – Outline of the two-phase solution strategy

(algorithm) for optimization of tactical distribution

planning decisions (L.Guimarães et al, 2014).

Prescriptive Analytics. New technological opportunities

will speed up the readiness of companies for this

movement.

Secondly, in order to succeed in highly complex

environments, any business analyst should complement

his/her intellectual power (related to depth and

breadth of knowledge, choices structuring, and strong

default positions) with a robust interconnectivity and

intuition powers. The so-called soft skills may make

or break a successful implementation of a project.

Communicating (both ways) not only the results,

but also the underlying methodology, aligning people

towards a purpose, building consensus and framing the

problems appropriately play key roles. ■

1. C. Gomes, B. Almada-Lobo, J. Borges, C. Soares. Integrating Data Mining and Optimization Techniques on Surgery Scheduling,

Advanced Data Mining and Applications, Series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science, Subseries: Lecture Notes in Artificial

Intelligence, vol.7713, pp.589-602, 2012

2. Gartner, Press Release 2013, http://www.gartner.com/newsroom/id/2637615, accessed in September 2014

3. IBM, White Paper on Descriptive, predictive, prescriptive: Transforming asset and facilities management with analytics, 2013

4. L. Guimarães, P. Amorim, F. Moreira, F. Sperandio, B. Almada-Lobo. Annual Distribution Budget in the Beverage Industry: A

Case Study, Interfaces, vol.44 (6), Special Issue: Operations Research in Freight Transportation and Logistics, 2014

5. Northwestern Engineering, http://www.analytics.northwestern.edu/program-overview/analytics-examples.html, accessed in

September 2014

6. T. H. Davenport, Analytics 3.0 Where Big Data and Traditional Analytics Meet, Informs Conference on Business Analytics &

Operations Research, 2014

About Pedro Amorim

Pedro Amorim is Master of Science and Doctor of Philosophy in Industrial Engineering

and Management by the University of Porto. He is assistant professor at the Industrial

Engineering and Management Department – Faculty of Engineering / University of Porto

and researcher at the Center for Industrial Engineering and Management from INESC TEC.

Specialist in supply chain planning with an emphasis on food products. Researcher/consultant

in several projects related to Operations Management and supported by different types of

entities. Pedro Amorim is the author of several publications in international journals in the

field of Operations Research (for example, International Journal of Production Economics

and Interfaces).

This double role (business analyst / business expert)

is critical and very suited for Industrial Engineers who

may be able to translate, model and communicate the

business problem.

We conclude with two important messages. Firstly, the

analytic maturity of the companies varies considerably,

concerning how capable an organisation is at using

data and advanced analytics to support key decision

making procedures. Companies are struggling to move

from Descriptive Analytics towards Predictive and

FOCUS TOPIC


Liam

Doyle

Waterford Institute of Technology,

Waterford, Ireland

FOCUS TOPIC

Organisations exist in increasingly dynamic environments and therefore managers face enormous challenges when managing the organisation. Organisations face a number of competitive pressures. Globalisation is seen in the emergence of large trade blocks and international trade agreements and the growth of large firms that operate on a global scale.

Analytics for Supply Chain Management

Rapid advances in technology lead to shorter product

development cycles but also shorter product lifecycles.

Convergence leads to blurring of industry boundaries.

Web-based competition leads to a reduction in

time and place barriers to trade. Economic and

political pressures create further uncertainty while

environmental issues are gaining increasing emphasis.

Regulatory requirements are becoming greater in areas

as diverse as finance, food handling, and transportation.

In addition, customer demands are rapidly changing.

Customers expect higher quality products, greater

levels of service. Customers expect availability of

a greater variety of products, updated on a regular

basis, including the facility for customisation and

personalisation. Organisations are therefore faced with

high levels of uncertainty and seek improved means of

making smarter decisions.

Products get into the hands of customers through

the collective efforts of firms that are linked in supply

chains. Supply chains extend from the point of origin

to the point of consumption and include all stages in

between. Raw materials are transformed into finished

products through the activities undertaken by supply

chain members. These activities include manufacturing,

inbound and outbound logistics, marketing and sales,

service, and new product development. Supply chain

processes extend across functional and organisational

boundaries and include activities in multiple

locations in order to meet the needs of customers.

These processes include order fulfilment, demand

management, managing relationships with customers

and with suppliers, procurement, and management

of transportation and manufacturing activities. Supply

chains can be characterised by the level of uncertainty

associated with the demand and supply. Demand

uncertainty depends upon the nature of the product

and the nature of demand for the product. Supply

uncertainty depends upon the availability of material

inputs and the capabilities of suppliers. Uncertainty

causes difficulties in supply chains and often results

in inefficiencies and reduced competitiveness. For

example, demand uncertainty can lead to distortion

of demand information which becomes amplified

as the information passes back through the supply

chain, leading to the bullwhip effect. Information

sharing between supply chain partners can help reduce

uncertainty, thereby improving the efficiency and

competitiveness of the supply chain.

A wide variety of information systems are used to

assist in the activities of the supply chain. These

include inventory control and production planning

systems, manufacturing execution systems (MES),

materials requirement planning (MRP), manufacturing

resource planning (MRP II), enterprise resource

planning (ERP), warehouse management systems

(WMS), transportation management systems (TMS),

distribution resource planning (DRP), customer

relationship management (CRM) systems, and

e-commerce applications. Applications such as these

help carry out the activities of the organisation and

provide information that can be used to aid in decision

making. Such information can assist in collaborative

approaches such as collaborative planning forecasting

and replenishment (CPFR), just-in-time ( JIT), efficient

consumer response (ECR). These collaborative

approaches depend upon the decision making based

on shared information.

Uncertainty exists due to various environmental factors

and also due to uncertainties that are internal to the

supply chain. Problems caused by uncertainty can be

addressed through the availability of information.

However, it is not the availability of data, but rather

the ability to make actionable decisions based upon an

analysis of the available data that provides the benefit

of possessing that data - the data that is captured in the

various supply chain information systems. Supply chain

management regards the supply chain in a systematic


FOCUS TOPICmanner whereby decisions and actions taken in one

part of the supply chain are seen to have an impact in

other parts of the supply chain. This bullwhip effect is

an example of a problem that can occur when decisions

are made without regard to information about other

parts of the supply chain.

Information visibility refers to the ability to share

information across the supply chain. Information velocity

refers to the speed at which such information can be

shared. In order to make good quality information-

based decisions about supply chain activities, it is

necessary to have high levels of information visibility

and velocity. While supply chains are designed to

enable the flow of materials from point of origin to

point of consumption, with matching flows of money

in the opposite direction, the flow of information

is required in both directions. An information flow

facility allows information to flow both upstream and

downstream in the supply chain, making information

visible to supply chain participants. Information

flow facility is implemented with various layers of

technology including communications, applications, and

data stores.

Supply chain decisions are made at all levels of the

organisation, i.e. operational, tactical, and strategic.

Decision making requires analysis of appropriate

data, the use of appropriate analytical tools, and an

understanding of the contextual factors affecting the

decision. Data comes from diverse sources which may

be internal or external to the organisation. Supply

chain partners are an important source of data for

supply chain decisions. Data comes from various

applications used to operate the business and often

exist in relational databases. However, the existence of

separate databases for different functional applications

acts as a barrier to the use of that data for decision

making. Data is therefore often brought together into

a data warehouse where related data from different

applications can be linked. Data warehouses differ

from operational databases as they are optimised for

querying and analytics purposes rather than for the

support of transaction processing. Data marts are

smaller versions of data warehouses and are often used

for more specific purposes that data warehouses.

Data warehouses provide the ability to store and

analyse large volumes of data. However, because the

data that populates the data warehouse comes from

a diverse range of internal and external sources, it is

necessary to process the data before it enters the data

warehouse. Data must be extracted from the original

source. Cleansing is a step that is used to eliminate

invalid or erroneous data. As different means may be

used to represent similar types of data, transformation

into the agreed common format must take place. Data

must be loaded into the data warehouse. This process is

known as extract, transform and load (ETL). Attention

must also be paid to the quality of data used including

comprehensiveness, accuracy, and timeliness. While

the relational database model may be used for many

supply chain applications which provide a vast quantity

of structured data for analysis, much more data exists

in unstructured formats. This data exists in sources such

as letters, faxes, contracts, business documents, emails,

texts, tweets, web pages, and web-logs. The handling

of these vast quantities of data requires an efficient and

effective approach to data management. Approaches

such as master data management and data governance

can help improve the availability of good quality data to

assist in decision making.

The purpose of analytics is to assist in decision making

by helping to direct, optimise, and automate decision

making. While analytics requires access to high quality

data, it also requires access to advanced analytic

techniques. Support for decision making progressed

from management information systems (MIS) that

provided standardised reports from transactional data.

The development of decision support systems (DSS)

allowed managers a greater level of control in defining

their own reports and manipulating the way in which

data was analysed. Online analytical processing (OLAP)

expanded on the power of DSS and provided greater

availability of analytic systems. Data-mining provides

a powerful means to extract valuable information

that is hidden within large data stores such as data

warehouses. Text-mining and web-mining provide

similar functionality for text and web-based data.

Visualisation tools allow the results of advanced

analysis to be displayed in a manner that effectively

communicates the results to the recipient.

Information technologies can be used to provide

advanced supply chain analytics capabilities so that

supply chain participants can gain competitive advantage

through improved decision making. These technologies

include functional applications, an information flow

facility, data management, advanced analytic techniques

and information visibility. ■

About Liam Doyle

Liam Doyle is a lecturer in Information Systems in the School of Science in

Waterford Institute of Technology, Waterford, Ireland. He coordinates the

M.Sc. in Information Systems Processes that examines the role of information

and information systems in improving the way in which organisations compete

in a dynamic environment and which emphasises the socio-technical nature of

information systems. His main research interests are in the area of business

process improvement, supply chain information systems, and information systems

strategy.


Social Media Analysis - Data Mining

Because it is not only your buying behaviour or your

bank details that generate data about you as a customer.

One of the biggest sources of data about your life

comes directly from your mind; it is the text you write:

E-mails to companies, replies on their surveys, reviews

on websites and lots of social media messages.

And while almost all modern companies are using social

media and the internet as a way to communicate with

their customers, it is still a big struggle to find a way to

use this data for other uses than just getting in touch

with people. This is where text mining comes into use.

Hanneke van K

eep

Underlined

Big Data - one of the buzzwords of today’s business. Everyone has heard of the examples of how a father finds out his daughter is pregnant, or how fraud in banking can be traced. But there are more sides to the story, examples that are close to your everyday life.

FOCUS TOPIC


In general, text mining is the process in which

unstructured raw text is structured step-by-step by

finding patterns. By using machine learning methods,

models can be developed that recognise positive and

negative messages, find the most important topics or

even predict the writer’s age, gender or social status.

Most of these models are not even new, but since

the amount of text data is growing rapidly and it is no

longer possible for human beings to keep up reading, it

becomes more important to find ways to use them to

benefit the company.

There is a reason the client is writing all this text. By

giving reviews, asking questions and answering your

questions, the client expects you to do something with

the information. In this article some of the techniques

to use this information as a data source will be shown

by discussing a case involving the ANWB, the biggest

Dutch travel association.

About a year ago, the CRM company Underlined and

the ANWB started a partnership to develop a way to

use the text to eventually replace a part of the surveys

used, it turned out to be a lot more interesting than

they expected.

The first big problem to overcome was the way in

which to analyse a sentiment. There are several tools

and methods available to measure a sentiment but by

testing them it became more and more clear that they

would not work for this cause. First of all, the most

traditional sentiment analyses that are used are rule-

based, meaning that they are based on language rules.

By using these rules, the place a word has in a sentence

and the surrounding types of words predict the type the

word belongs to. After the establishment of the word-

types, a sentiment word-list will decide if the word

is positive or negative. However, since the ANWB’s

biggest service is the road service, a lot of messages

looked like: “My car broke down :-( Let’s call the

ANWB!”. In this case, the sentence would be marked

negative, while it is actually positive for the ANWB to

be recognised as the ‘saver’. Another big problem is

the lack of grammar in social media messages. If the

grammar is all wrong, the types of words can never be

found, let alone the typos in the words itself. Moreover,

because this type of analysis is not that precise, it can

only be used for analysing trends in large datasets, it is

not reliable enough for single messages.

Therefore, a machine learning method was used to

‘train’ a model for sentiment analysis. For training this

model, a big database of real social media messages

was manually annotated as positive and negative. This

was still not 100% correct, since some messages are

hard to figure out, even by humans. By using a Naïve

Bayes model, which works similarly to the way spam

filters for e-mail work, a personalised sentiment analysis

could be made. By analysing the most important key

words for a sentiment, it became clear that this was

indeed more like it. For instance, the highest indicator

for positive messages turned out to be the Dutch word

“weer”. This word has two meanings; first of all it

was thought that the translation “weather” would be

the case. Maybe a lot of people were waiting in the

rain? But later on, it was found out that the translation

“again” was more appropriate. Most of these messages

spoke of “ANWB got me back on the road again”.

These personalised ‘word lists’ had the precision of the

sentiment analysis from a market standard of 60% to

around 70-75%. By having a more precise sentiment

analysis, it was now possible to analyse the messages

one by one, instead of having to rely on the law of big

numbers.

The next step was to match the messages with the

customers who wrote them. With the help of BI

consultant Nippur, a method was developed to match

social media profiles to customer data based on their

personal data. These customers were asked

About the company

Underlined is a company that specializes in putting the customer first. By creating

a customer centric strategy, Underlined can help companies to find out who their

customer is and what he really wants. Underlined works for serveral large companies

in the Netherlands and develops its methods in corporation with several Dutch

universities.

FOCUS TOPIC


About Hanneke van Keep

Hanneke van Keep graduated in Marketing Research at

Tilburg University by finding the relationship between

the NPS and actual behaviour regarding social media.

She is now working as a Customer Intelligence Analyst

for Underlined where she develops new methods to

use text as a data source for marketing research.

earlier to answer the question “how likely are you

to recommend this company to other people?” (also

known as the Net Promotor Score). By adding their

social media sentiments to these results, it was now

possible to analyse the correlation between what they

said they would do and what they really did. Since this

was the first time it could really be measured what

people said exactly without literally eavesdropping,

this data-matching made it possible to test the NPS for

the first time. In result, it turned out that, on the short

term, people actually do what they say they do.

The next question for ANWB and their peers is of

course: Now that we know the sentiment, what do

they actually talk about? At this moment Underlined is

developing models using class allocation to give more

insight in the important topics in the texts. So what is

the future of text mining? Where most companies used

to be scared of all the text data coming in, now that it

is possible for computers to recognise patterns that are

hard to find even by humans, the data becomes more

and more welcome. New questions are rising; how can

we generate even more text data? And how can we

develop a method to get the right amount of text data

from each of our customer groups? If the right amount

of data is found, it might replace all traditional ways of

measuring customer satisfaction.

Furthermore, is there a way to find the right synonyms

for each meaning of a word? This is the one thing that

still keeps computers from being able to recognise

the meaning of a word, just from reading the context.

If this hurdle is overcome, a big step can be made in

marketing intelligence. Where the need for quantitative

data is now always present, this might not be needed

anymore.

Maybe becoming even more important; how can we

use these methods to analyse visual data? In social

media, the new trend of not only posting text, but

also posting photos or even videos leads to the need

of new methods. It can already be established whether

a picture is showing a happy or a sad person, but just

as the sentiment analysis in text mining, this is just the

beginning. ■

In general, text mining is the process in which unstructured raw text is step-by-step structured by finding patterns.

“

FOCUS TOPIC


Cable cars and ski lifts carry thousands of people up to

the summits or back and forth between ski resorts day

in and day out, especially during the winter. Passenger

safety is a top priority. This is why the production of all

cable car parts depends on maximum precision down

to hundredths of a millimeter. The drive pulleys that

move the cable between the top and bottom stations

are huge, and the center part alone weighs just under

two tons.

This central piece is surrounded by four wing elements.

Absolute precision is mandatory when manufacturing

these parts so that the adapter plates of the wing

elements can be connected seamlessly to the center

part.

In the case of a pulley with a diameter of five to seven

meters, precision means that the working surfaces may

only deviate from the ideal shape by a maximum of

50 micrometers. If the distance between them is any

greater, the wing elements will no longer be able to

close.

These extremely low deviation tolerances demand

comprehensive and extremely reliable quality

assurance.

Cable car manufacturer Doppelmayr ensures the

quality of its systems by using a bridge-type coordinate

measuring machine from ZEISS that scans the center

part of the pulley in one complete CNC cycle. When

doing so, it compares actual and target states, thereby

detecting even the tiniest deviation. The results of

the measurement can be retrieved at the touch of a

button. This enables the quality assurance process to

be carried out much more quickly. In the past, quality

was literally inspected by hand: A specialist would use

a measuring arm to measure all relevant parts of each

individual component. With the measuring machine,

the process is not only shorter, but also four to five

times more precise. Thus, the cable car manufacturer

can guarantee the safety of his passengers – and they

can focus on enjoying the view of the mountain from

the cable car as they make their way to the summit. ■

ADVERTORIAL

…that 50 micrometers can make a crucial difference on the way to the summit?

Did you know…

Photo: Friedrich Böhringer


Engineers without bordersThe trend towards globalization affects engineering educators on three inter-related dimensions: a dramatically new landscape of world economy, the next generation of engineering jobs and the education of the ‘next gen’ engineer.

It is critical that the next generation of engineers be

globally competent. This is a broad outcome with

multiple nuances, implementation methodologies and

assessment metrics that will be detailed in the next few

paragraphs. Our mission is to enhance engineering

education by enabling the ‘next gen’ engineer to be

equally at ‘home’ in practicing engineering in Hubli,

Hannover, Hokkaido, Helsinki or Hackensack. This

aligns with Jack Welch (former Chairman and CEO of

General Electric) who believes that “Globalization has

changed us into a company that searches the world, not

just to sell or to source, but to find intellectual capital

- the world’s best talents and greatest ideas”. These

words by the visionary Jack Welch aptly summarize

the phenomenon of globalization that has swept over

the world. It has practically influenced every aspect

of human life - culture, politics and economy and

especially, engineering education.

The global economic phenomenon has led to a sea

of change in the nature of business and jobs. In big

corporations, global sourcing of products and people

has become the norm. Factors that have enabled this

remarkable growth in globalization include:

Ease of accessibility and collaboration: Today’s world

has become much smaller in the sense that airfares

have been stable in absolute terms over the past

two decades and actually plummeted in real terms.

Telecommunication costs have also dramatically

dropped, leading to cheaper and easier collaboration

between companies. But perhaps the most crucial

factor has been the rise of the Internet. This global

behemoth of interconnected computers has led to a

tremendous increase in the ease of communication and

information exchange. Helsinki and Hubli are just a click

away!

Government policies: Having realized the boost that

foreign investment can provide to their economy,

governments have started providing incentives to firms

that bring business to their country. These incentives

include faster and easier licensing, attractive tax rates

and allowing free currency flow.

International alliances: Regional alliances like the

European Union, NAFTA, Association of Southeast

Asian Nations (ASEAN) and Asia Pacific Economic

Cooperation Forum (APEC) help tremendously to

facilitate collaboration and interaction between their

member nations on various fronts like trade, culture

and technology by removing bottlenecks.

Talent pool in low wage countries: There is an abundance

of talented and highly educated engineers in the

emerging nations and beyond – in diverse countries

such as India, Brazil, China, Russia, Eastern Europe,

Middle East etc.

Bopaya B

idanda

Institute of Industtrial Engineers

Senior Vice President International

Stages of Globalization & the Global EconomyGlobalization has evolved tremendously over the ages. In his book, The Flat World, the journalist Thomas L. Friedman details the three stages of globalization as follows:

1) Globalization 1.0 (1492 to 1800) - In this period, countries began to recognize the importance of spreading their wings to outside their homeland and looking for opportunities abroad. These years were characterized by countries trying to globalize for resources and imperial conquest. This period laid the foundation for the much richer global exchange that was to happen in the forthcoming eras.

2) Globalization 2.0 (1800 -2000) - This was the era when globalization started to really mature. Unlike the earlier stage, where only some imperialistic countries were reaping the benefits, this stage provided opportunities for the corporate world to globalize. Multi-national companies grew and concepts such as global outsourcing and supply chains emerged.

3) Globalization 3.0 (2000 onwards) - Globalization now not only encompasses trade but also exchange of talent and knowledge. In today’s world, individuals are able to globalize. Companies search the entire world for talented engineers. This has led to the rise of what can be called a “global economy” where the economies of individual nations, companies and individuals are deeply interconnected. “ The global economic phenomenon

has led to a sea of change in the nature of business and jobs.

SCENE


Conclusion

The interplay of global factors will lead to significant changes in the structure, delivery mode, and content of engineering

education. Successful engineering institutions are the ones that will embrace these changes and allow them to produce

globally competent engineers. ■

Educating the Next Generation Engineer

In tomorrow’s engineering workplace, competent

technical skills are a necessary but not sufficient

condition. However, in addition to the above-stated

skills, it is necessary that an engineer possesses the

ability to work in the dynamic, multi-cultural teams that

are present in global corporations. Also it is necessary

to blend high level of technical skills with superior

communication skills. So today’s engineering curricula

must incorporate the following techniques to educate

tomorrows ‘next gen’ engineer:

References:

In: Proceedings of the international conference on transformations in engineering education. Dordrecht: Springer, 2014.

About the author

Bopaya Bidanda is currently the Ernest E. Roth Professor and Chairman of the Department of

Industrial Engineering at the University of Pittsburgh. He also serves as the Senior Vice-President of

the Institute of Industrial Engineers (International). His research focuses on Manufacturing Systems,

Reverse Engineering, Product Development and Project Management. He has published five books and

over 100 papers in international journals and conference proceedings. He has also given invited and

keynote talks in Asia, South America, Africa and Europe. He also helped initiate and institutionalize the

Engineering Program on the Semester at Sea voyage in 2004.

SCENE

“ In tomorrow’s engineering workplace, competent technical skills are a necessary but not

sufficient condition

Add new and relevant areas to the engineering curriculum relevant to the local workplace. Engineering curriculum (or at least, technical electives), must be evaluated and refined every two years.

Engage student in exciting, team-based, authentic experiences starting from the freshman year.

Establish interdisciplinary teams for projects. Academic institutions are among the few entities that divide engineers into silos by discipline. In the corporate workplace, every engineer irrespective of discipline is a problem solver.

Offer students opportunities for leadership in multiple areas.

Offer exposure to a cross-cultural working environment. Emphasize to students that it is a global marketplace today. Students must be offered opportunities to experience the international workplace while in college. Technical electives and humanities courses that focus on globalization, diversity and a cross-cultural environment must be offered to students.

Engineering courses must utilize global resources such as the Internet, educational modules, etc., as part of their curriculum.


Cristian M

ustață

University Politehnica,

Bucharest, Romania

SCENE Integral IEM as a possible trend in IEM education in BucharestThe need for sustainable development gained an

increased worldwide attention since the „United

Nations Conference on Environment and Development

(UNCED)” 1992 where 178 nations declared it one of

their goals. Important requirements are the equilibrium

between our generation and the generations of

tomorrow on the one hand and between business,

social and ecologic priorities on the other hand [1].

While protecting the social balance and the

environment, such official statements together with

a rising consciousness of managers and employees

towards the quality of life as a meaning to fulfill a higher

destiny on earth (Maslow`s level of Self-realization)

could influence enterprises to rethink their business

philosophy and to drive farther away from models

where profit maximization is the natural No. 1 goal [2].

As IEM education aims to prepare its students to

be the successful managers of tomorrow, it also

targets to make them think about the complex

relationship between business ethics, business

practice and sustainable development, because

we need sensitive managers and employees able

of decisions and actions that balance profits and

the well being of the society and the environment.

INTEGRAL IEM is such a model, that we try to establish

as a future trend in Bucharest, without any exclusive

claim. It is called INTEGRAL because it brings subjects

linked to sustainable development to the attention of

the academic world including professors and students.

These subjects include justice and fairness in stakeholder

relationship management, integrity and honesty of

managers, ecological sustainability of the planet, real

corporate social responsibility, a rising concern for

human and also animal rights, as well as the sustainable

development for a growing world population [3].

The name INTEGRAL also contains eight principles

regarding our attitudes in life, as employees,

managers and generally as human beings: Inspiration,

Nonconformism, Truthfulness, Effectiveness,

Goodness, Responsibility, Authenticity and Love [4].

Do we feel inspired by what we do while teaching or

studying in the case of professors and students? And

after graduation, do we feel inspired while doing our

job? If we feel inspired by the things we are doing, it

means we are at the right place in our lives, it means

we will try to perform better and leave our unique

mark, instead of getting quickly and superficial through

our tasks. Inspiration shows us if we have found our

vocation: our work as managers, professors, students

or employees should fill us with passion and joy.

Inspired human beings can enrich their environment,

either if we speak about a university or an enterprise.

Unfortunately inspiration cannot be taught, one has

to live and feel inspired in order to experience it.

Creative Nonconformism becomes important when

we need to overcome strong models and habits that

no longer suit our requirements. This is often the case

inside universities as well as enterprises. Our own

inertia as well as inertia in our society can be formidable

obstacles. It takes courage and inner strength to

overcome established thinking patterns when they no

longer bring a positive outcome in the context of an

enhanced awareness. Each great change is impossible

without it. Creative Nonconformism is a key ingredient

to each important change and is associated with

courage as a leading principle in the Castle-principles

of Secretan (2007) [5]. Thus we encourage our

students to be open to change in a positive way.

As each aspect of ethics is impossible without

truthfulness in thoughts, words and actions, it becomes

also important for INTEGRAL IEM. Sustainable

development is more likely to happen if important

decisions are made by people with a deep respect for

the truth: the truth of customers, employees or other

people around us, as well as for universal truths. It

ensures a foundation for good long term relationships.

Effectiveness – a principle also embraced by Secretan

(2007) -as the attitude enabling us to reach our

established goals is important in any field of action.

Goals for profit, personal evolution and social

contribution have a meaning if people stick to

reach those goals without giving up too easy. The

IEM students of today and potential managers of

tomorrow have to develop the inner motivation to

follow a task till all objectives related to it are achieved.

The change towards a better sustainable world will

INSPIRATIONNONCONFORMISMTRUTHFULNESSEFFECTIVENESSGOODNESSRESPONSABILITYAUTHENTICITYLOVE


SCENEbring many difficult situations and is impossible without

people preoccupied by the greater good, the well

being of the society. “Is there a natural “good” order

of the universe?” can become an important question.

Is it worth to try to do what is good? If the answer is

yes, it means we stick to the principle of Goodness.

Defining our Responsibility towards ourselves

and towards other around us is important. It

influences our performance as individuals, as team

members and inside the communities we live.

Authenticity as a deep connection with our own inner

nature and truth enhances our ability to connect with

universal principles an aspect of great importance

especially when facing tough decisions – a situation

that managers often have to face. Connecting to

the deep peace coming from inside can be a good

prerequisite in order to gain intuitive access to

the innovative solution that fits the situation in the

best manner. Authenticity also means to embrace

life as it is in all areas, to be present and full of life.

The principle of love escapes definitions as it envelops

all other principles. It is the best motivation to act and

if love for all that is affected by our business drives

our decisions, than they will be in harmony with all

consequences. Love as a joyful connection with nature

and all human beings and everything that surrounds

us can certainly make life better in a meaningful way.

Despite their value, the eight INTEGRAL principles

do not represent topics that can be included in IEM

curricula, because approaching them in theory would

not be very effective. But team projects, case studies

with ethical and environment-related components,

certain role playing games, transparency and fair grading

and result evaluation, a real friendly attitude in the

professor-student relationship, inspiring and updated

lecture recommendations and many other elements

could inspire the students towards seeking for their

own inspired future, towards new ways of living a good,

meaningful, responsible life, towards their own truth

and authenticity and maybe towards a life fulfilled by

love. Because such potential influence cannot be scaled

and measured. It is hard to tell if INTEGRAL IEM will

become a visible trend or not. But it is worth trying. ■

[1] Hauff von, M., Claus, K. (2012): Fair Trade. Ein Konzept nachhaltigen Handelns, UVK Verlagsgesellschaft mbH,

Konstanz/München 2012. pp. 51-56, 62-69.

[2] Mustata C. (2012), International Marketing in the 3rd Millennium – INTEGRAL Marketing, Estiems-Magazine Nr.

43/2012, pp. 40-42.

[3] Windsor D. (2008), Educating for responsible Management, in: Crane et al (Eds.): The Oxford Handbook of

Corporate Social Responsibility, Oxford University Press New York 2008, pp. 503-521.

[4] Mustata C. (2012), Integral management an answer to the need of change in the way of doing business in the 3rd

Millennium, will soon be published in the Proceedings Volume of: LeanTech ’12, 1st International Scientific Confer-

ence On Lean Technologies, Novi Sad, Serbia 13-14 September 2012.

[5] Secretan L. (2007), Ganz oder gar nicht!, J. Kamphausen Verlag & Distribution GmbH, Bielefeld 2007, pp. 67-68.

About Cristian Mustață

Cristian Mustață is an Associate Professor of Marketing and Human Resource Management at the University Politehnica of Bucharest in Romania. Dr. Mustață is interested in the fields of marketing & management ethics, change management, creativity and human resource development. He may be contacted at [email protected]


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Fredrik Werner, Segment Development Manager at

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Appropriate and correctly chosen packaging based on

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Fredrik Werner, Segment Development Manager at Stora Enso

Kenneth Collander, Vice President, Environment at Stora Enso

When using renewable packaging based wood fibres you get sustainable and recyclable solutions for good food packaging which can help reducing the food waste.


Christoph S

adei

Graz U

niversity of Technology

IEM in Austria: Qualification Profiles and IEM related Perspectives of IEM Professionals, IEM Students and HR Managers

Through the establishment of Universities of Applied

Sciences 1994 in Austria and the Bologna Process,

which started in 1999 a wide range of IEM degree

programs offered by Higher Education Institutions

(HEI) in Austria has emerged. As a result, it is becoming

increasingly difficult to distinguish between IEM degree

programs and their qualification profile. Therefore,

in October 2010 the Austrian Alumni Association

of IEM (WING) formulated together with its two

sister associations from Germany and Switzerland

a common declaration (“3-countries declaration”)

and job specification in order to secure defined IEM’s

qualification profiles across borders. This declaration

represents “the common will to ensure high quality

and the distinctive profile of IEM graduates”, which

means a certain ratio between subject categories. The

goal is to foster high employability of IEMs through the

establishment of a common brand [1]. The core of the

common brand is the following job specification [1]:

“IEMs are economically educated engineers with

an academic degree which holistically connect their

technical and economical competences in their

working activity”.

As a result of the job specification, the WING strongly

recommends a minimum of 50% technical subjects,

20% economics and 10% integration subjects [2] for

IEM degree programs on HEIs in Austria. Integration

subjects are subjects with interdisciplinary questions,

which have to be analyzed and solved with scientific

and methodic approaches through the combination

of different mindsets from different disciplines [3],

e.g. ethics, law subjects, ergonomics and job design,

communication and creativity techniques.

Due to the job specification and the recommended

qualification profile of IEM degree programs by the

WING, both students and enterprises will then be able

to rely on the acquirement of a certain qualification

profile through the degree programs. Supporting the

claims of the 3-countries declaration, the Austrian

Alumni Association of IEM conducts periodical

surveys in cooperation with the Institute of Business

Economics and Industrial Sociology at Graz University

of Technology to offer orientation and transparency

for stakeholders in higher education and industry.

“… Throughout Europe, IEM has many different names

– and many different faces” [4], therefore in this article

it is tried to show you the “face” of IEM in Austria after

the applied methodology is briefly explained.

(The methodology and results illustrated in this article are

an excerpt of the diploma thesis [5] and the paper [6].)

Methodology

In order to analyze the different degree programs of

Universities and Universities of Applied Sciences in

Austria, a multiple-step analysis approach (primary

and secondary analysis) was used (not displayed in this

article because of limited place, please see [6]).

In addition to the analysis of IEM degree programs,

two quantitative studies have been conducted in order

to perform a detailed analysis of specific IEM related

perspectives among (i) IEM professionals, IEM students

and (ii) HR managers.

Because of the size and complexity of the two

aforementioned target groups, which comprised (a)

all WING members, alumni and students of IEM

degree programs of both Graz and Vienna University

of Technology and (b) HR managers in Austria, it was

decided to use online surveys designed with the Lime

Survey tool and to invite the target groups via Email to

participate the inquiry.

The total sample size of the first quantitative survey

amounted to 5649 IEM professionals and IEM students.

EPIEM

Bernd M

. Zunk

Graz U

niversity of Technology

Christoph Sadei

Christoph Sadei is a Study Assistant at the Institute of Business Economics and Industrial Sociology at Graz University of

Technology. He wrote his diploma thesis at his current institute in collaboration with the Austrian Alumni Association of

Industrial Engineering and Management (WING). The thesis focused on IEM in Austria from the HR manager, WING,

Higher Education Institutions and IEM professionals perspective in order to gain a clear picture of IEM in Austria and

a direction in which IEM can be developed. He was the chairman of the local IEM Student Association in Graz, Local

Responsible for LG Graz and wants to support ESTIEM by becoming an ESTIEM Alumni.


From this sample 947 questionnaires were filled out

(805 fully and 142 partially filled out questionnaires),

thus representing an overall response rate of 16,76%.

The total sample size of the second quantitative survey

amounted to 9111 HR managers. From this sample 311

questionnaires were filled out (289 fully and 22 partially

filled out questionnaires), thus representing an overall

response rate of 3,41%.

Results

As already practiced in the methodology, the results

will also be separated into two parts. Firstly, the results

of the Austrian IEM degree program analysis will be

shown, secondly, some results of the conducted

surveys will be displayed and if the data allows, the

answers of the different target groups combined.

IEM degree programs on HEIs in Austria

Figure 1 shows the IEM degree programs on HEIs in

Austria. As highlighted in Figure 1, the IEM degree

programs qualification profiles of Universities of

Technology have a focus between 65% and 80% of

technical subjects though one University of Technology

offers one combined degree program with 51%

technical subjects, whereas Universities of Applied

Sciences are dispersed throughout the whole range

between 50% and 78% of technical subjects. The index

table lists the analyzed HEIs, the corresponding “OECD

revised field of science and technology” attributable

to the respective IEM degree program and the kind

of degree program (Bachelor (BA), Master (MA) or

combined (BA + MA)).

IEM related perspectives of IEM Professionals,

IEM Students and HR Managers

The ideal IEM qualification profile:

As Figure 1 shows the range of qualification profiles of

all IEM degree programs of HEIs in Austria and in order

to check if the offered IEM degree programs provide

the qualification profiles requested by the stakeholders

and if the WING recommended qualification profile is

still corresponding to market needs, IEM professionals,

IEM students and HR managers have been asked about

their recommended ideal IEM qualification profile.

468 IEM professionals answered the question as to

which ratio of technical- and economics- subjects

would have been ideal for their IEM degree program

from their professional perspective. The average

qualification profile resulted in 61,5% technical subjects

and 38,5% economics subjects, and can be interpreted

as the ideal qualification profile recommended by IEM

professionals based on their professional experience.

Figure 1: Comparison of Qualification Profiles of IEM degree programs on HEIs in Austria

EPIEM

Bernd M. Zunk

Bernd Markus Zunk is an Assistant Professor at the Institute of Business Economics and Industrial Sociology at Graz

University of Technology. As a teacher of business economics, his particular emphasis is on the areas of industrial

marketing, purchasing and supply management, marketing controlling, as well as marketing intelligence. His research and

his habilitation project focus on the “Preferred Customer Concept”. Bernd M. Zunk is an active member of the Austrian

Alumni Association of Industrial Engineering and Management (WING), of the Strategic Management Society (SMS) and

the International Purchasing and Supply Education and Research Association (IPSERA).


IEM students answered that their ideal ratio would be

63% technical subjects and 37% economics subjects and

HR managers stated that the ideal qualification profile

for an IEM graduate would be 62,2% technical subjects

and 37,8% economics subjects (see Figure 2). It needs

to be advised that under “economics subjects” the sum

of economic and integration subjects is understood.

Fields of operation of IEM professionals:

In the survey, IEM professionals were asked to indicate

how many jobs they have had until now with a

maximum of 10 jobs. On the left side of Figure 3, the

fields of operation (FOO) are listed, always indicating

two bars per FOO. The first bar corresponding to the

FOO shows how many people worked in that FOO

(displayed in percentage). The second bar attached

below, which always corresponds to the same FOO

without any percentage indicated, illustrates how many

people working in this FOO had a leading position. In

total 510 IEM professionals answered this question.

510 IEM professionals had 703 FOO in their first job.

This means that every third IEM had 2 FOOs. This

number stays the same in the second, third and fourth

job. In their first job, most IEM professionals start in

Engineering, R&D, Process - Production and Quality

Management, with only a few people starting directly

in an executive or strategic management position. In

their first job, 18,3% of the 510 IEM professionals had

a leading position.

This number rises dramatically in the second job where

46,5% of the 420 IEM professionals had a leading

position. It is noticeable that in their second job, the

number of IEM professionals working as an executive

or strategic manager, as book keeper and PR or product

manager increases, with a decreasing number of FOO

in R&D, Engineering and Process management.

Figure 3: Fields of operation per job of IEM professionals in Austria

EPIEM

Figure 2: Ideal ratio of Technical and Economics subjects for an IEM degree program


[1] BAUER, U.; FÜRST, A.; ZUNK, B. M. (2010): Ausbildungslandschaft, Berufsbild und Qualifikationsprofil von Wirtschaftsingenieuren, BWL Schriftenreihe Nr. 13 des Instituts für Betriebswirtschaftslehre und Betriebssoziologie der TU Graz.

[2] BAUER, U. (2010): Wissensbilanz 2010, Institut für Betriebswirtschaftslehre und Betriebssoziologie der TU Graz.

[3] BRETTEL, M.; DITTMANN, U.; ENGLBERGER, H.; VON HIRSCHHAUSEN, C.; LEIPNITZ-PONTO, Y.; OLSOWSKI, G.; SCHÄTTER, A.; SCHMAGER, B.; SCHUCHARDT, C. (2012): Qualifikationsrahmen Wirtschaftsingenieurwesen, Fakultäten- und Fachbereichstag Wirtschaftsingenieurwesen e. V., 1st Edition, Pforzheim.

[4] EUROPEAN STUDENTS OF INDUSTRIAL ENGINEERING AND MANAGEMENT: What is Industrial Engineering and Management (IEM)?, https://www.estiem.org/default.aspx?PageId=523, Online, Retrieved 06.06.2013.

[5] SADEI, C. (2014): Industrial Engineering and Management in Austria: Balancing Industry Requirements, Association Recommendations, Graduates Needs and offered Qualifiaction Profiles on Higher Education Institutions, Diploma thesis, Institute of Business Economics and Industrial Sociology, Graz University of Technology.

[6] BAUER, U.; SADEI, C.; SOOS, J.; ZUNK, B. M. (2014): Industrial Engineering and Management in Austria: Comparison of Qualification Profiles provided by Higher Education Institutions and Career Paths of Graduates, Proceedings of the 2014 Industrial and Systems Engineering Research Conference (ISERC), Montreal, p. 1-10.

[7] EHEA - EUROPEAN HIGHER EDUCATION AREA: Mobility strategy 2020 for the EHEA, http://www.ehea.info/Uploads/(1)/2012%20EHEA%20Mobility%20Strategy.pdf, retrieved 01.01.2014.

[8] MAUSER, H. (1990): Congress in Graz - a key-stone for a bright European future of generalistic education at technical universities?, Der Wirtschaftsingenieur, Graz, no. 3, p. 36.

In their third job, 70% of the 320 IEM professionals

already hold a leading position and FOO in executive

and strategic management rise to almost 17%. In their

fourth job, 74% of the 212 IEM professionals have a

leading position and along with the increase of jobs in

the executive and strategic management, an increase

in the entrepreneurship and in consulting can also be

seen. The average time spent in the first (4,7 years),

second (4,2 years), third (4 years) and fourth (4 years)

jobs are quite similar.

IEM student dynamics:

21,7% of 535 IEM professionals spent at least one

semester abroad for study reasons, which is already

higher than the goal of the EU who wants to achieve

that until 2020, 20% of all students in the EU have study

experiences abroad [7]. 13,28% of 369 IEM students

already spent one or more semesters abroad and 18%

of those students who did not until yet (n=320) have

a positive intention to spend one or more semesters

abroad for study reason.

Most needed foreign language skills “on the job”:

100% of IEM professionals (n=468) need English, 9%

French, 7% Spanish, 7% Italian and 2% Russian skills

in their job, whereat in the next 5-10 years following

foreign language skills are desired by HR managers in

Austria (n=127): English (96%), Russian (23%), Chinese

(22%), Spanish (17%), French (13%) and Slovenian (9%).

IEM graduates success factors for the first application

procedure

HR managers (n=124) mentioned that for IEM

graduates practical experiences and additional

experiences (e.g. computer programs and language

skills) are the most important success factors in the first

application process.

Conclusion and reflections

The founders of ESTIEM have recognized the fact

of different ratios of technical and economics

subjects among IEM degree programs throughout the

European countries already in 1990 in Linköping while

comparing their own degree programs, just before

ESTIEM was founded [8]. This attempt to draw a

European landscape of the different “faces” of IEM

somehow stopped.

Nowadays not only because of the dynamics in the

professional world within the EU, it would be a valuable

information for students, HEIs and HR managers across

Europe to have a clear picture of every “face” of IEM in

EU countries because every IEM degree program has a

different but beautiful “face”. The saying “same-same,

but different” ironically brings it down to the essence and

a “family picture” could light up this opaque situation. ■

EPIEM


EPIEM

41 professors and students from 17 European countries attended this international conference.

“

Linked to the network’s activities over the past months,

the emphasis of this conference was the concretization

of future activities, namely projects within the EPIEM

network. On the one hand there were lectures and

working groups in the field of IEM education. On the

other hand concrete projects were discussed, which

can now be accomplished on an international level by

IEM students.

Jim Platts (from the University of Cambridge, England)

and Gerald Jonker (from the University of Groningen,

The Netherlands) presented country-specific challenges

in IEM education and shared suggestions which were

discussed during the conference. Furthermore, the

“Industrial Engineering and Management survey 2014

in Austria - degree programs and opinions of IEM

professionals, IEM students and HR managers” was

introduced and discussed in working groups. The

professors led a workshop, comparing on a European

country-specific comparison in education with the

Industrial Engineering and Management survey 2014

in Austria. The survey received a positive international

response and provides a solid basis for further projects

in this area.

Afterwards, several projects have been developed

on an inter-university level in collaboration with the

professors and students. The challenge designing the

project was setting up goals that could be achieved by

ESTIEMers. The emphasis was on the added value for

students when working on a project as their master

thesis under a defined framework at another European

university. For instance, the designed projects are about:

the EPIEM formal network, curricula analysis of IEM

studies and in the area of supply chain management.

Important information was received by participants

through the Office of International Relations and

Mobility Programmes of Graz University of Technology,

which presented possible funding for students.

The professors expand the international IEM network

and use the country-specific experiences of different

fields of studies and degree programs in order to

strengthen the national education and to develop

common European activities. For more information on

the EPIEM Conference 2014, the EPIEM network and

the next conference dates, please visit www.epiem.org.

For now, we can say that the 8th EPIEM Conference

2015 will be held in Novi Sad in May. ■

The 7th European Professor of Industrial Engineering and Management (EPIEM) Conference, led in Graz, brought European IEM professors and students together. They focused on developing the IEM education and contribute to a common and prosperous Europe for youth.

7th EPIEM Conference, Graz 2014

Volker Koch

Volker Koch is a research and teaching assistant at the Institute of Business Economics

and Industrial Sociology at Graz University of Technology. His emphases as a teacher

are accounting, cost calculation and marketing management. As a researcher, he

is focusing on incentive systems. Volker Koch is an active member of the Austrian

Alumni Association of Industrial Engineering and Management (WING) and supports

the EPIEM community.

ESTIEM Magazine | 47th issue - Business Analytics


Board 2014 says GoodbyeOutcomes and milestones

INSIDE ESTIEM

Sorana: Learning exponentially more about people skills

and getting broader practical insights on organisational and

strategic management. Except broadening my knowledge, I

feel like I have also broadened my horizons when it comes

to knowing what I need to acquire to shape my future life

and career. Acknowledging the responsibility of shaping a

wholesome Europe together with ESTIEMers that have only

the best intentions was never more clear to me and being

part of the whole structure as one of the leaders of this

organisation represents my reached personal milestone.

Marija: I realise that in the past year I collected just a couple

of stones in the mosaic of my life.

Nuno: The most important milestone for me this year was

finding out that ESTIEMers have a real responsibility in the

development of a better future, in all aspects of our life.

Tibor: It is hard to evaluate soft goals. If it is the learned

self-management and working technique I learned in

presence of the workload or if it is the reactivation of the

IT Committee together with Alp Altinturk with tools like

the creation of the first ESTIEM IT School, I can’t tell.

Esin: Having a start into the year with a perfectionist/result-

oriented me, I learned to be more patient and value more

the processes (e.g. several hours of discussions, asking

people for input, growing yourself/others etc.) involved

in the pursuit of success instead of solely focusing on the

end results, since having the fruits of your effort takes its

time and everything does not go as desired every time.

Sometimes it takes a week, or a month, or even beyond

your board year, to see how much of a change your effort

will make in the organisation and regardless of how much

effort you put into something, it might not end up being as

perfect as you imagine it to be as you are depending a lot

on other people in your work.

Rade: I cannot really point to one thing in particular. I have

learned so much about Motivation, Communication, Time

Management, Strategic Planning and many more things…

However if I had to say one thing only, I would say it would

be learning how to handle communication with so many

different people I had the honour to be in contact with.

What was your biggest personal milestone that you reached this year?

Number of Board chats throughout the year

47chats

Total time spent in chats

192h 06´approximately

8 days

Average time spent in Board chats

4h 05´Shortest chat

1h 05´Longest chat

6h 15´


INSIDE ESTIEM

MAIL CORNER

1300 mails were directly received at [email protected] and additionally this address

was put in Cc 933 times

How much attention did our position related e-mail addresses get (like [email protected])? In average, only 46 e-mails were being sent,

while it was only put in Cc 6 times.

The most intensive part was covered by our personal e-mail addresses, of course. In the form of [email protected], these addresses got the attention 1682 times in average and they were Cc-ed 904 times

How many mails should a boardie expect to send throughout the year? In average: 1661

We enjoyed reading long e-mail threads, some of them having up to 50 replies from active ESTIEMers

BOARD 2014’s

Sorana: Setting up a stable ground for the future 3 to 5 years strategic

plan is definitely a first in the history of ESTIEM. If I would put all of

this in numbers on a timeline, I can say that it happened in the year

when the biggest CMs of ESTIEM took place so far (77 LGs present

in Istanbul & 76LGs present in Budapest), both reaching together a

100% presence rate of both members and observers.

Esin: With the increasing will from our side to vaccinate more long term

thinking spirit into the veins of the 25 years old organisation, creating

a strong base for a strategic plan for ESTIEM through having its SWOT

analysis done and focus areas defined is definitely a very big step taken

that will set a certain direction for the organisation to head towards.

Nuno: I believe one very important milestone we reached this year was

the implementation of a strategic perspective for the development of

ESTIEM.

Tibor: It was a pleasure for me to have been part of the organisation

of one of greatest events ever organised within ESTIEM, the Council

Meeting Istanbul-Boğaziçi. I think this event shows the potential of

ESTIEM that is soon proudly celebrating its 25th anniversary.

Rade: I think the steps that we took towards creating a real strategic

plan for the first time in the 25 years of ESTIEM history was a very big

step. I can see it pulling the organisation forward by giving the basics

for coordinated efforts between different Projects, Committees and

Initiatives of ESTIEM.

Marija: ESTIEM collected gemstones from all over Europe for the

mosaic of the future Europe.

What was the biggest milestone that ESTIEM reached this year in your opinion?

There are 29 countries currently present in our network. Some were visited by 100% of us, some only by 1/6.

The map shows how many of us were present in which countries throughout

the year.

All Boardies have attended 77 unique events in total and have visited 64 LGs

in 24 countries.


In my country and all over the world it was raining during the whole spring and rains were taking away roads, houses and hopes. While travelling from Belgrade to Istanbul, from Porto to Bad Dürkheim, I am drawing a strange pattern in the European sky. I’m not solely meeting cultures and people, but together we are creating a world; a world, which will become a better reality. The devotion shown by ESTIEMers creates a network of personal contacts, which gives me confidence that through our joint efforts, emerges coherence between people, that overcomes all natural, social and geopolitical boundaries. It is still raining as in Marquez’s Macondo, but I do have hope that we can get to grips with all the challenges we face nowadays. For this hope and this amazing and challenging year, which profoundly influenced my development, I thank – from the bottom of my heart – all the precious and devoted people whom I met and whom I had a chance to work with.

“

“

Sorana Ioniță

Marija Turanjanin

Being active for 4 years in this organisation, I can say that through my perspective, ESTIEM reached its highest peak when it comes to the activeness of its members in comparison to its current size.I have witnessed the development of the network and simultaneously my own personal development. From my first event to the first ESTIEM Magazine that I held in my hands after working for months on it as the ESTIEM Magazine project leader, to the very first Board meeting and Council Meeting viewed entirely from the stage perspective, I learned mostly about the feeling of belongingness. Never have I understood better what it means to be European and socially and culturally linked to 29 countries at once. Never have I felt more secure while being surrounded by strangers which I barely met a couple of times in my life, but I still consider them my true friends. Never have I wanted to give back more to the organisation that has helped me become a better person as a whole. I owe each and every person that I met at least once (virtually or live) a huge thank you for helping me strive for understanding empathy, friendship, teamwork, team-, process-, project-, strategic- and organisational management and much more. I can only be grateful to ESTIEM and the ESTIEM spirit for my personal development and giving me direction and the path to walk on for becoming a better human being.

Vice President of Public Relations

Vice President of Finance


When I was starting the year I knew there will be very big challenges coming up. Organizing the Council Meetings with its big number of share- and stakeholders, reactivating the ITC and CRC are just some of them. Those challenges are only manageable with a great team and I can call myself lucky to have had a great team. Here I want to say thank you to the greatest teammates I could have had: Nuno Carneiro for being a great leader and friend, Murat Yiğen and Emre Çetin for making the most incredible ESTIEM event ever, Israel Pohl and Alp Altinturk for their proven reliable responsiveness in case of emergency and excellence in their work, Esin Korel and Sorana Ioniţă for their professionalism and passion for ESTIEM while always making a nice team atmosphere, Zoltán Lugasi and Henrik Beck Olsen as the probably the most underrated project leaders of big ESTIEM events, Mark Smoliar for his always reliable and independent work motivation, Marija Turanjanin for keeping track of all the money and thoughtful input during Board chats, Marina Yermakova for her early and promising preparations and Rade Pantelić for showing me the trick that you can manage ESTIEM with 3 states: Working hard, playing hard and snoring hard. And here I also want to thank Martin Jankoski for his work. There are many more names that should be mentioned, but there is no place here to name all of them here. So I would like to shout a big “Thank you all, ESTIEM appreciates you!” to them.

“Tibor Weigel

Now that the best year of my life is coming to an end, it is time to move on and watch as a new generation of ESTIEMers take the lead in our organisation. I feel very lucky to have had the opportunity of contributing to the development of ESTIEM as a Board member. It has been a terrific experience, surpassing all my expectations!From all the experiences of this Board year, I would say that meeting ESTIEMers from all over Europe has been the drive of my motivation. Enjoying the company and solidarity of my co-Boardies and Leaders was also an indispensable motive to embrace new challenges with renewed energy.While writing these words in September, I’m sitting in a room full of ESTIEMers. I watch them working in groups for their assignment, some are good friends already, some others have just met yesterday, but that does not matter - they’re all learning as equals, sharing the experiences from their different Local Groups. This willingness to learn and mutual respect I observe could be the setting for any other ESTIEM event, making me strongly believe that the values practiced by ESTIEMers are the backbone of our network’s strength. For all your motivation, support and friendship, I would like to thank all ESTIEMers, active and alumni, who allowed me to have this unique opportunity. We will see each other somewhere in Europe!

“

Nuno Carneiro

Vice President of Administration

President


What I can undoubtedly call the best and the most intense year of my life, the year full of work, stress, commitment, a vast amount of experiences, challenges, and incredibly fun moments is almost behind. I remember myself being quite unsure about taking the risk and running for the board exactly a year ago. Now looking back, all I can say is that it was probably the best decision of my life and every second of being a board member was totally worth it! I feel very much privileged to be given the opportunity to lead our beloved organisation with its members striving for a better future, which meet and work together with amazing ESTIEMers like you! I learned a lot about myself and others, went out of my comfort zone and went over my limits. Being only 23 years old, I made countless personal and professional experiences thanks to ESTIEM which would not have been possible to make elsewhere. My source of motivation which has helped me cope with the days with too much work, too less sleep, conflicts and stress that this journey brought along with, has been meeting/working with ESTIEMers all over Europe and seeing them, us growing both as individuals and as an organisation.

I would like to thank all the ESTIEMers whom I crossed paths, had the pleasure to work with! YOU are the ones who made this year simply awesome!

“Esin Korel

22.9.2014. 9:15 AM, Frankfurt airport gate E4

Just a few minutes ago I had the honour of explaining to a German border officer why the hell am I after 10 days in Germany going to Turkey, back to Germany, onwards to Poland, back to Germany again, then to Romania with no ticket back home to Serbia after traveling for about one month straight with only a backpack. I was unable to do much better than to say “I am an ESTIEMer”.After this year, I definitely have something to tell my grandchildren about. This was by far the biggest challenge of my life - Standing on the helm of an organisation counting 8000 members in 29 European countries in a team with five people that I barely used to know… all of that while being only 23 years old.Dear ESTIEMers, colleagues and friends, it was a real honour working hard and playing hard with you. It was like a rollercoaster ride, full of ups and downs but always exciting and I hope you have enjoyed this crazy adventure as much as I did.

“

Rade Pantelić

Vice President of Education

Vice President of Activities

36 ESTIEM Magazine | 47th issue - Business Analytics36 ESTIEM Magazine | 47th issue - Business Analytics

Don’t be afraid to share your ideas with others“

Thijs PutmanESTIEM Information Technology Committee Leader

April 2005 - April 2007


INSIDE ESTIEM

Almost five years have passed since StudyPortals was founded and the difference between then and now is staggering. It started out with a handful of people working from a small room in an apartment in Tilburg. Right now, over fifty people work there, a large part of which still work from Eindhoven, also have from offices in the UK, Sweden, Turkey, Romania, Poland, the US and Australia.

From Student Guide to StudyPortals

Thijs Putman is co-founder of this enterprise together

with several other ESTIEMers. He started in 2002 in

Eindhoven to study Industrial Engineering. He tells:

“When I came to Eindhoven I was determined to

become an “active” student, I although could have

never imagined I would end up travelling all over

Europe, meeting so many diverse and interesting

people and end up staring my own company before I

even graduated…”

When asking about his experiences ESTIEM he recalls

his first event, the Vision in Ilmenau. “About three

months after I started studying, experienced members

took me to my very first ESTIEM experience. We

drove an ill-maintained (there were literally holes in

the bottom) rented van to Ilmenau, participated in

the VISION and did some “less academic activities”

after the VISION. On our way back we managed to

drive the wrong direction only realising our mistake

by the time we reached the Polish border… “. After

this a rollercoaster of events came, among these 9

Council Meetings as soon as the “CM Bug” was caught

in Sofia. It was also at a Council Meeting that a first

introduction to the idea was discussed: “The idea

behind StudyPortals was conceived by Edwin as part

of his work on the Student Guide project in ESTIEM.

Edwin convinced Magnus of the enormous potential

of his idea and then both of them convinced me to

join to help them realise the dream of helping (at that

time) students in Europe to choose the best possible

Master’s programme. My first introduction to the idea

behind what would become StudyPortals was when

Magnus Ollsen and Edwin van Rest talked to me about

it at the end of Council Meeting Ankara (autumn 2006).

From that point onward things went rather quickly and

a first version of the MastersPortal.eu website was

launched in April of 2007. The first two years were

spend building out the MastersPortal.eu website from

Edwin’s guest room annex office in his apartment in

Tilburg. During 2008 we realised our idea had even

more potential than we initially thought, but that we

needed more focus and additional funding (to be able

to increase our rate of growth) and thus decided to

look for an outside investor. Winning the New Venture

business plan competition made the Studyportals team

come in contact with many investors. At the end of

2009, StudyPortals B.V. was founded and we were

ready to start picking up the pace.

By now, StudyPortals has left the start-up phase and

has reached a more stable phase. There are rules and

procedures and even some “big company” problems,

but at the same time we have managed to keep our

original spirit and culture alive. Thijs mentions this as

a very important element of what sets StudyPortals

apart from other companies and it is probably one of

the most important drivers of the success.

IEM and ESTIEM helped Thijs gaining the skills that are

of great help shaping StudyPortals’ operations. The big

difference between then and now is that this time it’s

for “real”, so many situations are less forgiving than

when they used to be in ESTIEM… ESTIEM also helped

Thijs to get in touch with his current business partners.

Furthermore, ESTIEM proved to be a good pool for

StudyPortals to find employees. Many of the employees

came (and still come) from within ESTIEM.

An important aspect of ESTIEM is the European/

international focus it instils in its members. Students

who have been active in ESTIEM find it normal to

work with groups of people from diverse cultural

and linguistic backgrounds. They are able to cope

with cultural differences without even noticing them

consciously. In today’s ever more globalising world this

is an important skill to have.

“What I always found interesting is that within ESTIEM

native English speakers seem to have a (relatively) hard

time fitting in. The “continental” ESTIEM’ers (c.q. the

non-native speakers) have developed their own unique

blend of English, incorporating elements from various

other languages. For native English speakers this is quite

difficult as they are not used to adapt their language in

Koen K

oolen

Local Group Eindhoven

Students who have been active in ESTIEM find it normal to work with groups of people from diverse cultural and linguistic backgrounds.

“


such a way. This “ease of adaptation”, which applies in

broader sense than just for language, is an important

skill you learn within ESTIEM (and you learn it mostly

without noticing it).”

Lastly, Thijs was asked to give some advice to ESTIEMers

on how they could use their ESTIEM experience in their

career. Thijs: “Your ESTIEM experience gives you a

unique international perspective which is something not

many people have from the get-go. This is something

you can definitely place emphasis on when you start

your career. Don’t be afraid to highlight this fact (in for

example your CV) as it sets you apart from most of the

other candidates.

Furthermore, ESTIEM provides you with a big

international network, which is something you can also

get a lot of benefit from (just as we did by recruiting

ESTIEM’ers into StudyPortals). There is, for example, a

lot of local knowledge in ESTIEM that would be hard to

get by if you didn’t know all these people.”

“I think the combination of the previous two facts

puts ESTIEM’ers in an ideal position to start their own

“online” company. The Internet is causing a lot of

physical borders to disappear; by using your ESTIEM

knowledge you can do the same with the “mental”

borders. If you have a good idea you are in a great

position to roll it out globally due to your inherent

international focus!”

“When it comes to starting your own company,

the most important thing is to assemble the best

possible team of people around you. Coincidentally

this is also the most difficult thing about starting your

own company...”

“If you have this team and you do run into problems

you can always “pivot” and start a new direction. Many

successful companies in the past decade started out

doing something completely different from what their

current success is based on. They realised their idea

didn’t work (but in doing so discovered something else

that did) and pivoted. The fact that they had a great

team (and lots of commitment) was the key.”

“Finally: Don’t be afraid to share your ideas with others

as much (and as early on) as you can. It’s unlikely

anybody will steal them. Most companies (especially

other start-ups) already have many more ideas than

they can realistically execute, even without having to

worry about yours.”..

“Getting lots of feedback is much more important than

the off change someone will get away with your idea,

especially when you can get this feedback from fellow

entrepreneurs. And even if somebody should run off

with your idea, a bit of healthy competition will only

inspire you to do better yourself !” ■

INSIDE ESTIEM

About the author

Thijs Putman, 30 years old, is one of the founders of

StudyPortals. At StudyPortals he fulfils the role of CTO and is

thus responsible for running the technical side of the company:

Leading the eight-person development team that builds the

products and at the same time trying to plot, together with

the other founders on the management team, StudyPortals’

course for the coming years.

Apart from the technical side, Thijs is involved in managing,

planning and shaping the (daily) operations at StudyPortals.

Thijs is originally from Tolkamer, a small village on the river

Rhine a couple kilometres from the German border and lives

since his student time in Eindhoven.

Founders of StudyPortals.eu - Thijs Putman, Edwin van Rest and Magnus Olsson (left to right)

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IEM professionalism is an integrated skill set consisting of mathematical, technological, economic, and social competences that focuses on proactive problem solving in value creating processes. In essence, the ethos of IEM studies emphasizes a systemic, solution-oriented engineering mind-set. Emphasis is on capability to solve the right problems right, i.e. identify needs, define problems accordingly, and solve them effectively. Building on these foundations, the program develops strong competencies for the creation and transformation of technology-based business combining strategic, operations, and people perspectives. The programme is organised by the Department of Industrial Engineering and Management (DIEM). DIEM carries out research in close cooperation with companies from various industries and thus combines academic rigour and practical relevance in its research and education. The department has rich connections to and fertile cooperation with esteemed national and international universities.


Nina G

orshkova

Local Group M

insk

Nice to Minsk you

Belarus? Where is it? You may say “somewhere in

Europe” but if you want to be precise, Belarus shares

borders with Poland, Lithuania, Ukraine, Latvia and

Russia. The territory of modern Belarus was part

of such countries as the Grand Duchy of Lithuania,

the Russian Empire and USSR. Despite this fact,

Belarusians retained their customs, traditions and

style of dress. Thanks to its location in the centre of

Eastern Europe our country contains different types of

ancient architecture.

Belarus is known for its nature: lakes, forests, rivers and

chalk quarry. I suppose the best time for visiting our

county is in the summer, because you can catch many

glimpses of the wonderful and beautiful nature while

sightseeing, but at the same time, the nightlife is not

to be neglected.

Like every nation, we have a most popular national

dish – ours is called draniki. It consists out of potato

pancakes with meat and sour cream.

One of the hallmarks of the Belarusian is tolerance,

hospitality and willingness to help. If you appear to

be in trouble, in Belarus you never need to worry ...

Belarusians will do their best to help you. We never

calm down until our guests feel fine.

Another special feature of our people is our love of

sports, especially ice hockey. We love to play ice

hockey and, as you may know, Ice Hockey World

Championship 2014 took place in Minsk, event

which gathered a record number of guests and

viewers in the whole history of the championship.

Some interesting facts about our capital: The main

square, which is called the Square of Independence,

is one of the longest in Europe (15 km). Also,

interestingly enough, the Minsk Botanical Gardens are

the third largest in Europe after London and Madrid

(96 hectares). And last, but not least, the monument of

Lenin placed on the Square of Independence is one of

the highest in the post-Soviet space.

INSIDE ESTIEM

On behalf of LG Minsk I would like to sincerely share our home with you, our soul, our history and everything that we love. Let’s start!



INSIDE ESTIEM

In regards to its connectivity and how easily it is to

reach, except direct flights, it is worth mentioning that

the best connections (costs and frequency wise) can

be found within only a 3 hour reach in Vilnius, whereas

other connections from Ukraine, Poland or Russia can

take up to 8-10 hours.

Moving on to writing about our university and us as an

ESTIEM Local Group:

The Belarusian State University of Informatics and

Radioelectronics (BSUIR) plays a leading role in

the preparation of engineering and scientific staff

in the fields of computer science, radioelectronics

and telecommunications in the national system of

education of Belarus.

The history of ESTIEM Local Group Minsk starts in

April of 2011. It all began with a friendly and cheerful

evening with enthusiastic students of our university and

awesome ESTIEMers Alex Peters, Andreas Flödstrom

and Julia Aksenova, who presented ESTIEM in Belarus

for the first time. And the story began: The first CMs,

Visions, Europe3Ds, Exchanges and so on. We grew and

developed as a Local Group, but not everything went

smoothly. Unfortunately, the end of 2013 was the most

difficult in the history of the group in terms of relations

with the leaders of the University. As a result of long

discussion, the local group was forced to return to the

Guest status, which was announced at the Council

Meeting in November 2013 in Aveiro. Since that time,

the main activity of LG Minsk was focused on getting

the official status at the University and returning the

Observership status, which happened at the Council

Meeting Istanbul-Boğaziçi in April 2014. And after that,

we became stronger, not only as a team but as friends.

Also this year ESTIEMers from our group took part in

the TIMES Semi-Final in Moscow for the first time.

Local Group Minsk is always open for ESTIEM and

willing to organise projects at various levels and it has

something to offer to ESTIEMers all over Europe. ■


Felix Lim

per

Local Group Paderborn

INSIDE ESTIEM Summer Entrepreneurship Training A pilot event organised by businessboosterThe outcome of the event was quite different than

what we had foreseen on paper. The plan was to have

a 5 weeks long event with 30 participants, happening

in 3 different locations across Europe, accommodation

in 5 star hotels without any participation fee. It should

be a highly academic, elite event with a budget of

500.000€, just for ESTIEMers. In the end, the most

important thing was to be able to organise it and to pull

off a first edition. In order to reach this, we changed

the programme to 3 weeks with 20 participants, in 3

locations, with a participation fee as low as possible and

open to all European students.

We started the planning of this event with a huge

university research. After looking for more than 80

universities, checking their availability and the feasibility

to organise the event, we decided that we would like to

have the event in Budapest in Hungary, Catania in Italy

and Lappeenranta in Finland from the 26th of July till

the 17th of August. Going through different options for

grants applications together with the ESTIEM Grants

Committee, we decided to apply for the European

Youth Foundation Grant. A team of five people was

working on that grant from then on. The application

was finalized with big help from the Grants Committee

at their Coordination Meeting in Enschede and we

were able to send a high quality application right at the

day of the deadline, October 1st. With this grant we

were aiming to get up to 20.000€.

At the Coordination Meeting in Bremen, October 2013,

as well as one month later in November 2013, at the

Council Meeting Portugal in Aveiro, we were working

on fundraising, the agenda and the participation fee. In

the end we were not sure how high it can be if we still

want to have enough participants to fill all spots. The

biggest success during these working sessions, though,

was recruiting new members for our team.

Then, in the middle of December, the frustrating

part came: The grant was denied. The answer of the

European Youth Foundation came in and disappointed

us all a lot. Standing up again and getting back the

motivation we had before was only possible as a team.

Everyone felt the same way, but we all knew that this

was something we had to get along with and that we still

had enough time until the event to find some money.

In January 2014, at the businessbooster ESTIEMers

& Alumni get2gether in Paderborn, Yann Girard, an

entrepreneur from Munich was holding a little talk about

entrepreneurship and got to know businessbooster

and ESTIEM. He offered his help in contacting some

companies by introducing us to his friends. One

of these companies was hub:raum, an accelerator

from Telekom located in Berlin. It was really easy to

communicate with them and we could schedule some

phone calls with our contact there. Understanding each

other’s situation and discussing opportunities, it was

possible to sign a partnership agreement for SET. One

part of the contract was that we got online mentoring

for one team during SET.

Martin Jankoski provided us with an idea that made a

big difference: We could contact U.S. universities and

try to find a partner university there, since they are

interested in these kind of events. Thanks to Boutros

Lama’s contact to the University of Miami, we were

able to talk with Dr. Shihab Asfour, the dean of the

IEM faculty. He was very interested in the programme

and wanted to know more. Afterwards, we created a

brochure with a pricing system that depended on how

many students the partner university wants to send.

With this brochure it was possible to convince the

responsible people about our programme and some of

them even got really passionate about it. At this point

we signed a cooperation agreement with the University

of Miami.

One session at the spring Coordination Meeting in

Krakow, March 2014, and one Working Group at

Council Meeting Istanbul-Boğaziçi, April of the same

year, we were again dedicated to SET in order to set

some milestones and to work on the promotion of the

event. We were also able to recruit more members for

the businessbooster team.

Soon the application period started and we promoted

the event everywhere with posters, videos, pictures and

posts about fact of the event locations. At the Council

Meeting in Istanbul I was elected to be the new project

leader of businessbooster and in the following time

period, Natalia, the first project leader of SET and the

former businessbooster project leader, took over the

organisation of the event. When the application period

was over, we met with three people, Nurdidar, Natalia

and me, in Groningen to evaluate them all. After two


INSIDE ESTIEMstages of the evaluation, first with evaluation sheets,

secondly with Skype calls to support our previous

impressions, we chose the final participants. At that

point we still had to assume that the participation fee

of the event would be up to 700€ (flights during the

event included), which unfortunately was the reason

for some cancellations.

The final preparations were very time consuming and

stressful. Flight tickets between the event locations had

to be booked, nametags, certificates and t-shirt to be

designed and information from the participants to be

gathered. Also the budget had to be discussed quite

a lot, the organising Local Groups were finalizing their

plans and had to state how much money they need, at

the same time as we had to collect the money from the

participants in order to ensure their participation and

be able to book flights on their names.

Then the 26th of July came: The first day of the event and

thus a very special day for each organiser and participant.

The following three weeks were full of work and fun,

the teams were growing together more and more and

working a lot on their ideas. After the second week

all the participants knew each other already really well

and it seemed like they were one big team. During the

last module in Lappeenranta, they could develop their

ideas even more, pitch in front of a jury, get feedback

and work again on the points of improvement. Then

the last day of the event came and the teams could

present their final business models in front of an online

jury. The interested audience asked a lot of questions

and also commented on the ideas. All in all this was

a great ending for the work of these three weeks

and we are all looking forward to see further results

now, after the event has ended and the teams possibly

go out into the world to start-up their businesses. ■

SET was hands down the most amazing ESTIEM event I have ever attended. I can strongly recommend it to anyone who is considering applying to the next edition.

Yannick van Looy, SET 2014 participant

“


Council Meeting Istanbul-Boğaziçi A dream that came true...

It always made us laugh because no one was thinking

about doing it. We knew that we were not ready for

a CM. When I was selected as the vice president in

our mother organisation, BÜYAK, I remember that

at our very first board meeting we were talking about

our targets to achieve in 2012. After many discussions,

the idea of organising a CM came up to our minds. I

don’t remember who said it the first but the reason

was “2013 is the 15th year anniversary of LG Istanbul-

Boğaziçi as a member of ESTIEM. We should apply for

CM!” During this meeting, me and our treasurer, we

were assigned for researching the necessary budget

and infrastructure to organise a CM. It was very exciting

actually. I was wondering with which data we should

come back to convince BÜYAK to organise it. We had

worked for 3-4 months and at first, the budget was

quite high and a big work load was needed. We knew

that it was too much of a risk for our LG since after

our board year, the new people would come and had

to continue the work for the CM. The question was

“Can they really do it?” We did not want to take up

the responsibility and then give all the work to the next

board and members. In February 2013, there was just

one and a half months left for CM Eindhoven, and we

were still not sure whether to apply for organising this

big event or not. I remember the meeting where we

finally had to make the decision. Our motivation was

not high because we were not sure whether we could

do it or not. During that meeting, our treasurer said

“Ok. This meeting is going nowhere. We worked for it

a lot until now. Yes, the budget is high and there is too

much work to do. But if we really want to do it, then

let’s go for it. We can handle it.” It was this meeting

when we decided that the president of BÜYAK and me

would work only for the CM application during the last

one and half months. I guess I can’t accurately describe

how this time was: full of work with the logo, motto,

Facebook page, budget, meeting with EU Minister of

Turkey, promotion materials, other companies etc.

Those were exciting times. I still remember when we

went to the meeting with our rector, how she was

helpful and encouraging us by saying “I believe in you

and you can make it. Of course our university will

support you with such a good event.” She even didn’t

think twice before saying so. After all the work and

preparations, we announced our application on the

ESTIEM portal on the 1st of April 2013. Our motto

was “Heart of Eurasia, Beating for ESTIEM!” We really

meant it. Everyone was so excited. Even while I was

lying on the bed at nights, I was thinking about the CM.

In Eindhoven, when we were doing our application’s

presentation, we knew that there were 30-40 people

watching us in Istanbul full of excitement, just about

as much as we had at that moment. I think that was

the most important thing: being a team. If you can feel

the same thing and have the same target, then you can

Murat Y

iğen

Project Leader

Council M

eeting Istanbul-Boğaziçi

It was all about a dream. Yes! If you would ask how the story of Council Meeting (CM) Istanbul-Boğaziçi began, I can easily say that it had already been the dream of our Local Group for a very long time. It had become the tradition of our local general assembly to ask the question “When will we organise the CM?” by our alumni.

INSIDE ESTIEM


make a great team. I went back home from Eindhoven

and was welcomed with a surprise party at my place. It

was one of the greatest moments in my life.

Now it was time to start the preparations. The first

thing was the team of course. Everybody was accepting

what they were assigned for. We prepared our

structure, materials, to do lists, but most importantly

we tried to figure out how the CM should be. Even

though it was our first CM, we wanted to make

something different. But it was not easy at all. Firstly,

the Taksim incident happened in June 2013. It was big

chaos not only for Turkey but also for us. Why? All

companies, hotels, institutions cut their PR budget

because of the depressed economy in Turkey. And it

lasted all summer unfortunately. We had such strange

meetings. One of them was in Taksim with a 5 stars

hotel general manager in the lobby. I could look to

the outside and see where there were gas bombs,

running people and the police, all of them happening

at the same time. Another one was with one of the

richest people in Turkey. It was funny that he told us

he didn’t have money at all. Afterwards, the summer

was going so bad. Euro currency ratio was going up,

we didn’t have enough money, we didn’t even have any

hotel. Our PR was the only thing going well actually.

In September, our motivation levels were high due to

the new members of BÜYAK. Our teams got bigger

and stronger and I must admit that they were working

a lot. I think we called more than 200 companies. We

got lots of rejections, of course, but this is the nature

of Corporate Relations. We were finding sponsors but

not any big names. The ones we got were covering only

some small needs of the event. In December 2013,

another scandal happened in Turkey and the Euro

currency got crazy and went up and at the same time,

our EU Minister was removed from his position. All the

motivation of our team went down. We even laughed

at the bizarre situation we were in. At the beginning

of the New Year, January 2014, we got an e-mail from

one of our Alumnus. He wished us a happy new year

and said that he deposited the required sum of money

we asked for into our account as a new year’s gift. It

was the second biggest sponsorship of our CM. Our

treasurer and I were dancing in the middle of our

campus. People were looking at us but we did not care!

We still didn’t have a hotel, though. I was having an

online conference with the current Vice President of

Activities and told him “Tibor, I guess we can’t make

it to a 5 stars hotel because of the euro currency.

Expenses are too high.” But meanwhile, I got in touch

with one location and kept calling them every single day

(It lasted 2 months). Even the secretary was telling me

“Oh, Murat you are calling again, I was wondering when

you would call today.” One Saturday morning, the hotel

called me and accepted our offer. It worked eventually.

After the hotel arrangement, we had started to have

meetings revolving around this point as well. We tried

to think about each single detail, but of course there

were mistakes but in the end we achieved what we

wanted to do.

As I said, in the beginning it was all about a dream.

We had the dream of organising the best CM. We

placed our target at the highest point. We faced many

difficulties and they caused our motivation to go down.

But at the end of each team meeting, we were leaving

the room with one thought: “YES! We can do it!” The

most important thing was that we were a great team

whose members always supported one another and as

we always say, we are a family in which each individual

has the same aim. In the end, I don’t know whether it

had been the best CM so far or not. But I know that

we did our best for ESTIEMers to have one of the best

weeks of their lives. I hope they enjoyed it, since we

did - a lot!

I would like to end this story with one of the quotes of

Victor Hugo which also reflects one of my life’s ideals:

“There is nothing like a dream to create the future.” ■

INSIDE ESTIEM


Bart Jutte

ESTIEM

Alum

nus,

former Local G

roup Eindhoven

INSIDE ESTIEM

The main idea behind the concept was to provide support for ESTIEMers who are seeking advice in order to make the best choices for their future career, while strengthening the bonds between current and former members of our network. The mentoring programme can channel the knowledge and know-how of experienced alumni and transfer it to ambitious ESTIEMers.

Mentoring programme

How did you come up with the idea?

During the first cooperation call between ESTIEM and

ESTIEM Alumni in January and the Advisory Board

Meeting in the beginning of 2013 in Bad Dürkheim,

Bart Jutte and Csaba Hartmann talked about the

potential in the concept and decided to give it a try.

We both realised the need for such an initiative in

ESTIEM to offer growth opportunities for students and

alumni as well.

When was it introduced?

The first presentation about the programme was held

at Council Meeting Eindhoven (2013 Spring), whereas

the launch of the first edition was in September in the

same year.

How many mentored ESTIEMers do you have in the

program now?

In the 2013 edition we accepted applications from 23

students and 23 alumni.

How do the participants experience the programs?

The mentees who established a good working

relationship with their mentors all experienced personal

growth in one way or another. Some outcomes that

mentees reported are that they are not afraid to take

responsibilities or creating a clearer perspective of their

future and changing their attitude towards people in

daily life. The mentors also experienced the programme

positively. In many cases the mentees provided a great

insight about student life and current opportunities to

them and also they gave each other feedback which

helped the mutual further development of themselves.

What difficulties have you faced in the programme?

The biggest challenge in the beginning was the

promotion of the programme to make the intent

of the programme clear and attract sufficient active

ESTIEMers that are close to graduation. Besides that,

we had to solve the puzzle how to do the matchmaking

and connect the right ESTIEMer with the right alumnus.

Besides that, we needed to create some practical guides

for all participants to share a common understanding of

the focus of the mentoring and provide some practical

tips to get started. We have carried out an intermediate

survey in May 2014 and found out that mentoring teams

find it difficult to keep a rhythm of regular calls, and

also that not meeting in person due to large distances

is causing problems to get the right trust level needed

for a mentoring relationship. Some relationships didn’t

even take off due to that fact and because of the busy

life that most alumni and ESTIEMers have.

How do you want to solve the existing problems?

A so-called “kick off ” meeting between the mentor

and mentee should be a highly recommended before

getting started with the mentoring (Meet your match:

offer an opportunity for mentees and mentors to meet

each other at the start of the mentoring period). We

also plan to organise online chats about common topics

for students, such as how to find your first job, what

is required to be successful in your first job interview

and how to find the way to discover the intent

of your career.

What do current mentees say about their participation?

They are very positive in general. In some cases

the relationship worked out extremely well (real

friendships have been developed and both sides

benefited very well from it), however in some cases

the expectations did not meet reality. The so-called

“Mentoring Agreement” helped a lot to align the goals

of the teams and support them to stay on track during

the year. Those who managed to work well according

to what they agreed upon were quite satisfied at the

end of the course.

Which are your plans for the second edition of Growing

Together?

We plan to have 25 places available for mentees and

further increase the quality of the mentors by attracting

even more experienced alumni and providing more

online discussions and workshops to enhance their

skills. For the students we would also like to offer more

online information sessions. We willbe stricter on the

mentoring agreement as well: teams that don’t prepare

it on time are dissolved, because without any shared

common goals, the mentoring is bound to fail.

Csaba H

artmann

ESTIEM

President 2013

Local Group Budapest


INSIDE ESTIEM

How can I apply for the mentoring programme?

You need to fill out the online questionnaire that is sent

to ESTIEMers by the President of the organisation. After

that, your application will be evaluated according to our

internal guidelines. Once your score is determined, you

will be ranked together with other mentees and the

first 20 will be admitted to the programme.

According to your plans the Growing Together ends after

the one year mentoring period. What do the mentees and

mentors think about continuing their partnership?

Most of them will of course stay in touch and care to

maintain their friendship (it can even be for a lifetime).

Some decided to continue the mentoring activity

informally even after the official end of term, whereas

some others agreed to end the activity but stay friends.

The opinions are very diverse when it comes to this.

Can you share some real success stories (without names

and Local Groups) that describe how did the mentoring

programme help the development of both participants?

We had one student who could not decide which

industry to target as a start for his career. During the

developmental partnership he managed to identify his

key competencies and strengths and having discussed

this with his mentor they outlined a clear path for him

to accomplish his goals. In another case the mentee

updated the mentor on a couple of technological

innovations and IT tools, that the mentor considered

as a value added element to his company and thus they

started using the tool afterwards.

What was the biggest lesson learned in organising the

programme?

Even though a Mentoring Programme seems to be a less

formal system, one still has to track the relationships

regularly and ask for updates from the members.

Having discovered problems earlier could have helped

to assist those pairs where the mentoring relationship

did not work out very well.

Final words:

Overall, 100% of the participating ESTIEMers and

alumni recommend Growing Together to others.

Therefore, we are looking forward to a great second

edition of the mentoring programme. ■

GrowingTogether


Alyona V

ikhareva

Local Group St. Petersburg

INSIDE ESTIEM

The Baltic region is an amazing place to go. Clean streets, amazing traditions that have been around since the Middle Ages, heart-breaking songs and a variety of homemade and ecological food. The beautiful people with the bluest eyes and blondest hair have a good taste in fashion; amazing nature views during spring, summer, autumn or winter cannot leave one indifferent. Unmatched architecture, great history, the beautiful Baltic Sea and the lovely smell of pine trees make this place truly unforgettable.

Meet the Baltics

The Baltic region is the youngest region in ESTIEM.

Currently, there are eight Local Groups from five

countries in the Baltic region. You can easily spot them

on our dotted map: Riga, Tallinn, Vilnius, Kaunas, Kiev,

Minsk, Saint Petersburg and Moscow. The Baltics have

organised a lot of events and hundreds of ESTIEMers

have visited the cities in the region, experienced things

they had never imagined before and seen something

they could not have dreamt about. Next April between

the 15th and the 20th, the Baltic region will gather more

than 250 European students of Industrial Engineering

and Management to work on the future of the network

at ESTIEM’s 50th Council Meeting in Riga.

The first Council Meeting organised by the Baltics was

held in Saint Petersburg in 1997. 17 years have passed

since then and many things have changed. How has

ESTIEM changed since then? At that time, only a few

countries were in the network and only approximately

80 ESTIEMers participated in Council Meetings. The

network has been growing ever since, attracting more

and more highly motivated and skilled students from

the best technical universities from all over the Europe.

How did the process for the latest Council Meeting in

the Baltics go? The best ideas arise suddenly and that

is the case here as well. Gregor Herr, Vice President

of Activities in 2012, initially fired up the idea about a

Council Meeting in the Baltics. After the open call for

organising a Council Meeting was sent out in spring

2014, the Baltic Regional Coordinator Laine Šildere

sent an e-mail to all Local Groups asking for their

support for applying. Almost everyone thought the idea

was insane (and there still are people that think so), but

during numerous chats that were held in preparation,

the decision was to go for it.

At the end of August 2014, 30 members from Baltic

Local Groups gathered together in Riga to work on

the upcoming Council Meeting. A lot of work has been

done; a lot of workshops and brainstorming sessions

have been held. Almost half a year has passed since the

Baltics applied for the Council Meeting, but most of the

work is just up ahead. ■


Eleonora N

azander (née Ivanova)

Local Group St. Petersburg

ADVERTORIAL

Stora Enso is not only a sustainable company, but also a great place to work according to ESTIEM alumna Eleonora Nazander (née Ivanova)from LG St. Petersburg who began her career as Business Intelligence Analyst and Global Leadership Trainee at Stora Enso Helsinki office one year ago. We asked Eleonora about her experience so far.

Ever wondered what it is like working for Stora Enso

How did it happen that you moved from St. Petersburg to

Helsinki and started your career abroad?

Believe it or not, but I largely owe ESTIEM for this

change in my life. Almost 6 years ago I took part in

Vision Helsinki-Tampere, which was my first trip

abroad. It was that ESTIEM event where I met with

my future husband who is an ESTIEMer too. Two

years later I finished my Bachelor’s degree in Russia

and moved to Finland to do Master’s studies at Aalto

University. After finishing the studies, I found a job in

Helsinki and married that ESTIEMer.

Why did you choose Stora Enso?

One reason is that I always wanted to work for an

international company to be able to travel and work with

people of various backgrounds. Also, I was attracted by

the manufacturing industry as it is very interesting for

me to learn about production, as I believe it is for many

other ESTIEMers, too. And of course the job itself was

a very important factor. But maybe the main reason I

chose Stora Enso was the Global Leadership Trainee

program that they asked me to participate in.

What is the trainee program about?

In the program, we are 22 trainees in different locations

across the world and with diverse backgrounds in

business and engineering. We all have normal job

responsibilities in one of many Stora Enso offices and

production sites, but for the first 16 months 30% our

time is dedicated to the trainee program.

The program consisted of six modules: meeting

senior leaders of the company and learning about the

strategy of the company in Finland, leadership training

and learning how to do business in China with IMD

business school, volunteering work in China, 3-month

international assignment and the final meeting in

Sweden. Also, we have mentors to support us.

What was the highlight of the program for you?

It was my 3-month international assignment in Brazil.

When you are thrown to another country to work on

something completely new, you learn a lot about the

culture, but you also learn to adapt to new circumstances

and working style, to work independently and be brave.

What would you call your main learning from the program?

There were really many, but maybe I can mention two

that where important for me: Firstly, it was team work:

you have to be a good listener and sometimes suppress

your ego for your team to be successful and, secondly,

you should never be afraid to raise a question and

challenge the way things are because the newcomers

are the ones able to see things with fresh eyes. ■


Natalie G

yárfás

IEM Foundation Board

INSIDE ESTIEM

In June 2014, the IEM Foundation was established by three organisations: ESTIEM, ESTIEM Alumni and EPIEM, with the aim of fostering IEM care. To understand what this aim means, we should look into the history of ESTIEM, since it all started many years ago, when the idea of ESTIEM was born.

The IEM Care and its Foundation

25 years ago everything was geared towards a united

Europe. In this spirit we, students of IEM, felt a drive

to develop international relations and joined forces

to start ESTIEM. No-one on the founding team of

ESTIEM could have imagined that it would grow

up so wonderfully and impact so many people’s

lives. Throughout the years, together, we have

developed three great networks, connecting students,

professionals and professors within the IEM field across

all of Europe. Somehow we managed to create a sense

of a family, which is enhancing amazing interrelations

across countries and age groups. What could be next?

Is it possible that emerging from this valuable triangle

we could have even more impact on our society?

The idea of a foundation came up in the beginning of

2013 while trying to figure out ways to create equal

opportunities for IEM students. After having met

ESTIEMers, Alumni and professors from all corners of

Europe, we knew that there are still lots of opportunities

in the network that are waiting to be discovered.

During the summer of 2013, Natalie took the

initiative for a foundation as a means to impact our

future. At the Summer Academy Alumni event 2013,

thoughts were shared on how we would like to

impact our societies. Alumni at the Council Meeting

Istanbul Boğaziçi in April 2014 indicated a wish to

be ambitious and have an impact beyond just being

a financial vehicle for ESTIEM. Many ideas that seem

to have broad support are in the area of bridging

financial inequality and fostering ethical leadership.

The founding Board, consisting of three students

and three Alumni, drafted statutes and by-laws for

the Foundation in order to have a structure to get

started. The triangle of the founding partners is

represented in the Advisory Council: Nuno Carneiro

from the ESTIEM Board, Bahar Akıncı from the ESTIEM

Alumni Board and Jim Platts for EPIEM. Through the

“Friends of the Foundation”, people and organisations

who support the Foundation’s work by contributing

with their time/experience and financially, stay

connected to the Foundation and are kept informed

about the way the Foundation is reaching its aims.

The first meeting of the Founding Board in Istanbul April 2014. From left to right: Marlies van Laarhoven, Bart van Eijden, Natalie Gyárfás, Joris Hoogerdijk, Martin Schönbeck, Elias Faethe

Marlies van L

aarhoven

IEM Foundation Board


INSIDE ESTIEM

Slowly, it became clear that it is the three organisations

where the ideas are born, where the action happens and

where the accomplishments take place. The role of the

Foundation is to attract the organisations towards caring

behaviour and to foster the interrelations between

them, as well as to support the actions financially. This

is how we would like to foster this so called IEM Care in

order to further grow our IEM family and its members.

In June 2014, at the Alumni Meeting in Budapest, the

idea was raised to embrace an inspiring lighthouse

project. In a big circle of alumni covering 25

generations of ESTIEMers, a letter of intent was

signed to mark the collaboration of the founding

partners - ESTIEM, ESTIEM Alumni, EPIEM and the

Foundation Team - to create the Foundation. The

Foundation was formalised at the notary and we gave

it a general name and a general aim, which gives space

for a broad range of possible lighthouse projects.

Now what should this lighthouse project be? What is it

that wants to emerge from our networks? What gives

us energy to support ways to make this impact happen?

What would make us really proud? These are the

questions that we would like to find answers until CM Riga.

During the summer of 2014, we were setting up a

bigger team, a mix of students, alumni and professors

in order to shape the Foundation together. We

would like to let the lighthouse project emerge from

our networks through an essay competition. Jim

Platts is our first “donor” to support this financially.

Keep an eye on the ESTIEM Portal and emails to

notice how you can contribute with your dreams and

ideas for the Foundation in the essay competition.

At the 50th Council Meeting in Riga next spring, we

would like to launch the inspiring lighthouse project

that emerged from the essay competition and name the

Foundation after this lighthouse idea. When this is done,

the current founding Board will make place for an elected

Foundation Board, who will take this into the future.

As you can see, we are shaping the Foundation. Just

as 25 years ago the founders of ESTIEM did, we are

working on the Foundation without knowing its impact.

What the Foundation beholds, will step by step evolve.

And you are part of this. Feel free to contact us with

your ideas, to share with us your IEM Care initiative or

to join the team: [email protected].

Working Group about the Foundation with the Alumni participants of CM Istanbul, April 2014

Letter of intent signed by Nuno Carneiro, Terhi Marttila, Jim Platts and Natalie Gyárfás


Larry S

tapleton

Waterford Institute of Technology,

Waterford, Ireland

INSIDE ESTIEM

At Summer Academy Novi Sad in 2014, participants were invited to understand their unique potential as industrial engineering leaders. Our academy focused upon deep aspects of organisational culture and leadership which inform truly great industrial engineering management. We explored this complex universe in which we find ourselves and all that it means for an understanding of excellent organisational systems and leadership.

Summer Academy - New mentor’s experience

The Arrival

I arrived into a balmy Novi Sad on a late Saturday

evening and made my way through cheering crowds to

the hotel my local contacts had arranged for me. No,

the people of Novi Sad had not turned out en masse to

celebrate my arrival! There was a great cultural festival

involving music and dance. Celebrating is a way of life

in this part of the world and this was one of a stream

of summer festivals which were an excuse to enjoy

beautiful Novi Sad by night.

The Programs

The next day, the local ESTIEM group whisked us off

to the beautiful village of Vrdnic, nestled into the lush

mountains of a vast national park under the shadow

of an ancient Orthodox monastery. We stayed with

the Avromic family who warmly welcomed us and

immediately provided us with a hearty dinner. My

ESTIEMers made it very clear to me that it is the

“ESTIEM way” to enthusiastically engage in local

traditions. We enthusiastically participated in a

local village festival (and had the best goulash I have

ever tasted).

The Local Group also brought us on a long hike into the

mountains, uncovering hidden gems such as an ancient

monastery nestled in a valley.

The SAC participants were from all across Europe:

Bulgaria, Germany, Lithuania, Turkey and of course

Ireland and we drew on what each of us had to bring

from our own cultures in order to come to a deeper

understanding of what Europe is all about and to craft

some sense of a shared European future, a future

to which ESTIEMers will make a transformational

leadership contribution. We worked hard and, as a

consequence, explored so many aspects of industrial

engineering management excellence: excellent human

and engineering systems design, personal excellence

and leadership excellence amongst others. As we

celebrated the wonderful diversity of our small group, I

soon discovered a special energy that you rarely find in

any other education or training setting. Each participant

took time to both listen to others and share what they

had to offer, whether it was a deeply considered insight

or a regional delicacy from home. We participated in

Turkish dancing and singing, we experienced Bulgarian

folk traditions, enjoyed Lithuanian cuisine (you really

have to try cold beetroot soup) whilst being treated to

distinct German humour.

Our sessions continued for ten days. Our group

reviewed formal materials which we could use for

important ideas on our journey together, and created

space for quiet reflection together. We redecorated

the back garden, the barbecue area, the house and

just about everything else. We got our hands on with

posters, designs and plans for transforming European

organisational and cultural life. We publically published

(on the Avromic washing line) a vision for a new trans-

European university, building upon all that is good

about European engineering education, but adding our

own improvements which drove our design towards

systematic excellence.

My last day was hard as I shared difficult goodbyes

with fellow-Europeans who, in a few short days, had

morphed from photos on resumes into people I am

honoured to call friends. I also took away with me

something of the place of Vrdnik, the Local Group and

our host family who, again and again, ensured that we

were always cared for without intruding in the work we

had come to accomplish. And, for me at least, we did

accomplish all goals we set for ourselves, and perhaps

even more than that.

My deepest gratitude to each participant for all they

gave of themselves to make the 2014 Novi Sad

academy a special time! ■


M.Sc. in Industrial Engineering and Management at Tampere University of Technology

Thinking About a Master’s Degree Somewhere Else in Europe?

Are you interested in business development in global business-to-business markets? How about studying in Tampere University of Technology, in the heart of Finland? The Master’s Programme in Industrial Engineering and Management is a 2-year program focused on industrial marketing, business development and global sourcing strategies. The programme is aimed at students who already have BSc degree in engineering or technology, and taught completely in English. An engineering degree combined with analytical thinking, problem solving, intercultural mindset and understanding of new technologies provide our graduates great career prospects in industrial marketing, sales, supply chain management, technology sourcing, business development and consulting.

Studying in TUT is not only theoretical, but it also includes projects with local industries that enable students to gain practical experience in the development of global sales and sourcing processes. The contact between managers, teachers and students to solve real-life management problems gives our students invaluable learning opportunities, as well as beneficial connections to the companies. The global world faces an increasing demand for internationally oriented graduates that have a broad perspective in business development. The intercultural mindset the programme provides is a gateway to multicultural companies as well as smaller companies that are expanding abroad. Many of our students have started their management careers in business development projects related to global sales and sourcing. Finland is a northern country, renowned for its high standard of education and technological know-how. Tampere is the third largest city in Finland and centrally

located in the country, making it easily reachable from every direction. It’s situated between two large lakes and has various outdoor opportunities. Being the industrial pioneer of Finland, Tampere is a hub for leading-edge technology, research, education, culture, sports and business. It’s a lively city with a rich student culture that ensures you won’t get bored in your free time. As a student of TUT, you have the right to take courses also outside the programme from other faculties or from the University of Tampere. “I chose TUT because I have always been interested in Scandinavian countries. Finnish way of making business is straight forward, well organized and based on human relations. The program is focused on intercultural way of making business which is highly useful in today’s world. Moreover the program is well build for a student who has a technical background. The most exciting part of the program for me was interaction with Finnish companies during courses and while writing our theses. This way of teaching gives more opportunities for a student in learning by doing. Finally, the best part of being a student in TUT is a student life. It is an experience you are going to tell to your grandchildren. All in all, studying in TUT is a perfect combination of an interesting and hard work and exciting student lifestyle. The slogan of this program should be “Work hard – Play hard” so why don’t you come and live this 2-year of a lifetime experience.” Maria Morenko - Ukraine The application period is between 2nd of December and 6th of February. You can find detailed instructions and the application at http://www.tut.fi/admissions. For any further information please contact the Educational Coordinator Minna Baggström at [email protected] ■

ADVERTORIAL

Why apply to our programme? • Top quality teaching, well structured programme• Participating in projects with local companies • Acquiring expertise in professional English • Learning multi-cultural team skills • Active student life and networking


INSIDE ESTIEM

Academic Days

During the past year, the Academic Days Project had

organised two successful events: Business Intelligence

Logistics Days in Eindhoven in May and Total Lean

Days in Porto in October. The highest quality of the

event in Eindhoven was approved by the Knowledge

Management Committee, by awarding Academic Days

and Local Group Eindhoven the Event of the season

Award. Academic Days is still a relatively new Project

and each event we organise enables us to get more

organisational experience and to learn the best ways to

implement our concept. We are constantly working on

supplementing and updating best practice documents

which help local organisers to understand the concept

of Academic Days better and use it for its’ full potential.

Looking in the future we will have 2 Academic Days

events in spring semester of 2015 with the following

topics: Product Life Cycle in Paderborn and Innovation

Management in Renewable Energies in Bremen,

which will expand the maximum of 2 events per year

we had before.

Project, Committee and Initiative updates

businesbooster

During the last six months businessbooster faced

a new challenge in organising a big training event

for students with an entrepreneurial approach: The

Summer Entrepreneurship Training (SET). All in all,

fourteen students from all over Europe had the chance

to participate in the first edition of this unique new

event. Moreover, businessbooster developed its team

structure further so that it can engage more members

to take actions. Through the cooperation with the

ESTIEM Alumni network it was possible to improve

the events and the project itself. The link between

the different events organised by businessbooster was

established, thus participants can find themselves in an

accelerating flow.

Europe3D

Since the last Council Meeting, the Europe3D Family

was working hard to bring the project to the next level.

We have two successful events in the second half of

2014 behind us and the discussions with the organisers

of 2015 have already begun.

During the Coordination Meeting in Skopje, the

Europe3D Team recorded a new general promotion

video and laid the foundations of a new webpage

outline. By updating the Best Practice Documents,

developing a continuous timeline for the organising

process, improving the knowledge management

system and automatising the non-ESTIEMer application

confirmation, we made the job of the future Europe3D

organisers much smoother. Last, but not least, there

has been some progress concerning potential sponsors

for Europe3D as well.

TIMES

Since the last Council Meeting Istanbul-Boğaziçi,

TIMES had a Coordination Meeting (CoM), which was

organised by Local Group Istanbul-ITU during July and

the next TIMES Semi-Final organisers were chosen.

During the CoM, various other topics regarding

the future of TIMES were discussed, including the

elimination process of the Local Qualification (LQ)

teams in case there are more of them than the

organisers expect, the growth strategy of TIMES, and

whether external participants, for instance from USA,

should be accepted or not. The team has been working

on being well-prepared for the next year since the last

CoM. Responsible persons are keeping in touch with

every Local Group and additionally with Semi-Finals/

Final organisers. A lot of documents including the

Info Brochure 2014/15, most of BPDs were updated.

Lastly, TIMES LQ Poster 2015 is ready and waiting to be

distributed in Budapest at the Council Meeting.

Financial and Legal Committee

Since the previous Magazine issue the Financial and

Legal Committee (Also known as the FLC) has not

been standing still. The members of the FLC have

been working on various things, a lot of which are

still in the pipeline. The work that the FLC has done

in the past months consists, in addition to other tasks,

of advising Local Groups on budgets of events, going

through the entire Internal Regulations and gathering a

motivated team.

At our highly productive Coordination Meeting in

Kaiserslautern, members of the Financial and Legal

Committee have defined the scope and work of the

Committee and long term goals for the committee

have been set.

Language Program Initiative

During these last months we have been creating a

whole new team structure to increase our efficiency.

We are growing and expanding our collaborations.

So far, we have been working on projects together

with TurkishWIN, a Chinese University for German-

speaking pen-paling activity and, of course, CoffeeStrap.

Besides, we are developing a toolkit in collaboration

with the StudentGuide project including all ESTIEM

network’s languages (27 in total). We already created

our two first BPDs about “How to organize a language

course” and a report template for those language

activities. We finally set a solid plan and a clear strategy

for approaching events to implement and promote

language courses within ESTIEM, together with a

brand-new reports and feedback system.


INSIDE ESTIEM

Summer Academy

A very unique summer, but after so many years,

this summer was different. We had 2 new inspiring

academic leaders: Larry Stapleton in the small village

of Vrdnik, Serbia was guiding ESTIEMers through the

path of experience, sharing life stories and insights into

achieving excellence in their lives. Gregory H. Watson

in the outskirts of Helsinki, in the middle of the forest

was nurturing and leading a colourful group which were

representing 10 different countries. He was sharing and

passing wisdom gained throughout long years for the

younger generation of ESTIEMers which will the future

leaders in the IEM field.

Dietrich Brandt was building the foundation of values

in the Summer Academy in Lisbon. The group itself

was building friendships and shaping mentalities full of

virtues for the summers to come.

The summer has passed on, but the true challenges,

obstacles and opportunities to show what Summer

Academy generation 2014 learned during this unique

summer is yet to come.

Social and Environmental Responsible Initiative

In these past months, SERI has been working on

developing the social activities. We are currently

working on an idea of organising a SERI event which

would include some volunteering actions, so we

are also trying to connect with some volunteering

organisations. We are looking forward to the upcoming

Coordination Meeting where we will elaborate more

on this topic.

The Green Event Consulting Team has also been

working in the past months - it has contacted organisers

of several events in order to encourage them to reduce

their event’s ecological footprint and to include more

social activities. GECT is also progressing and we

are working on new ideas. Thanks to our great team

and motivated people we will continue working hard

hoping to bring SERI to the highest level.

Informational Technology Committee

The IT Committee, with all its Benefactors and nerds,

had a great start after the Council Meeting (CM)

Istanbul-Boğaziçi. You need to realise how deeply

you are involved with the IT systems in general, from

early school years to the end of your professional life.

The CM was the time when people realised that they

have a lifelong relation with IT. And many of them

showed interest in ITC, hence the committee gained a

considerable number of members after this event.

To run the portal, we set up a new server which works

at light-speed. We then started to improve the portal

code and interface to speed things up and make the

user experience smoother.

We use the newest softwares and market-standard

technologies within our systems now. The current work

is to replace our old backup & storage server and get

it working perfectly. On the portal, many new features

and improvements are done and many others are

currently in progress.

Lastly, we initiated a movement for the development

of ESTIEMers in terms of IT. We are going to have

the IT School immediately after the CM in Budapest,

but we are planning to repeat the event and support it

with more local and focused versions according to the

feedback that we will gather.

Vision

Since May, the beginning of Food from soil to shelf

series, the Vision Project has reached a long way. The

structure of the project was rebuilt, team members

were gathered for all the teams and the hard work

has started. The future of the project and its SMART

goals for the months to come were set at the first

Coordination Meeting(CoM) in Braunschweig and,

after that, at the Organisers CoM in Karlsruhe, the

organisers met and shared with each other best

practices in order to provide high quality events

to the students.

Regarding the events, 11 are scheduled, including a Final

Conference in Istanbul ITU and 2 joint events with the

businessbooster project. The team has had more than

15 chats already, from team chats, family chats and also

organisers’ chats. The result is that the team managed

to keep a very close communication and came up with

outstanding new ideas such as the AdVision system.

BrainTrainer

2014 was a really awesome year for the BrainTrainer

project. Two events were organised so far: BrainTrainer

Kranj and BrainTrainer Groningen with one more still

ahead of us - BrainTrainer Ansbach - which will be a

joint event with VWI, one of the partner organisations

of ESTIEM. We also managed to build up a strong

core team and with the help of this team we updated

the BrainTrainer Best Practice Documents, created a

company brochure for local organisers, refreshed the

BrainTrainer image and strengthened the external

relationship with other NGOs.

We already have 2 upcoming events set for 2015:

BrainTrainer Ilmenau and BrainTrainer Skopje, and we

are looking forward to having our next joint event with

EESTEC. Moreover, we are already preparing a special

celebration for 2015, since it will be the next milestone

within the life-span of the BrainTrainer project - it will

celebrate its 5th birthday.


INSIDE ESTIEM

Knowledge Management Committee

The past 6 months after the previous ESTIEM Council

Meeting in Istanbul have been very busy for the

Knowledge Management Committee (KMC). Apart

from handling daily operational work in both the

Feedback System and best Practice Documents Task

Group, we have had the opportunity to implement many

new concepts and ideas into the ESTIEM network.

One of the new concepts introduced is the Event

of the Season award in which the KMC highlights the

best ESTIEM event of a given yearly season based on

the feedback scores it has received from participants.

We are currently also working on defining the benefits

of having a software or tool to help process feedback

data we gather from ESTIEM events. Some concepts

have already been made to create such a Feedback tool

together with the IT Committee.

The KMC has also taken an active role in supporting

ESTIEM Local Groups with the experience and services

we have to offer. To support this initiative further, the

KMC has finalised the concept and goals of a new Task

Group which is also responsible for coordinating the

documentation, storage and distribution of academic

knowledge in ESTIEM. The Task Group will be fully

launched at the end of this year, a year which has proven

to be very productive for the KMC.

Members Committee

After Council Meeting Istanbul-Boğaziçi, the

Members Committee has mainly been focusing on

the Growth Strategy and improving the Guest and

Observer status by including more information in the

Internal Regulatıons.

So far we have one new Guest Group since Council

Meeting Istanbul- Boğaziçi, we are happy to welcome

back Tallinn, since this text was written there might

have been more new Guest Groups. Furthermore,

in the Approaching team we have, thanks to a LG

Requirement email, created a data base with potential

future LGs, this will help us in our future approaching.

The Human Resources Task Group has completed

several short Get Active videos, which we hope you

are all enjoying. Furthermore they are also working on

new tasks like posting event reports and sharing videos

with recruitment tips on Facebook.

Because we care!

Public Relations Committee

During the second half of 2014, the Public Relations

Committee has made multiple improvements in its

operating tasks. The Online PR Team raised the quality

of ESTIEM’s Facebook and Twitter content to a very

high degree by constantly creating content twice per

day for it. The same team also designed a LinkedIn

Growth Strategy for ESTIEM, promoting the usage of

LinkedIn within ESTIEM and formalising our network in

a very professional way.

The Design Team created all T-shirts and Posters which

are to be distributed at Council Meeting Budapest.

While also assisting Local Groups, Projects and

Committees with a variety of other designs (stickers,

roll-ups, nametags, flyers). Besides transferring the

Design knowledge to the next ESTIEM generation, we

are trying to ensure the continuity of our published

materials. We introduced a new adjustment that will

help develop a consistent and united image of our

Network on Facebook, by creating a very profound

Online Image. From now and onwards, all ESTIEM

events on Facebook will be branched under the official

ESTIEM Facebook Page.

Nonetheless, the team won’t stop here. Our goal

is to create and maintain a professional and widely

recognized brand for ESTIEM.

Training Committee

The symbol of ESTIEM Training Committee is a

loveleaf: four red hearts connected together just as a

lucky clover. It means that through trainings and training

events hot and inspiring hearts of trainers connect all

the hungry for knowledge ESTIEMers in one. Only

being united as one we can learn, share and grow

together! The main new thing for ESTIEM Training

Committee today would be the amount of newly

appointed coordinators and responsibles. At this very

moment there are 12 amazing responsibles in Training

Committee, who are working very hard and doing

magic to ensure that this magic is conveyed through

trainings to every ESTIEMer. Trainers on Tour (ToT)

have reached Poland, Russia, Belarus, France, Turkey

and Greece this year. The Local Responsible Forum (LR

Forum) held in Bremen was a huge success and now the

next event is already in progress. Thanks to winning Ad

Fundum Award at Council Meeting Istanbul-Bogazici,

ESTIEM Training Committee will soon launch the very

first Regional Benchmark Forum event. Last but not

least, the Training New Trainers event, taking place in

Belgrade in December, will be organised together with

EPSA (European Pharmaceutical Students Association).

Other than that, the ESTIEM Training Committee

has updated several BPDs, Training Framework

Documents, created the ESTIEM Trainers Database

and the Trainings Calendar.


Linked to ESTIEM - Linked to companiesHow LinkedIn will benefit you and ESTIEMLinkedIn is the world’s largest and most powerful professional social network with 300 million members in over 200 countries and territories around the globe. It is growing tremendously and has become an exceptional platform for finding a job or an employee. Its mission is very simple: connect the world’s professionals to make them more productive and successful. After joining LinkedIn, one gets access to people, jobs, news, updates and insights that help anyone be great at what they do.

A LinkedIn profile is basically an online resume, but

it’s even better. One may ask: “Why?” Because it’s a

dynamical resume, supported by other people with

whom a person is connected to on this network.

These people can provide confirmations of skills and

expertise by recommending and endorsing.

If the question still remains: “Why is this network so

important for the future?”, then let me introduce some

statistics: 43% of employers use social media to recruit

and 88% of them use LinkedIn. It may seem that as

a student there is no need to have a LinkedIn profile

since students are normally not yet looking for a job.

So what are the benefits then for students? According

to LinkedIn, approximately 200.000 university students

join the network every month, encouraging companies

to use this platform to recruit internships and entry-

level positions. Those opportunities should not be

missed by not having a profile. One of the biggest

benefits that LinkedIn offers university students and

jobseekers is that they can check out the pages of

their targeted employers. By visiting company pages,

researches about the whereabouts of the company can

be conducted, but also about the hiring process and

what people have to say about that organisation.

Another important notice that should be pointed

out is that in the digital world, LinkedIn is a powerful

networking tool. The network needs to be built before

it is being needed. Using LinkedIn won’t guarantee a

job right away, still. LinkedIn even has a student portal.

E-mail alerts can be sent to receive notifications of

recommended jobs based on education and interests.

Investing time and effort in the network should be done in the present, so that when embarking on the career path seems right, there will already be a network of peers to reach out to.

“ Ivana Drecun

Local Group Belgrade

Marios K

iriakidis

PRC Leader 2014

Local Group X

anthi

INSIDE ESTIEM


LINKED TO ESTIEMLINKED TO COMPANIES

LinkedIn is the world’s largest and most powerful

network of professionals

300k

This business-oriented network is growing tremendously, currently it has over 300 Million registered users and over 3 Million Company

Pages.

100% 94%

LinkedIn counts executives from all 2013 Fortune - 500 companies as members, its corporate talent solutions are used by 94 of the Fortune - 100 companies.

According to LinkedIn approximately 200.000 college students join the

network every month.

The use of Endorsements and Recommendations

greatly affects your profile, expanding your

professional opportunities

Creating ESTIEM Projects in LinkedIn

greatly reinforces our Image’s consistency

while it also enhances individual profiles

By adding ESTIEM as an organisation in

which you are working at, you can justify the

perception that you are better prepared for the professional world than

other students

Together we can achieve a very professional and

consistent Image for ESTIEM, which will lead to more

Brand recognision - while also preparing individually for our

future job

ESTIEM is not well known in the professional world, even though it is the sole European organisation for IEM Students that do an amazing job on an international scale.

“As an ESTIEMer, the interest in landing an international

job might be quite high. There is no better way

than using LinkedIn and connecting with all the

major international employers and finding jobs in

foreign countries.

However, there are more visible benefits of using

the network. By having a LinkedIn profile and

maintaining it, ESTIEM as an organisation can also be

helped tremendously.

Well, first of all, the following fact needs to be

made clear: ESTIEM has a company page with basic

information about the organisation. This is where

externals get informed on what we do and who we

are. But this is not enough, since it only contains

basic information.

The real insight on ESTIEM’s work is the very own

ESTIEMer’s profile.

To make the ESTIEM Brand well known in the

professional world and provide a clear image of how

much it is being achieved, this has been the ESTIEM

Public Relations Committee’s goal all along and

LinkedIn is an important milestone in order for ESTIEM

to achieve that.

When you join LinkedIn, you get access to people, jobs, news, updates and insights that help you be great at what you do.

“

INSIDE ESTIEM


LinkedIn is the world’s largest and most powerful network of

professionals

300k

This business-oriented network is growing tremendously, currently it has over 300 Million registered users and over 3 Million Company

Pages.

100% 94%

LinkedIn counts executives from all 2013 Fortune - 500 companies as members, its corporate talent solutions are used by 94 of the Fortune - 100 companies.

According to LinkedIn approximately 200.000 college students join the network every month.

ESTIEM’s visibility can benefit among the professionals

on a high degree through only a couple of small things

that could be done individually by ESTIEMers:

1. Adding ESTIEM as an organisation where one is

working at. Going even further into explaining what the

tasks and activities are, what were the specific (team)

roles for a project and the most important aspect,

what kind of benefits could be drawn from working

for the network - which skills and expertise has been

acquired. This is how the perception is then justified,

that ESTIEMers are more prepared for the professional

world than other students.

2. Creating ESTIEM projects on LinkedIn. This is the

most useful tool for the organisation, since ESTIEM is a

project oriented association. Any project can be simply

created, a description of the goals can be added, as

well as the purpose of the project and details about

the (team) roles and positions. Team members can

also be added to the same project, connecting then

further with other fellow ESTIEMers and showing to

the world what has been achieved together, creating a

very professional and consistent Image for ESTIEM and

the respective ESTIEMers.

3. Recommending and endorsing people is a very crucial

part of this story. Recruiters and hiring managers may not

care much about endorsements since recommendations

carry much more weight at this point, but it’s easy to

imagine a time when they will. During an application for a

job, for instance, while most competitors have between

50-100 endorsements from clients and colleagues, in

case this will be compared with an account that has zero

endorsements, this could hurt the chances of the later

on. Potential employers will see them when viewing such

a profile. They will know that the person who’s account

they are viewing is a hard-working and trustworthy

person, a desirable candidate for any open position.

This is something LinkedIn is most recognised for and is

also the reason why endorsing should be done actively,

as well as the recommendations to people to get them

back, not only from fellow ESTIEMers.

Being recognised by companies and preparing

ESTIEMers for their future jobs is our primary goal,

which can be achieved by creating and developing

a philosophy that encourages ESTIEMers to

use LinkedIn. All while increasing our Image’s

professional consistency.

Get started with your LinkedIn experience!

43% of employers use social media to recruit and 88% of them use LinkedIn

INSIDE ESTIEM


Tim

Byrne

Executive Director - Institute of

Industrial Engineers Ireland

INSIDE ESTIEM Impressions from College 2014, PortoFrom the Sunday 3rd until the Thursday 7th August

I attended the ESTIEM College meeting in Porto.

This College was devoted to Strategic Planning for

ESTIEM. I was honoured to be asked to facilitate this

important meeting. With my boss/wife I arrived on

Sunday evening and was immediately impressed with

the beautiful venue for the college. We were made feel

very welcome and I looked forward to the beginning of

the meeting proper on the Monday morning.

As facilitator I needed to remain neutral and I had

concerns for my ability to do so. I have been involved

in a number of ESTIEM events and had some

preconceived impressions and idea’s regarding the

ESTIEM organisation. Thankfully I think I succeeded

fairly well in remaining neutral.

With approximately 24 attendees at the meeting I

expected a lot of discussion and many and varied

viewpoints, I was not disappointed. The agenda

was quite long and very challenging and the first day

we spent on getting stuck in to the topics on hand. I

consider that this day was really about getting a feel for

the topics and the thought process of all the attendees.

Day 1 seemed to lack the passion I would normally

associate with my experience of ESTIEM events. The

rest of the week certainly made up for this with a very

obvious high level of passion for the topic in hand.

Some frustrations were noted, this is normal when such

a large group get together to discuss a serious subject.

I liked the fact these frustrations were translated into

positive energy. At the end of a hard week (for the

attendees, not me) we had reached our objectives

for the event.

I was very impressed by the contribution and hard

work of all the attendees and their commitment to

achieving something real and tangible for ESTIEM going

forward. Last but not least everybody lived up the

motto, “Work Hard Play Hard”.

All in all a very enjoyable experience! ■

While opening my inbox one day, I got this email

where BEST was looking for someone to represent the

organisation in an event organised by our most recent

but most similar partner. After hearing so much about

them, I decided to go to this meeting without really

expecting it to be such a rewarding experience.

ESTIEM College 2014 was a learning opportunity where

I got to increase my knowledge of ESTIEM but also of

BEST. Nothing like leaving home to better understand

it, so they say. During this event, we were asked to

question the basics of ESTIEM, from the mission and

vision, to the core values. What was important was

to let go of preconcepted definitions and think about

what being part of ESTIEM really means and what it

should say in the upcoming years. The goal was to start

a strategic plan and so we did.

As a member of BEST where we are now approaching

the end of our first long term strategic plan, joining

this process cleared some preconceptions of mine.

Questioning what you assume everyday is hard but

that’s what leads to change and to improve.

With this relaxing atmosphere that we were in, we’ve

got to want it, to dream it and to create it but also

to enjoy each others. I have had the chance to meet

some wonderful people full of what they call ESTIEM

spirit, people with an incredible amount of knowledge

and experience. There were so many stories to tell

that we could stay there for days. Work hard and play

hard, right?

Overall, I’ve made some good friends, I’ve learned and

I’ve had a remarkable experience, and now, they call

me BESTIEMer. What does that say? ■

Ana R

ita Medeiros

Board of European Students of

Technology

ESTIEM College, Porto 2014


AD


INSIDE ESTIEM

I talked with two former ESTIEM project leaders, Torben Schäfer for Vision and Yusuf Tasli for Europe3D, on a warm Saturday evening full of laughter. Get your spirit from them and do not be afraid of making mistakes. Sounds interesting? Enjoy, such an interview with two leaders does not happen every day!

Two ESTIEMers, two leaders, two friends

Can you introduce each other to all ESTIEMers?

Torben: Yusuf, you can start!

Yusuf: Haha, this is actually how I can introduce Torben–

he is a really thoughtful person and always acts so kind

to everyone, which gives them room for development.

Thanks for letting me go first. We met four years

ago at an ESTIEM event in Cyprus and from the first

impression you could say that he has so much energy

that people around him were inevitably exposed to this

and got a motivation boost. He is very dedicated and

passionate about what he is doing, understands what

is going on and always wants to improve it as much

as possible while having a lot of fun. People around

Torben are lucky to improve themselves and ESTIEM

even more. He contributed to ESTIEM a lot, especially

with Vision, having a big impact on the network.

T.: So there I got to know Yusuf and he was very

energetic and that catches on to people, so that is one

of the things which I have always seen in Yusuf, also

in the leadership position of the Europe3D project.

He always inspired people so they were motivated.

Wherever Yusuf was, there was fun, he is a unique guy

and having loads of energy is always important in the

group.

Tell us a bit about the project you were the leader of !

Y.: My leadership term was one and a half year ago,

but I still follow everything that is happening there. I

would say Europe3D is much more than a project; it is

something that connects ESTIEM to the external world

as well. This unique week, with more than 30 people

all around the world with many different backgrounds,

is about becoming a citizen of the hosting country. To

be able to understand how the locals live, think and

perceive what has been going on. “Politics, culture and

economy” is just the framework to facilitate learning by

doing. In the end, this whole experience has a very big

impact on your life.

T.: My Vision project leadership started two years ago

and it was the Vision Green Supply Chain seminar

series. Everybody always says that their project is

the best one, but I particularly liked that Vision was

the perfect mixture of what appealed to me – 50%

fun, 50% academic and that is more or less how

I like to work. Learning about a topic throughout

ten seminars and getting different perspectives

on different subtopics is unique in my opinion.

Okay guys, but why did you want to become a leader in

ESTIEM?

Y.: Well, it all started with joining the Local Group

and going to my first event, Europe3D Finland. After

that, I became the Local Responsible. Those days,

I had a huge motivation boost because I realised we

could change lives of people with our network and let

them discover themselves and their potential to drive

change in their societies through a global mindset. If

people believed in what we all believed then we could

make a big impact on the societies. Then I said: “Since

Europe3D and ESTIEM made me who I am right now,

I will be more than glad to take it one step further and

give something back.”

T.: Yeah, I think my journey was a little bit different

from Yusuf ’s, because I was not even that active on a

local level. I went to my first event in Famagusta, I just

got so much ESTIEM spirit that I just really felt that this

was an opportunity for me to develop my personality

further and have the opportunity to discover Europe

in a whole new perspective. Also, I felt like this is such

a great network that I want to give something back in

return.

Did you have these moments when everything is breaking

down during your leadership?

Y.: Yeah, I did. There was one Europe3D event where

the project leaders had to change four months before

Laine Š

ildere

Local Group R

iga & Local G

roup Helsinki


INSIDE ESTIEM

the event and the new ones were just to substitute

them and they had little motivation. You can imagine

that a Europe3D event, which is quite huge, needs a

lot of work and then you have no one actually being

responsible, nobody replying to emails. I was even

calling them from my personal phone – no answer. A

lot of discussions were going on about canceling the

event. You have to understand that as a central project

leader I do not see anything local happening but we still

decided to make it happen since I had the feeling that

in the end it was going to be alright. That was due to

the trust we have in the network. Those were really

stressful moments and shortly before the event we

boosted all the efforts and in the end the event was

very successful. I really learned a lot during this process,

it also led me to trust ESTIEMers even more, that we

are capable of making everything happen.

T.: The most difficult experience actually was when we

had to decide which Local Groups are going to organise

the Vision seminars. We changed that four events were

chosen strategically and for the rest of them, we had

the participants of the Coordination Meeting that voted

and took the decision. There were people disagreeing

about this approach, but I wanted to push this through

and I am still confident that it was the right call. It was

not the worst, but probably the very first challenge that

I had in this project.

What was the highlight of your leadership year?

Y.: We always had a lot of fun during the whole year

but I think Council Meeting Portugal made me smile

the most, sitting in the audience after my presentation,

seeing the project team and especially the three

awesome applicants, being proud of everybody who

has contributed to this organisation. This big family

feeling being all together was the best feeling ever.

T.: I guess it was the moment at the gala dinner of

the Vision in Hamburg which was mind blowing and

amazing. We had a live band playing so the biggest

highlight was standing there at that moment and

realising: I am together with my team, we achieved this.

How has ESTIEM helped you to develop yourself ?

Y.: ESTIEM has played a key role in becoming who I

am right now. Especially after spending six months in

Hamburg, working in a very professional corporate

environment and now working in the USA, where the

business environment is very different from Europe’s,

I realise even more how this amazing network has

helped me to understand my skills and how I want to

live my whole life. I feel like I have years of experience

in working with multicultural teams and adapting to

different business environments. Unbelievable as it is,

our network has a more structured approach to have

an outcome than some of the companies I worked

for, we are doing some really professional work here

combined with loads of fun.

T.: Yeah, I can just definitely agree with Yusuf. From

my personal point of view both internships were also

heavily influenced through experiences that I gained

with ESTIEM. We got all the basics covered, thanks to

ESTIEM. When I was in interviews for those internships

I could fill half an hour of interview and tell them how

awesome the experience was for me in ESTIEM and

how many skills I was able to develop further.


INSIDE ESTIEMY.: One more thing that I can add is the entrepreneurial

spirit I got from ESTIEM. We always say it is a

playground and if you work for corporate companies

then you do not have that many chances to influence

big decisions and drive change. However, having this

continuous improvement mentality and motivation is a

very big asset and a game changer skill that you gain.

T.: To everyone out there now reading this I do have to

say: “Never be scared to take on the responsibility in

ESTIEM. It is a responsibility, but it gives back so much,

you get to learn so much and it will help you in your

future life, so just do it. Me and Yusuf are very good

examples of how far this network can bring you.

Is there any other advice you would like to give to

younger ESTIEMers?

Y.: II would say: “Use this chance to make as many

mistakes as possible on different levels of ESTIEM and

celebrate what you have learned! Get out of your

comfort zone, travel, take responsibility, realise how

big of an impact it can make on your life and on others

around you. Make mistakes, meet hundreds of amazing

people, and try to understand everything around you

so that you can discover yourself. This network is the

best tool for gaining a global mindset.”

T.: I would say: “Use this chance to make as many

mistakes as possible on different levels of ESTIEM and

celebrate what you have learned! Get out of your

comfort zone, travel, take responsibility, realise how

big of an impact it can make on your life and on others

around you. Make mistakes, meet hundreds of amazing

people, and try to understand everything around you

so that you can discover yourself. This network is the

best tool for gaining a global mindset.”

Yusuf, what did you want to become when you where a

child?

Y.: Well, I have always imagined myself in a suit with

a suitcase going somewhere, flying, always travelling.

ESTIEM really enabled me to do this on the highest

scale. As Torben mentioned, besides the ESTIEM

events, I met my future colleagues from Germany

during a Vision event, then I arranged my volunteer

experience in Russia, and finally I got an internship in

the USA. Everything is linked to ESTIEM. This is actually

the materialised version of my childhood dreams.

And how about your dream profession in childhood, Torben?

T.: Of course when I was very young, I wanted to

become an astronaut. That changed after a while though

and I can definitely say that through the experiences in

ESTIEM I was able to live the life that I can imagine for

myself in the future.

As we saw, you two are still good friends, how do you keep

the connection alive? How was your last meeting in the USA?

T.: There are always friends you talk with and say –

yeah, let us do this and this and it never happens, but

something that I really like about Yusuf is that it always

happens – we got to meet up in Boston, went to a

baseball game. We still keep in touch and that is the

beauty of this network.

Y.: Yes, I can definitely agree with Torben, we had a

great time together during events, Hamburg and the

USA. Besides being ESTIEMers, we have become

good friends and we shared a lot of stories together.

Since you share this background together you do not

really have to talk and meet every day, your friendship

stays there because you know each other well. That

is something really unique in ESTIEM and that gives

you the network, you will always have good friends all

around the world. ■


Lydia Binek

Local Group Brem

enStudying in London, a city where everything is possible. It all began in January and ended in June. After a short exam period in Germany, I had only one day to pack my things. It began with the desperation of exceeding the packaging limits. But bearing in mind the expectation that in London you can buy everything, it ended up being ok.

One semester abroad in London EXPLORE EUROPE

After a flight of one hour I arrived in another world on

a crazy island, where people drive left, eat bacon, beans

and scrambled eggs for breakfast and nannies come

from the sky like Mary Poppins. My first impression was

that the prejudice that it is always raining in London was

not true. Five out of seven days per week, the sun was

shining, this being exactly in the middle of my study

period. That is typically more than in any other place

in Germany.

My university, “London South Bank University” was

in the heart of the city on the south side of the river

“Themse”. Studying in the UK was much more different

than in Germany, but the general impression was a

good one. I was used to attending lectures, where, out

of 200 students, 60 percent did not pass the exam.

You will never expect something like this in England.

The main barrier to studying is in fact the fees and if

you passed this barrier, you can start looking forward

to a nice not-crowded learning atmosphere with not

more than 15 people per lecture. Of course, every

professor knew your name and was interested in

your career after having studying at the university. All

in all, I did not gain significant knowledge in London in

comparison to the German lectures, but the learning

effect with a lot of trainings and simulations was by far

more efficient. Only studying finance and accounting

was approximately as in Germany when it comes to

the intensity of the learning process.

It was a strange feeling to know that only your flat didn´t

have security cameras. Every step and movement was

recorded. It was very difficult to find excuses after

staying in bed during a fire alarm test in the student

residence. Opposite to that fact, there was a general

feeling of safety that existed in every dark corner of

the city. Accustoming to the environment happened

very fast in my case, as well as the acknowledgement of

living in one of the most expensive cities of the world,

which didn´t exclude the awesome shopping feeling of

London.

On St. Patricksday a huge parade was moving to

the most important places in London. Of course it

was ending at “Trafalgar Square”, a place in front of

the “National Gallery”, where people assembled to

express their political feelings and statements. In the

evening, I was celebrating the public holiday of Ireland

with friends and Irish flat mates. As a fun aspect, they

all tried imitating the Irish accent, but we, as German

people, we were keen on adopting more and more

the English or London accent. After such an evening

we were visiting the many markets in London on the

next day.

Every part of the city has its own typical market. Only

12 minutes by foot and I could reach the “Borrow

market” from my student residence, where farmers

were selling their own fruits, vegetables and a lot

more other delightful products. In contrary to that,

the “Covent Garden” is famous about his street

arts, “Notting Hill” with the “Portobello market” for

their antiques and the “Camden market” for every

extraordinary, international or retro food and clothes.

In conclusion I can speak about an awesome time,

which I experienced with great people. ■


Marina Yerm

akova

Local Group R

iga

Let’s change your life

I am from Riga, Latvia and I am a student of Riga

Technical University. Latvia is a green country in the

northern part of Europe, but in February, my country

of residence changed to the warm and sunny city of

Izmir, which is in Turkey. For the last spring semester,

which was my 4th, I was an exchange student at the

Dokuz Eylül University in the Business Faculty.

What could be better for an ERASMUS exchange, than

to escape from the coldness to a city where there is no

winter at all?

When you arrive in the city where you are planning to

spend half a year, you have chaos in your head - you

have to prepare so many documents and mostly, you

have no any idea how and where you can and should

do any of this. In the first week we had an “Orientation

Week” organised by the student organisation Erasmus

Student Network (ESN).

During this week we learned about Turkish history,

Turkish cuisine, we explored Izmir, prepared all the

documents we had to have and got to know each

other. After that, we thought that we were ready for

our exchange semester.

I think that my exchange was totally Turkish, because

I was living in the flat with one more Turkish girl. It

is common for Dokuz Eylül University that exchange

students live with local students, because they can

practice English and can easily help you in different

situations. ESN of DEU does not recommend exchange

students to live in the university dormitories, because

the staff does not speak English and there are time

rules, like you cannot come there at five in the morning

and so on. And it was the first thing that one should

know before going to study in Turkey - most Turkish

people do not speak English. You should learn Turkish.

University life was different, starting from the lecture

time - it was too long. Standard time at Riga Technical

University is 1 hour and 35 minutes, but in Dokuz Eylül

University it is 2 hours and 35 minutes. Also, we got no

more than 3 lectures per day. At my home university

we have 4 or even 5 different lectures per day. It was

unusual for me to have only lectures and no practical

or laboratory work, as I was used to. I like it when

you listen to theory first and later do everything on

your own. But the biggest difference was that Turkish

students have 2 exam sessions, one is in the middle of

the semester and it is called mid-term exams, while the

other one is at the end of the semester - final exams.

In my home university we have only 2 exam sessions at

the end of each semester. Exams make studies more

stressful. Now it has been proven.

Exchange students are studying together with local

students and sometimes you have the possibility to

EXPLORE EUROPE

All the time I was thinking that I would like to escape from my normal daily life and try to live in a city, which is far away from my home town. The ERASMUS exchange made my dream come true.


EXPLORE EUROPElisten to one topic in both languages- Turkish and

English. For those who are able to understand Turkish,

it was the best way to improve it, but for those who

knew only basic phrases it was really inconvenient.

Also, studying with local students is a great way to learn

mentality differences. Turkish students are scared of

straight questions and will not answer them if they do

not like it. After the presentation that I gave, I received

one remark, that it is a bad idea to ask the Turkish

auditorium questions during my speech, since students

are there to listen to you, not to talk. But for me it was

different, in our culture it is so that people like to ask

questions and also like to answer them.

Turkish people are famous for their hospitality. Of

course, during 5 months, I encountered a lot of

different situations. Once I missed my last bus and

two Turkish guys tried to help me to get home, they

were even trying hard to speak in English, mixing it with

German words.

Northern people are more closed with people and we

respect personal space and we feel strange if someone

is coming and starts to speak with you. For Turkey it is

nothing special. I guess, almost every day I was speaking

with people I don’t know and will never meet again.

In the end, to summarise -Turkish people love to talk.

Daily life was not the same as at home. Just in Izmir

there are two times more people than in all of

Latvia. It means that I spend a lot of time using public

transportation and spend a lot of time in traffic jams.

An important role in Turkey is religion. This aspect

makes life more different from my country. If we are

religious, you cannot see it from our look, but there,

you can see more personal and religious things without

even having a talk.

To sum up everything, I could say that if you would

like to go to ERASMUS with the aim to explore cultural

differences, to see a non-European country, Turkey

is the best choice. The country has its own charm

because of its nature, because of its sea, traditions and

because of food. It is impossible to forget.

And in the end I would quote my best friend from

ERASMUS: “Before coming, I truly believed, that

ERASMUS will change my life. That something will

definitely happen, something what will make me

different. And it happened. It changed me.” I can say

the same, ERASMUS changed a lot in my life. I have

become more open-minded and educated in cultural

differences, I learned new traditions, I explored a new

mentality and a totally different way of life. Do not

be scared, use your opportunities and choose your

new city. ■

What could be better for an ERASMUS exchange, than to escape from the coldness to a city where there is no winter at all?

“


Lassi U

usitalo

Local Group Lappeenranta

Insights from MADridI will start out by telling a story my mother told me

a few years ago. It is a story about a caterpillar who

was living in a lake with his caterpillar friends. Let’s call

him Karl. Karl is hanging out with his friends when the

sunlight from above the water strikes his eyes. He asks:

”What is this light? I have never seen it before.” So Karl

decides to explore and swims to the surface. Above

the surface, he takes a closer look, feels the warmth

of the sun and falls in love with it right away. He

notices the grass and the trees, something that do not

exist underwater.

Curious, he takes a closer look. The grass tastes really

sweet and he really munches on it until he is full. He

decides to climb up a branch and becomes a cocoon.

Not too long after that, he hatches out as a beautiful

butterfly full of colour and flies above the trees to see

more. He sees the fields close by and realises: “I have

to tell my friends about this!” He tries to dive back into

the water to tell his friends but he can’t because his

wings are stopping him. No matter how hard he tries

to enter the water, he just cannot, so he shouts to his

friends: “Guys! Guys! You have to see this new world

above the surface! It is awesome!” His friends reply: “It

looks scary, we are not interested. Besides, Karl, you

have changed.”

Saddened by the fact that Karl was not able to convince

his friends and that there is no turning back, he flies

back up to look around again. He notices the fields and

thinks to himself: “Hey, I wonder what is over there!”

and flies away to explore more.

As I am writing this article on my bed, looking out the

window, I cannot help but wonder where did these

months go? After spending eleven months in Madrid

tomorrow morning’s flight feels like it is only a finger

snap away. And especially considering that the original

idea to come to Madrid for Erasmus came to my mind

already back in fall 2011 when Lappeenranta and

Madrid had one of the first Local Group Exchanges

ever in ESTIEM. I fell in love with the city already back

then and going for an Erasmus here was a no-brainer

for me. But the more time I spent in Madrid the more

I realised that the Local Group Exchange I attended

years ago was just a scratch on the surface of what

Madrid has to offer.

EXPLORE EUROPE


EXPLORE EUROPEWhere do I start? Food with every beer you buy,

really convenient metro system, the sun pretty much

all year round, friendly people, clubs open until 6-7 in

the morning, cheap food and drinks. These are things

everyone already knows and to which I have grown

accustomed to, but there are some things you get to

know about only if you have lived here. For example,

near Puerta del Sol, the central square, there is a wok

restaurant called LemonGrass where you can buy a 3

litre tower of beer for just 10 euros. It has a tap on the

bottom which makes it easy to share with friends while

eating. And I can guarantee you that you are not left

hungry with the wok portions they serve.

If you are hungry for classic Spanish ham filled mushroom

tops I can recommend you a place just down the street

from Mercado de San Miguel, the world famous food

market also located in the city centre. And you have

never really experienced Madrid if you have not visited

a Museo del Jamón for their excellent variety of hams

or 100 Montaditos to eat small sandwiches and drink

beer or Tinto de Verano for just one euro each every

Wednesday and Sunday.

Madrid is a vivid international city that never sleeps

and where you can find anything your heart desires

at any time of the week. Statistically speaking, Madrid

has most bars and restaurants per square kilometre

in all of Europe so if you want to explore and go on

an adventure, then just grab a metro and hop off at a

random station. You are guaranteed to find something

interesting and new. This was something really odd to

someone who before coming to Madrid had for past 3

years lived in a city with a population of mere 70 000

people. My best experience on this was when I visited

the international “Tapa pies” festival with some friends

where local restaurants made their own variations

of Spanish tapas with the touch of their country of

origin. I got to try Indian tapas, Chinese tapas and even

Japanese tapas, which were delicious.

One thing that really stands out in a metropolitan

city like Madrid is how whenever there is an event

which really touches the hearts of Spanish people, the

gatherings at the biggest squares are huge. I was there

when Spaniards were biting their nails on the decision

of the 2020 Summer Olympics location. There was live

music and everyone was in a good mood. When the

news about the Olympics going to Tokyo came, the

collective mood crumbled from euphoria to depression.

When Atlético Madrid won La Liga there were huge

celebrations. When Real Madrid won the Champions

League there were huge celebrations. I just love how

passionate Spanish people are when it comes to sports.

I felt excited to watch the World Cup in the country of

reigning champions as the celebrations would be really

big, but well, let’s say that no one spoke about football

after the first match against the Netherlands.

As much as I enjoyed staying in Madrid, devouring on

its rich night life and generally laid-back lifestyle, what

really changed my life this year was the amount of

travelling I did. Seeing places I have never seen before,

meeting amazing people from all around the world and

experiencing traditions I had never heard of before. In

Spain I visited “the cider province” Asturias, Barcelona,

Salamanca, Pamplona and Ibiza. It is truly a once in a

lifetime experience and in my humble opinion every

single person should visit it at least once before settling

down, starting a family, career and whatnot. There

is some freedom in being young and spending all day

at the beach. Salamanca’s New Year’s celebration

“Nochevieja”, Pamplona’s bull running and absolutely

beautiful Barcelona are just some of the things I want

to experience once more. Outside of Spain, I visited

Portugal, Poland, Latvia, Sweden, Italy twice and Turkey.

Many of these countries I had never visited before in

my life which made these trips very special for me.

It all started out with curiosity which lead to being

integrated in the Spanish lifestyle and then exploring

other cultures across Europe and making loads of

lifetime friends on the way. All in all, this experience I

have had has changed me forever and has left me with

an addiction to explore new parts of the world and to

learn more about different lifestyles. Just like Karl the

butterfly is now exploring new fields in the distance. ■


See you somewhere in Europe!Event calendar

November 2014

■ 11th-17th IT School, Istanbul-Boğaziçi

■ 12th-18th Vision Space Food, Moscow

■ 13th-18th Minsk visits Stockholm, Stockholm

■ 16th-20th Ankara-METU visits Novi Sad, Novi Sad

■ 20th-24th Eindhoven visits Linköping, Linköping

■ 20th-24th Baltics visits Berlin, Berlin

■ 21st-25th Istanbul-ITU visits Xanthi, Xanthi

■ 27th-30th Summer Academy Alumni Meeting 2014,

Paderborn

■ 30th-7th December Vision Food Policy , Grenoble & Lyon

December 2014

■ 03th-07th VWI-ESTIEM BrainTrainer, Ansbach

■ 03th-07th Stockholm visits Warsaw, Warsaw

■ 04th-09th Language Programme Initiative CoM, Madrid

■ 13th-17th Gothenburg visits Ankara-METU, Ankara

■ 13th-19th ESTIEM-EPSA Training New Trainers, Belgrade

■ 13th-19th Rocking the Alps VII, Saalbach-Hinterglem

■ 15th-20th ESTIEM 360, Eindhoven

■ 15th-20th Logistics Training Camp, Istanbul-Yildiz

January 2015

■ 05th-09th Thinking differently, Cambridge

■ 07th-11th TIMES Semi-Final, Ilmenau

■ 11th-17th The future of food, Karlsruhe

■ 14th-18th TIMES Semi-Final, Dresden

■ 20th-24th TIMES Semi-Final, Novi Sad

■ 27th-02nd February Vision Fish Industry, Trondheim

■ 30th-03rd February TIMES Semi-Final, Istanbul-Boğaziçi

February 2015

■ 02nd-06th TIMES Semi-Final, Madrid

■ 02nd-08th Europe3D Lisbon, Lisbon

■ 09th-15th Vision Farming, Helsinki & Tampere

■ 13th-17th TIMES Semi-Final, Kiev

■ 20th-24th TIMES Semi-Final, Ankara-Bilkent

■ 21th-27th BrainTrainer, Skopje

■ 25th-01st March TIMES Semi-Final, Saint Petersburg

March 2015

■ 02nd-08th Vision Food City Logistics, Istanbul Yildiz &

Ankara METU

■ 19th-25th Vision Food Production, Xanthi

■ 21st-25th Ankara-METU visits Gothenburg, Gothenburg

■ 23th-28th TIMES Final, Darmtstadt

■ 26th-01st April Vision Maritime Food Logitics, Hamburg

April 2015

■ 26th-01st May Product Life Cycle Days, Paderborn

May 2015

■ 05th-11th Vision More than Energy, Seville

■ 10th-16th BrainTrainer, Ilmenau

■ 28th-02nd June Vision Final Conference, Istanbul ITU

June 2015

■ 07th-13th Innovation Management in Renewable Energies

Days, Bremen

■ 14th-20th Europe3D Germany, Karlsruhe

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Annons ESTIEM höst.indd 1 2013-10-03 13:57:02

Carl Zeiss AG

Corporate Human Resources

73446 Oberkochen, Germany

www.zeiss.de/career

The moment you see your future in a company where the world is at your fi ngertips.This is the moment we work for.

// FUTURE MADE BY ZEISS

As a leading player in the fields of optics and optoelectronics, ZEISS and its various business groups offer numerous exciting challenges for you.

At ZEISS you will help create technologically pioneering products and witness for yourself how seriously the company takes its responsibility toward

its employees.

Find us on:

Who are we looking for?

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In the business groups and central research division at ZEISS a large

number of physicists work on pioneering developments and push the

boundaries of physics every day.

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Whether you work as a biologist in the field of microscopy or a research

scientist or developer in the central research division, ZEISS offers you

possibilities you have probably never even dreamed of.

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Over 300 ZEISS patents a year: the extensive development and broad

portfolio of high-tech products ensure that engineers are constantly faced

with exciting, new challenges in their work.

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Anyone who feels equally at home in the fields of business and

technology will enjoy the fascinating, future-oriented perspectives

we offer in marketing, sales, service etc.

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In your role of an economist at ZEISS, you will work for a successful

global player and experience a degree of respect and appreciation that

say much more about the company than any figures.

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ZEISS offers exciting challenges for IT experts in the field of software

development. However, IT is also one of the strategic foundations of

the global success of ZEISS.