Annual Report 2010/2011

Flexibility

ANNUAL REPORT 2010/2011Board of European Students of Technology

Coordinator: Samuel OliveiraContent: Gabriela Barreira

Research: George GramescuDesign: Dominika KamolaPhoto editor: Ceylan Sayın

Photos: BEST photos

More info:www.BEST.eu.orgfacebook.com/[email protected]

Address: BEST, Maison de Grenoble INP, BP 153, 38404 St Martin d’Heres, FRANCE

3Annual Report 2010/2011

Welcome word from the XXIII BoardDear friends of BEST,

Today BEST consists of around 3000 students of technology from all over Europe, staying connected through

their passion for volunteering, developing students and empowered diversity. At the same time we must not

forget the large network surrounding BEST: the universities, industry, organisations and other students, all

believing in the work and efforts done by our members.

Another BEST year has passed and what a year it has been! The Annual Report guides you through the

highlights and other areas our organisation has been focusing on. 2010-2011 has been the year where BEST

has aimed at improving the internal work optimisation, strengthening the organisation as a whole, addressing

the student needs and increasing the overall impact of BEST on its stakeholders.

As the world is becoming more and more globalised, the competition is getting tougher and the needs of

our stakeholders are continuously changing, thereby becoming more demanding. As a student organisation

we have to strive to keep being dynamic and innovative, constantly working on improving our organisation

and services, but most importantly - making sure that we enjoy what we do and see its true purpose. So even

if we are exploring new fields and constantly analysing our potential – we are grateful that the values and

spirit of our organisation will never change, as it defines who we are and what connects us in the first place.

We would like to address everyone who has contributed in making the past year a great one for BEST, thank

you for your support and believing in us. We hope you will enjoy reading the Annual Report, where every

part reflects upon the daily work done by passionate students, for students.

Yours truly,

XXIII International Board of BEST

Monica Kviljo, President

Laura Hellebrandt, Treasurer

Matija Lukic, Secretary

Christophe Jouret, Vice-President for Internal Support

Myriam Teicher, Vice-President for External Services

Andrei Ganci, Vice-President for Local Group Support

6 Board of European Students of Technology



We are more than 3000 young, vibrant, competent

and confident young engineers. We have been

providing complementary education and

international exchange for European students

since 1989 and we are constantly growing both

in numbers and in scope. We have found that our

differences makes us stronger, so we embrace them.

We are about adding value to the environments

we are part of - putting smaller universities on the

map, connecting students with our partners, closing

the gap between companies and universities. True

to our motto of “Empowered Diversity” we never

compete - instead BEST provides those services

that others can or will not. Services like BEST Career

Support, European BEST Engineering Competition

(EBEC), BEST University Center, BEST Educational

Involvement, our cooperation with organisations like

SEFI, our input into thematic networks like EUGENE

and EU-VIP, our long and valuable relationships

with our partners, under which we not just count

companies or universities, but also fellow student

organisations like bonding, CFES and AEGEE, are our

testament to that.

BEST is about students; about learning and

participating. Providing value to students is what

got us going 21 years ago with what still is one of

our core services: BEST Courses on Technology and

on Career Related Skills

In 2010 alone, 9689 students applied to the 95 BEST

Events we provided that year, out of which 1992

participated, extending their academic knowledge,

gaining valuable insights in different cultures and

mindsets and ever improving their soft-skills. Many

more students took part in one or more of the

multitude of local opportunities provided by our

90 groups. They took part in our BEST Engineering

Competitions (part of EBEC), they were trainees

in our soft-skill training sessions, they took the

opportunity to visit one of our many annual local

and national job-fairs, and visit companies with us.

Almost always for free, but never for nothing.

BEST is about not standing still, about always

wanting to improve. Instead of looking at what

we have already accomplished, we are looking

at what we still can do. We are about flexibility -

always adapting our services to the current needs of

our stakeholders. We evaluate what we do constantly

and we are not afraid to stop no longer needed

services or to start new and exciting opportunities

for our students, our companies and our universities.

We believe in learning by experience - that is why

we outsource nothing. It is why we are so cost-

effective, it is why each and every one of us grows,

be it in project-management, in event organisation,

in negotiation, in fundraising, in public relations, in

software-development and server-administration,

in quality management, in marketing and design, in

our interpersonal-skills or in such little things as our

level of English.

This is the 22nd year of BEST and, if we have anything

to do with it, only the beginning.

About BEST

We like to think that BEST is many different things: BEST is an independent international student organisation, not for profit and not political. We are from Europe. We are trying to do good. We are students, we do not work for money and would not have it any other way. We are far more than the sum of our 90 constituent groups and our work impacts students, companies and universities in 30 European countries.

Who and what is the Board of European Students of Technology?

BEST is about personal development too, and not just for our students.


The basis of our organisation is formed by our 90

Local BEST Groups spread in 30 European countries,

each one being present at exactly one technical

university. Each of these groups has its own local

board and local statutes, its own practices, traditions

and culture. Like pieces of a puzzle, each of

them has its own shape and place in BEST,

but the connection between all of them are

the common values of BEST which all of them

endorse as their own. The local groups organise

various local and international BEST activities for the

students. Also, they actively participate in steering

the organisation’s development by voting at general

meetings and the online voting system.

Structure of BEST

It is not hard to imagine that the communication

between 90 different groups could easily become

chaotic. With the aim to avoid that situation, BEST

has developed and is continuously refining its

international structure. A number of international

teams smoothen the communication between the

local groups and provide support to them in all

sorts of domains - from marketing to IT, from writing

grant applications to knowledge management. And

on a top-level, the work of international bodies is

coordinated by the management which consists of

the International Board and the Coordinators of the

six BEST Committees.

The International Board represents BEST in the

external world, facilitates the global development

of programmes and activities and always promotes

the values, aims and purpose of BEST. It consists of

President, Treasurer, Secretary, Vice-President for

External Services, Vice-President for Internal Support

and Vice-President for Local Group Support. The

Coordinators of the BEST Committees are aiding in

maintenance of the organisations essential activities:

Educational Involvement, Corporate Relations,

External Events, Trainings, Marketing and IT.

In practice, the communication is mainly done

through mailing lists. Some say even too many - a

couple of hundred mailing lists are active on a daily

basis - but are the driver for BEST members to practise

and perfect the skill of virtual communication.

Even more, BEST is proud to have its own intranet

system, developed by its members from scratch.

The intranet is used for archiving documents and

communication with the whole organisation (e.g.

via news for all BEST members) and much more.


NUMBER OF MEMBERS


Full MemberName President UniversityAalborg Sune Enevoldsen Aalborg University

Almada Ana Rita Nunes New University of Lisbon

Ankara Anil Sahin Middle East Technical University

Athens Athina PatsiaNational Technical University of

Athens

Barcelona Diana Cantó Technical University of Catalonia

Belgrade Stefan Karadzic University of Belgrade

Brasov Adelina Haulica “Transilvania” University of Brasov

Bratislava Miroslava Pindiakova Slovak University of Technology

Brno Hanka Bortlova Brno University of Technology

Brussels Jelle Smekens Free University of Brussels (VUB)

Brussels ULB Charlotte François University of Brussels (ULB)

Bucharest Horia Alexandru AndreiPOLITEHNICA

University of Bucharest

Budapest Zsófia MezeiBudapest University of

Technology and Economics

Chania Stefanos Konstantinidis Technical University of Crete

Chisnau Ciprian Placinta Technical University of Moldova

Cluj-Napoca Florin PopaTechnical University

of Cluj-Napoca

Coimbra Sandro Norim University of Coimbra

Copenhagen Lasse Korff Technical University of Denmark

Delft Warren Gebbett Delft University of Technology

Eindhoven Onur OkutmanEindhoven

University of Technology

Ekaterinburg Darya IvantsovaUrals State University of Railway

Transport

Ekaterinburg, UrFU Katya Reznik Ural Federal University

ENSAM Marie Pierré Arts et Métiers ParisTech

ENSTA ParisTech Pierre Amiot ENSTA ParisTech

Gdansk Piotr Skoracki Gdansk University of Technology

Ghent Gert Willems Ghent University

Gliwice Marek OlczykSilesian University of Technology

in Gliwice

Gothenburg Erik GallnebyChalmers


Graz Jakob Redlinger-Pohn Graz University of Technology

Grenoble Thomas Auzelle Grenoble Institute of Technology

Helsinki Ville Rimali Aalto University

Iasi Daniel Brunescu“Gheorghe Asachi” Technical

University of Iasi

Istanbul Gülçe Çiringel Istanbul Technical University

Istanbul, Yildiz Mert Öskan Yildiz Technical University

Kaunas Raminta Petrauskaitė Kaunas University of Technology

Kiev Alona ShamedkoNational Technical University of

Ukraine “Kyiv Polytechnic Institute”

Kosice Julia Dumbalova Technical University of Kosice

Kraków Łukasz JaromiAGH University of Science

and Technology

Leuven Jef Cambré Katholieke Universiteit Leuven

Liege Birsen Gülsu University of Liege

Lisbon Mário N’ZualoInstitute of Technology (IST),

Technical University of Lisbon (UTL)

Ljubljana Pierre Robert Stare University of Ljubljana

Lodz Adrian Karpiński Technical University of Lodz

Louvain-la-Neuve Georges Castin Catholic University of Louvain

Lund Johanna GuthLund University,

Faculty of Engineering

Lviv Sofiya KholyavkoLviv Polytechnic

National University

Lyon Scarlett Nalpas INSA Lyon

Madrid Isabel PinoPolytechnical

University of Madrid

Madrid Carlos IIIÁlvaro Monasterio

AlcázarCarlos III University of Madrid

Maribor Luka Gasperic University of Maribor

Milan Gabriel Poussif Politecnico di Milano

Moscov Nikita ZverevBauman Moscow

State Technical University

Nancy Pierre JollivetNational PolytechnicInstitute of Lorraine

Naples Giovanniluca De Vita University of Naples “Federico II”

Nis Milena Dostanic University of Nis

Novi SadJohn Milan

van der BerghUniversity of Novi Sad

Paris, Ecole Centrale

Angelos Cacouros Centrale Paris

Paris, Polytechnique

Amaury Dutilleul-Francoeur

Ecole Polytechnique

Patras Panos Sotiropoulos University of Patras

Porto João Fernandes University of Porto

ReykjavikSara Björk

SigurðardóttirUniversity of Iceland

RigaLasma

Bergmane- BehmaneRiga Technical University

Rome Paolo Giannandrea Sapienza University of Rome

Rome, Tor Vergata Emiliano Varriale University of Rome “Tor Vergata”

Saint Petersburg Ekaterina BalunovaSaint Petersburg State

Polytechnical University

Skopje Bojan NajdenovUniversity

“Ss. Cyril and Methodius”

Sofia Vicktoria Antonova Technical University of Sofia

StockholmChristophe

Van der KelenRoyal Institute of Technology

Supélec Taylor EdouardSupelec - Ecole Superieure

d’Electricite

Tallinn Märt Pakats Tallinn University of Technology

Tampere Lauri JuholaTampere University

of Technology

Thessaloniki George AndreadisAristotle University

of Thessaloniki

Timisoara Svetlana Ivana“Politehnica” University of

Timisoara

Trondheim Jarle Alexander MøllerNorwegian University of Science

and Technology

Turin Vincenzo Bruni Politechnic of Turin

Uppsala Henning Hammar Uppsala University

Valladolid Fernando Guerra University of Valladolid

Veszprém Anna Borbála Martos University of Pannonia

Vienna Harald Rupprechter Vienna University of Technology

Warsaw Paweł Kujawski Warsaw University of Technology

Zagreb Ana Habijanec University of Zagreb

Zaporizhzhya Yuliya ScorobogatayaZaporizhzhya

National Technical University

Baby MemberName President University

Aveiro Joana Fernandes University of Aveiro

Faro Algarve António Carvalho University of Algarve

Izmir Mert Özden Ege University

Messina Riccardo Zanghì University of Messina

Miskolc Márton Czene University of Miskolc

Prague Jaroslav MarekCzech Technical

University in Prague

Vinnytsia Oleg BondarVinnytsia National Technical

University

Wroclaw Agnieszka Sarlińska Wroclaw


Observer GroupName President University

Las PalmasJuan Lorenzo Alonso

AfonsoLas Palmas of Gran Canaria

University

Southampton Alexandru Puia University of Southampton


It was a very good year...

The most important thing first: 2010/2011 was a very

good year for BEST. In BEST, many things happen

constantly. In one day, in one week, let alone in one

whole year. What you are reading comprises only the

most important developments for BEST as a whole -

we could not list all the developments in BEST, locally

and internationally, even if we’d tried.

The Key Performance Areas that we defined

for 2010/2011 were internal work optimisation,

strengthening BEST and increasing the impact of our

cooperation with external bodies. Looking back we

are sure in our decision to dedicate this year mostly

to internal improvements and external cooperations.

Since 2006, BEST has doubled in size, making growth

one of the constants of BEST. This year we had the

great pleasure to welcome our new Local BEST

Groups; Faro Algarve, Miskolc, Prague and Vinnytsia,

and 2 new Observer Groups; Las Palmas and

Southampton.

BEST has been growing in scope as well. SEFI[1]

(European Society for Engineering Education) and

BEST started cooperating for SEFI’s 1st Engineering

Education Flash Week[2]. BEST does not only provide

substantial contributions to the content of Flash Week,

such as case studies and training sessions, but is also

one of the main contributors of students for it. We are

proud to have been selected by SEFI for this project

and are very much looking forward to it. We are also

proud to have entered into a framework agreement

with the European Commission (EC) concerning a

3 year partnership. This and our cooperation with

SEFI shows us and Europe that our impact makes a

difference.

In addition to bonding and CFES, we are now also

cooperating with another student organisation,

AEGEE. We have already begun to enjoy its benefits,

for instance in the form of our joint training-week on

fundraising for both members of BEST and AEGEE.

Independent of our external success, we also

focused on internal changes as a response to new

challenges. After recognising that our constant

growth has potential issues, BEST members gathered

in Gothenburg to design a new membership system

which will take us safely through the 2020’s. Important

outcomes were the increase of the requirements

for the continued membership in BEST for current

groups and also drafting an improved support

system for them.

Another aspect of internal streamlining is the new

regional division of our groups, it will ensure more

sharing and diversity while maintaining a suitable

travel-distance. We look forward to the new dynamic

this step will bring to BEST.

Administrative changes alone are not enough to

keep us strong. Therefore we began evaluating our

working structures, bodies and our assumptions

about our work. This process will proceed next year

to ensure that we have time to look at all aspects of

BEST.

Continuing our strategy of cooperating closely with

other student NGOs we were proud to host the 2nd

edition of the BEST Trainers’ Forum[3], with more

than 80 trainers from 26 NGOs gathering to learn

from each other.

Connected to our effort to improve the quality of

our training system, we created a training strategy

designed to ensure that all of our groups get trained

with the needed quality. Our training system was

always a source of pride for us, and it will continue for

the foreseeable future.

We would like to thank all of our partners, students

and all our members. Without your support BEST

would not have come so far this year.

[1] www.sefi.be [2] www.wee2011.com [3] trainersforum.best.eu.org


In the year of 2010, BEST trainers delivered a new

record of 3870 hours to our members, but still we

knew that we were not always the most efficient

when it came to planning ahead. It was hard for our

trainers and trainees to plan beforehand when they

would not always know which training opportunities

were yet to come.

What we wanted was a training strategy which

could utilise and direct the effort of our trainers in a

planned way, so that BEST could benefit even more

than it did with the mostly laissez-faire approach

to scheduling and resource allocation we had

previously.

In January 2011, members of the BEST Training

Group (TiGro) met in Nancy, France, to write a new

After thousands of trainer hours, we are still not satisfied!

chapter of the training system of BEST: A yearly training

plan for all of BEST (local training sessions excluded)

according to our strategic needs.

At the foremost, we designed the strategy to make

sure that the leaders of BEST would receive enough

training and at the right moments.

A very important goal of the BEST training strategy

is to ensure that knowledge management continues

to stay on par with our increasing size, therefore

having a longer lasting effect of each single training.

The table below provides an overview of the new

training strategy.

Training Strategy

JointBoard Training

Presidents’Meeting

MidtermBoard

Evaluations

RegionalMeetings

RegionalMeetings

TrainShopsbePROUD beRICHER

TrainShopsbeMORE beKNOWN

GeneralAssembly

Trainers’ Forum

LBG / Joint LBG Training LBG / Joint LBG Training

The new strategy will be implemented in 2011/2012.

[1] Joint Board Trainings where 2 or more boards of BEST Groups are trained together [2] The BEST Presidents Meeting gathers all the local presidents of BEST along with the international bodies of BEST [3] BEST features 4 TrainShops, each lasting about a week: beMORE (Human Resources), bePROUD (Leadership), beRICHER (Fundraising), beKNOWN (Marketing and PR) [4] Regional Meetings are preparatory meetings for the BEST Presidents Meeting and the BEST General Assembly, attended by 4-5 members of each BEST group [5] A Joint LBG Training gathers members of two or more BEST groups [6] Midterm Board Evaluations are often attended by trainers and offer a great opportunity to training sessions [7] General Assembly of BEST, gathering up to 300 BEST members [8] TRAP is the main Train-the-Trainer (TtT) event of BEST. inTRAP is a TRAP focusing on internationally involved members.

Board of European Students of Technology (BEST)

is a European association present in 30 countries.

However, with contacts being established with

universities from new countries where BEST is

not yet present and a team of so-called “coaches”

starting to spread their motivation and knowledge

about BEST, we have in the past year been trying to

increase this number. This is all a part of the current

Growth strategy.

The Growth Project has been in action for two years:

during the first year the goals of the project were

set, and the strong team that will fulfill these goals

was also created.

As a result, BEST is proud to have three new Observer

Groups, with one being from a new country. These

groups are:

• Observer Group Las Palmas from Gran

Canaria, Spain,

• Observer Group Southampton from England,

United Kingdom,

• Observer Group Vinnytsia, Ukraine.

As Observer Groups they still have a path to walk

in order to become full members of the association

and we wish all of them good luck and a lot of BEST

Spirit for taking these challenges.

The Growth Project

It is said that money is not everything, but everything

needs money. And this is true also in our non-profit

organisation. To fulfill our vision of empowering

diversity and bringing complementary education,

career support and intercultural cooperation to our

students and to ensure the sustainability of BEST,

we need to organise many internal and external

events and run several projects, which cost money.

Every LBG has their own accounts and finances,

which are needed to run local projects, and we

have also a common account of BEST. This money

is needed to manage the organisation and IT tools,

produce marketing materials, help local groups with

Financial Report


organising larger events and enable BEST members

to travel.

Most of the incomes come from industrial partners,

but we also try to seek grants and university partners.

To support these activities, the Financial Team, the

Grants Working Group and BEST University Centre

were created. At this moment, BEST has three

Corporate Partners: Procter & Gamble and Bekaert.

Other revenue sources are represented mostly by

career support partners, project partners, university

partners, other supporters and bank account

interests.

Revenues

Corporate Partners 22 000,00 15,97 %

Career Support Partners 42 000,00 30,48 %

Supporters 11 000,00 7,98 %

Project Partners 7 500,00 5,44 %

Partner Universities 2 500,00 1,81 %

Statutory Meeting Partners 43 400,00 31,49 %

EBEC Partners 7 000,00 5,08 %

Other 2 400,00 1,78 %

Total 137,800,00 100,00 %

Expenses

Internal Communication 40 979,00 32,74 %

External Relations 6 487,00 5,18 %

Administration 3 135,00 2,50 %

Public Relations 6 346,00 5,07 %

Statutory Meetings and EBEC 52 300,00 41,79 %

Support for organising working (“inter-nal”) events 10 260,00 8,20 %

Training 4 135,00 3,3 %

Unexpected Expenses 1 512,00 1,21 %

Total 125 154,00 100,00 %

To manage the organisation and keep it sustainable,

money is used on international management,

international teams and internal training, coordination

of educational events and competitions. Another

important area is the promotion of BEST and

relations with the external world, so we need to

cover production and distribution of marketing

materials for external relations and company visits.

Considering the status of revenues and expenses,

we can conclude that our organisation is in a good

financial position. The status and details of finances

can be followed and checked by each member in

the accounting tool available in Private Area, our

intranet.



The number of Local BEST Groups (LBGs) and thus

the number of members is constantly growing.

A BEST member needs to acquire and develop useful

skills in order to be effective and successful in the

organisation as well as in a future profession.

One of committees of BEST, Training Group (TiGro),

is a body used for such development. Its mission is

to provide coordination between the needs of LBGs

for training sessions and the trainers who are able to

deliver them.

The structure of Trainers’ Community comprises two

elements:

• Trainers’ Community itself. It is represented

by over 310 trainers delivering trainings who are

simultaneously BEST members. They mutually

share their knowledge, materials, as well as sup-

port each other.

• Training Group members. 42 members of BEST

provide coordination of training to BEST mem-

bers in order to ensure they contribute to the as-

sociation and develop useful skills for their future

profession.

The Training System is aimed in several directions:

• Strengthening TiGro. To consolidate and coor-

dinate the System and to ensure the conformity

of generations, TiGro is developing a member-

ship system, monitors new members, involves

them in the active work and creates a database

of materials which facilitates the exchange of

knowledge.

• Strengthening the Trainers’ Community.

Each trainer is extremely valuable. In order to

ensure trainers’ active participation in training, a

new mentoring system was introduced for bet-

ter support and motivation. TiGro provides them

with materials, training opportunities, assistance

in traveling refunds and a sharing platform.

• Training delivery. TiGro is constantly working

on ways to improve delivery.

• Training Strategy. It structures training sessions

and delivery techniques.

• Preparation of Train the Trainer events where

new trainers are brought. In November 2010

TiGro initiated working events called Trainer’s

Meeting, which aim to evaluate and develop

such events.

• Quality projects. They are aimed at gathering

new knowledge, evaluating current trainings

and developing new ones.

• Knowledge Management. Being a separate

project, KM ensures sharing of experience, skills

and information within BEST.

• PR project. It promotes training services to local

BEST groups.

• Training Database. It provides statistics, in-

cludes “a call for trainer” tool and registration for

trainings.

• External Relations. TiGro is improving its Exter-

nal Relations in the field of training to gain new

knowledge, techniques of training and opportu-

nities for BEST trainers to broaden their horizons.

The results of the effective BEST Training Strategy are

as follows:

• BEST members acquire knowledge about BEST.

• BEST members are trained in basic soft and tech-

nical skills (FR, PR, HR).

• Leaders of BEST are trained properly.

• Project teams of LBGs are trained to perform ef-

fectively.

• Knowledge Management and Knowledge Trans-

fer work properly in LBGs.

In one year (July 2010 – June 2011) TiGro involved 127

active trainers who delivered 852 training sessions

lasting in total 2.788 hours. Impressive, isn’t it? And

there is still great potential for development!

Training System in BEST


What is the key to success? It is the people -

motivated people with vision, because the vision is

an engine, which makes us go forward. And that

is BEST – students with a vision of empowered

diversity in multicultural Europe, where people

understand and respect other cultures and are

able to work on an international basis, to use

their full potential, act responsibly, to be open

to new things, to care for the people, to gain

news skills, to strive to improve in everything

they do and last but not least: enjoy everything

they do. To achieve these goals, we provide

students from all our 90 universities in 30 countries

an opportunity to participate in our academic and

non-academic events, engineering competitions

and educational symposia. We provide them

complementary education, career support and

increase their educational involvement.

However, only a working

and well organised

student network can

provide these high-

quality services for the

students. To ensure this,

we have many

tools.

Organising internal events is one of them. Internal

events help the organisation to work on a high-

quality level and also gives the people a chance

to get motivated and to improve their skills. The

number of internal events we organise increases

linearly with the number of local BEST groups in

order to sustain the organisation. This year we

organised around 70 Internal Events.

Having skilled members is needed to sustain

the organisation. That is why we organised nine

TrainShops and trainer camps on various skills such

as Public Relations, Human Resources, Fundraising,

leadership, project management and also delivering

training sessions themselves. All the participants are

now ready to use their skills working for BEST.

We have a great variety of working meetings for the

international bodies. We had four board meetings

and 18 committee meetings including Trainers‘

Forum and International Project Forum. These are

needed to help to maintain and develop BEST in an

indirect way, e.g. by further developing the way the

organisation works, improving inner communication,

gaining resources, thinking of new services,

improving the training system and IT support,

finding more possibilities on how to bring students,

universities and companies together, trying to

improve cooperation with companies and

providing better career support for students.


Mostly it begins with local ones in their local groups,

then they can work on international projects,

workshops, join an international team, committee

or become part of another body of BEST. This

international work is very important to ensure

sustainability of the organisation and good quality of

our activities. Most of this work and communication

is done virtually, using e-mails or other sophisticated

communication channels.

However, once a year comes an event, which

gives the people working in international bodies

an opportunity to meet, discuss, to build stronger

personal connection and also to see customs of the

hosting country. This event is called the International

Projects‘ Forum (IPF) and it gives the participants the

crucial boost for their work in a very motivational

atmosphere, which is also important because

motivation gives us a reason to do our best and to

achieve great outcomes.

International Projects’ Forum 2011

BEST members may face many challenges. More than 70 participants including board members,

members of the committees, regional advisors,

knowledge management working group members

and people involved in the EBEC (European BEST

Engineering Competiton, final round) project

worked on top-level issues of the organisation. In

February, they gathered in Tallinn, Estonia to focus on

common projects, issues of the whole organisation,

attend strategical sessions and received training.

We got valuable outcomes on the regional division,

BEST University Centre, online competitions, annual

report content and goals, features and tools on our

intranet, (such as databases for training sessions),

fundraising, media relations, application systems

and many other topics. There were so many of

them, that making a schedule for all the participants

became a complex mathematical problem, but

nothing which an engineer could not cope with.

However, the hard work and preparation paid off as

IPF brought us many useful results.

In 2010/2011 we had ten of them, including Growth

and Grants meetings and meetings concerning the

European BEST Engineering competition (EBEC). As

we are growing all the time and on the last General

Assembly in Belgrade we reached the number of 90

groups, the growth topic has become very relevant.

We had more meetings regarding the final round of

EBEC and national or regional rounds as the project

becomes more and more prestigious and a big

challenge to organise. Since the number of local

groups increases, also the number of participants is

bigger. The same rule applies also to the organsing of

General Meetings, which is even more challenging.

To prepare the delegates for them and also to

discuss the problems, share experiences, get more

knowledge and get to know the BEST members

from the region we organised 19 regional meetings

including a Regional Advisors meeting. Regions

were also one of the hot topics of this year, as we

tried to find the best division.

We also have Workshops where the hot topics are

discussed and every interested BEST member can

apply. Putting together fresh and more experienced

members, we create valuable outcomes. In 2010/2011

we had two of them, one about membership and

another about the identity of BEST.

We also can not forget our alumni, who did a lot for

our organisation, but have had to move on in their

lives. However, they did not forget BEST and they

met two times on alumni meetings.

Thus we can conclude that we did lot of hard work

this year, let’s hope it will be even more next year.

We also work on diverse proj-ects to improve the organisation in an indirect way, so the project meetings are needed.

During the past year we tried to build further on

the cooperation with BEST and transform it into a

sustainable relationship. We chose to look at BEST

as a partner and not as a recruiting tool - this is why

we decided to be more involved and to follow-up

the evolution of the organisation and its members

closely.

Among the several BEST events we have joined, the

one that stood out was the International Project’s

Forum in Estonia in February 2011. We chose to go

for a special approach of taking one of our well-

established methodologies that could also benefit

students in their organisation management roles

in BEST, but also in their future career. We took

our internal Decision Making process, generalised

it and transformed it into a 2.5 hours training and

workshop. The result was an eye-opening session

for both P&G and BEST: the students were keen

on understanding and relating what our company

does to their own experience, we were interested to

listen to new ideas and feedback. All in all, we were

happy to be able to bring external knowledge to

the organisation and get a fresh view on how we

do things.

The good fit between the BEST profile and what

we are looking for in P&G has been confirmed

once more: BEST members work in an

international and multi-cultural environment,

they are very advanced in virtual work, they

have a technical background and a high level of

soft-skills and they prove strong leadership and

ownership.

Because of the close cooperation with BEST we

were able to fill our ad-hoc openings in a timely and

qualitative manner in 2010-2011 and we count on

the same success rate in the future!

We are looking forward to continuing to build this

strong connection and to welcoming more BEST

members and students of technology into the P&G

world!

The BEST Campus Team

Procter & Gamble

P&G Testimonial from International Projects’ Forum



Presidents‘ Meeting in KrakowThe XVI Presidents’ Meeting (PM) took place be-

tween 11th and 17th November 2010 in Krakow and

Limanowa, Poland. The schedule contained presen-

tations, discussion groups and training sessions.

On the first day all the participants attended the of-

ficial opening, which was held at the AGH-University

of Science and Technology. The Official Opening

Day consisted of company presentations, VIP pres-

entations, a job fair and workshops in small groups.

The Workshops were held by ING, P&G, Professor

Erik de Graaff (SEFI) and international bodies of BEST:

the Educational Committee, External Events Com-

mittee and Training Group. Although the resources

were limited, the organisers never lost heart. They

were following the slogan of the event – ‘If you can

dream it, you can do it.’ – and they did their BEST to

solve every problem always full of enthusiasm.

The sessions in the following plenary days were

divided in a few logical blocks: International

Management, Projects, Proposals, Membership,

External Relations, LBG Show, Let’s Talk About BEST,

General Meeting organisers and Speaker’s Corner.

The hot topics of the event were regional division

strategy, educational involvement, identity of BEST,

country categories and external relations in BEST.

We voted upon proposals and also changed the

membership status of some groups.

General Assembly in BelgradeThe XXIX BEST General Assembly (GA) took place

between 14th and 22nd April 2011 in Belgrade and

General Meetings

Tony Robbins said that it’s our decisions, and not our conditions, that determine our destiny. As this is

very true, decision-making bodies are the essential part of each organisation. We also know that and that

is why we organise two General Meetings every year. The events are the Presidents’ Meeting in autumn

and the General Assembly in spring. The representatives of all the Local BEST groups, Observer Groups and

international teams gather to introduce the results, evaluate the work, discuss the issues, decide the future

of BEST and last, but not least, to socialise with people they might know from prior virtual communication.

During the General Assembly the new international board is also elected.

Kladovo, Serbia. Two delegates from each local

group and representatives of observer groups,

project teams and international bodies met ‘With

passion for technology at the crossroads of Europe’,

as the slogan of the event said.

On the first day all the participants attended the

official opening of the General Assembly which

was held in the Student Cultural Centre and Youth

Centre. Seven international partner companies were

present at the event, in order to meet BEST members

as their potential future employers at the job fair,

workshops or reach them through presentations.

Participants could choose from three company

workshops, a workshop from SEFI (European Society

for Engineering Education) and seven different

training sessions. Everything was organised in a very

professional way. The participants appreciated the

suprise of Tunak Tunak Tun (a typical song for our

organisation with a special dance) playing in a square

in Belgrade while BEST members were passing.

The plenary days of GA took place in Kladovo. There

was time dedicated to represent the progress in

international projects such as Flash Week, Training

Strategy, EBEC (European BEST Engineering

Competition, final round), BEST University Centre,

Growth, BEST Image, NGOs and other hot topics were

discussed including the Membership Evaluation

Workshop and regional division. We shared a lot

using Open Space Technology, elected the GA 2012

host and the next international management, as

well as changed the status of a few Local Groups.

After the event we had 90 LBGs in 30 countries.


The turnover of generations is an ongoing process

in such an organisation as BEST. People come and

go and keep being active for a quite short period

of time.

For this reason knowledge management (KM) and

knowledge transfer (KT) are two of the building

blocks in BEST that ensure sharing of experience,

skills and information between its members.

Going from a new to an experienced member re-

quires knowledge about structure, procedures, tra-

ditions and the spirit of BEST, as well as knowledge

on how to make successful projects. KM and KT are

the foundations for passing the necessary informa-

tion to members. The international body of BEST

that deals with this area is called Knowledge Group.

The Knowledge Group is aimed at organising all

knowledge and materials that BEST has accumulated

since its foundation. As BEST grows constantly and

welcome new Local BEST Groups annually, effective

Alumni are former members of BEST holding valu-

able experience and knowledge about the organi-

sation, attached to BEST spirit and traditions. BEST

Alumni Network (AlumniNET) brings together thou-

sands of alumni from LBGs. It is a way to keep alumni

together, involved in and informed about BEST.

The goal of it is to enable mutually beneficial

cooperation within the alumni community and

between alumni and active BEST members. This

cooperation is aimed at exchange of experience

and knowledge, establishment partnerships and

development of business relations between current

and former BEST members.

For the accomplishment of these goals certain actions

are initiated by AlumniNET. In November 2010 in

Poland and in April 2011 in Serbia, Alumni meetings

were organised with around 20 participants in each.

Knowledge Management in BEST

knowledge management contributes to maintaining

the unity of BEST.

Knowledge Group works in close cooperation with

Training Group (TiGro). Together they are helping

Local BEST Groups to have efficient knowledge-

transfers and management and to carry out suc-

cessful training sessions on those topics. There have

been many steps towards this point. One example

is the Knowledge Management Workshop that was

first done during spring Regional Meetings last year.

Another larger project of Knowledge Group is the

archive of Local BEST Group materials. It includes

the Local BEST Group handbook that provides an

overview of the structure and practices of BEST and

explains how to establish and become a Local BEST

Group.

There is still a world to discover on this topic and

Knowledge Group definitely has a great potential.

BEST Alumni NetworkBesides AlumniNET is working on the establishment

of the Entrepreneurship Working Group (EWG). The

Group will support alumni initiatives to start up their

own businesses and share valuable experience.

The first step is the Alumni Business Camp in Berlin

(70 - 100 participants).

The establishment of the EWG is expected to lay

the base for development of new independent

working groups in various professional areas,

gathering alumni with similar interests thus boosting

cooperation among them, external organisations,

companies and experts from the academic and

industrial worlds.

And there is always place for a casual conversation!

AlumniNET is also promoting friendly and informal

meetings between alumni and current BEST

members.


Since 1991, courses have been one of the main

activities of BEST in the field of complementary

education. This year BEST celebrates its 20th year of

organising courses with high academic standards

for students from all over Europe. These courses

represent our mission: developing students and

helping them in becoming internationally minded.

In addition, BEST courses give the opportunity to

work together with other students and getting in

touch with other cultures and traditions.

The BEST courses are taught by university lecturers

or by experts from companies. The academic part is

accompanied by company visits, practical sessions,

case studies, etc. The courses are aimed at providing

new knowledge or skills for the participants. Two

types of BEST courses exist, the BEST Courses on

Technology, for increasing the knowledge in a

specific field of technology and BEST Courses on

Career related skills, where the aim is developing

personal skills.

Though only from 1998 non-Summer Courses were

also organised and only from 2007 onwards, BEST

had four seasonal courses each year! BEST has had

a steady growth in number of courses since 1998.

Since 2008, there are more than 90 academic

courses each year. Thanks to the great efforts of our

90 local BEST groups, in average each local BEST

group organises more than 1 course per year!

Since 1992, there have been more than 56 000

students who applied for one or more BEST courses.

About 18 500 (33.2%) of them have been accepted

one or more times for a course. The total number of

applicants is now reaching more than 10 000 a year,

with more than 17 500 applications per year!

In BEST, it is not only the organisation of these BEST

courses, but also the recognition of the courses that

is getting important. Recognition can be achieved

in several ways. First of all, all local BEST groups are

encouraged in making the academic materials of our

courses public. In this way, not only students who

attended the course can access the materials, but

also other students who did not participate in the

course and are interested in the topic, university and

the companies can access the course documents

as well. Making the course documents available to

everyone should start during the Summer Courses

of this year!

Seasonal Events and Recognition

Since BEST started organising seasonal courses, there have been more than 1 200 courses!

Engineering competitions have been an integral

part of the services offered by BEST, both locally and

internationally, since 2003. Since their conception,

the popularity and diversity of organised

competitions have increased dramatically year by

year. To date, more than 80 Local BEST Engineering

Competitions (LBECs) are held on an annual basis

giving the opportunity for students, from technical

backgrounds, to challenge and prove themselves. In

doing this, participants are given the chance to put

their abilities and knowledge towards endeavours

outside those in the lecture room and to improve

upon their soft skills such as communication and

creativity. It is our aim to encourage educational

institutes to support these events to complement

traditional education.

BEST aims to encourage self-development and the

BEST Engineering Competitionspromotion of engineering amongst engineering

students in addition to working closely with its

stakeholders; namely universities and companies.

Towards these objectives, a basic structure common

to all competitions within BEST has been established;

the Case Study and the Team Design. In the Case

Study format, competitors are challenged to provide

a conceptual solution to a given problem, whilst for

the Team Design a working prototype is the main

deliverable.

Despite their common underlying format, BEST

engineering competitions have evolved to become

opportunities for the wide range of varying

stakeholders related to BEST, not only university

students. One example of an innovative adaption is

the competition format currently adopted by Local

BEST Group Ghent. Here they have a symbiotic


NUMBER OF APPLICANTS2005

TOTAL: 74902011

TOTAL: 97372010

TOTAL: 96892000

TOTAL: 3873

TYPES OF EXTERNAL EVENTS

75Engineering

Competitions

Symposiumon Education

Courses on Career Related Skills

Leisure events

PartnerOrganisation

EventsOtherEvents

Courseson Technology

relationship with their university where they run

their competitions concurrently with a competition

for local high school students. The benefits for the

Local BEST Group are clear; it self-promotes itself

to potential new students whilst maintaining an

excellent relationship with the university. Likewise,

the university is able to promote itself to engineers

of the future.

An example on the other end of the spectrum is the

new format to be employed during local BEST group

Tallinn’s next LBEC. In their ambitious competition

structure they have two rounds, of which the first

rounds consist of eight different Case Studies. These

range from traditional engineering specialisations

such as mechanics and construction, to newer fields

like informatics and power, to more generic fields,

for example; marketing and finance. This format

has the advantage of being more attractive to

companies, of which local BEST group Tallinn has

had much success with examples of Case Study

solutions being implemented by satisfied partners.

No doubt the greater selection of Case Studies is

also appealing to the students. The second round

then sees the winners of the eight respective first

round Case Studies take on a more general Case

Study and a Team Design. The end result is a better

relationship with local companies and higher quality

competitors due to a pooling from a wider selection

of students.

In line with BEST’s vision of empowered diversity

and our mission towards developing students

and creating an international mentality, a large

contribution in reaching this goal has been from

the consolidation of all the LBECs into a larger, more

international event now known as EBEC (European

BEST Engineering Competition) in 2008. By using

BEST’s expertise in organising large events such as

General Meetings with the student orientated focus

found in BEST courses, EBEC was the next logical

step. This augmented service now provides an

international stage for the best and brightest

engineers from all over Europe to showcase

their skills and to gain recognition in addition

to understanding and learning from new and

different cultures.

Since then, two editions of EBEC have taken place (in

Ghent, Belgium and Cluj-Napoca, Romania) and the

third edition took place this year in Istanbul, Turkey.

To exemplify the size to which EBEC is currently

at, the second edition of EBEC saw 104 finalists

competing over six days in what was a ten day event.

With broadcasts over six TV channels, three front

page newspaper articles and almost 200 references

over 89 websites, the event was widely publicised

on an international scale.



True to the EBEC motto: ‘Design the future. Today!’,

EBEC aims to make this a reality. As a large European-

wide project with support of many of the better-,

and lesser- known educational institutes; companies;

engineering institutes, including SEFI (European

Society for Engineering Education); and the IGO,

UNEP (United Nations Environment Programme); we

believe that combined with our fresh perspective

on problems and large potential, we can change our

future for the better. This is why we constantly strive

to involve more of our stakeholders throughout the

whole EBEC structure; right from the base with the

Local BEST Engineering Competitions to the EBEC

finals.

However, before participants can go to the EBEC

finals, they must first prove themselves at each of

the stages of EBEC. The first stage, the Local BEST

Engineering Competitions, are held by each and

every Local BEST Group. Although all Local BEST

Engineering Competitions use the format of a

Team Design or Case Study, or a combination, their

exact nature vary widely; from a single day event

to one over several days including Case Studies

and a 24 hour Team Design. Through these local

competitions, students and universities are shown

the merits of applying theory to practice and

relationships with local companies are enforced.

During the second edition of EBEC in 2010, BEST saw

71 Local BEST Engineering Competitions involving

more than 5 000 students.

During the second stage, known as the National

or Regional BEST Engineering Competitions,

the winners of the local rounds compete on a

national or even international level to reach the

EBEC finals. The competitions at this level are more

homogeneous with a combination of both a Team

Design and Case Study resulting in a winning

team for each competition format. From the 5 000

students competing at the Local BEST Engineering

Competitions, only 600 made it to the 13 National

or Regional BEST Engineering Competitions, from

which 104 made it to Cluj-Napoca.

The final stage sees a similar structure as above,

albeit for one difference; finalist teams only

participate in the competition category won earlier.

This allows the best teams from Europe to compete

at the highest possible level. The second edition

of EBEC saw a number of prestigious multinational

organisations and corporations backing the Team

Designs and Case Studies with support from the

European Commission and local municipality.

European BEST Engineering Competition Project

A particularly original format that is gaining

popularity for Local BEST Engineering Competitions

is one first devised by Local BEST Group Porto in

2009: the 24-hour competition. The concept is

simple: teams have exactly one day and one

night to tackle a problem and return with

the deliverables. In this manner competitors

experience a more realistic format reflecting the

nature of engineering projects in industry and

emphasis is placed on the development of soft skills

such as team management and dedication.

As a local BEST group that has organised no less

than six LBECs, of which three have taken the 24-

hour format, Local BEST Group Vienna has had

much experience with this sort of competitions.

After hearing about the success local BEST group

Porto had with this format and its popularity with

students, Local BEST Group Vienna ran its first 24-

hour competition. For them, the main appeal from

this format was the attractiveness this format had

for students; not only was the concept of working

24 hours straight challenging, it also meant that

students would lose less study time compared to

the traditional two or three

day event. Since then, the net result of using such

a format has been less resources required from

the local BEST group, both in promotion and in

organising the event itself. Furthermore, over the

three 24-hour competitions, local BEST group

Vienna has learnt to increase its visibility during the

final presentations; mostly in aspects of timing and

location. For example during the competition in

2010, the whole event took place in the main hall of

TU Vienna. This has made it easier to promote their

services throughout the university.

On the corporate side, local BEST group Vienna

has also enjoyed better collaborations and interest

from industry. As for students, a one day event is

more attractive and effective for companies than

a multi-day event and so fundraising has become

easier. In addition the popularity of the events

and the increase in visibility has done nothing

but to increase the attractiveness of Local BEST

Engineering Competitions sponsorship. No doubt

the relationships between industry and students are

more intimate over 24 hour intensive competitions

then through other formats.

24-hour Competitions


It is called a full circle. The core activity of BEST is

providing complementary education to students of

technical universities. This core activity is ensured

with technical courses, organised by every Local BEST

Group at least once per year. Most of the courses are

supported by companies, who are interested in the

same field as the course’s topic. Companies strive to

search and employ students, who seem to spend

their free time educating and improving themselves

through extracurricular work. These students are

searching for something university cannot give

them. Applying for a BEST course is then an option.

BEST tends to cooperate with companies in a

longterm perspective. Very often a cooperation on

an event becomes a cooperation lasting for several

years. BEST generated a virtual platform called

BEST Career Support, which helps students and

companies come closer together and find a suitable

fit. Another way of bringing students together with

companies are our career related events. Our JobFairs

are events, where students can meet company

representatives and talk about the company culture

and job possibilities. BEST also arranges company

presentations, visits and other events. The easiest

way to get the overview and apply to participate in

such an event is to simply go to our official website

and choose a suitable event according to type or

location.

Many graduates found their current job thanks to

some of our career events. Every participant can

directly influence the image of the company they

represent, because students can actually see and

talk about the work every company actually does.

Also, being in contact with your possible future

employees is a great benefit these events bring.


BEST is connecting students and companies. As

a student organisation, we see the exact needs of

students and we try to match those needs with

those of our partners. We help students increase

their chances of developing their careers as well as

we help companies to find the talents they need.

One of the tools we use for this connection is BEST

Career Support.

We create cross-European connections, which bring

diversity, benefits and generates development.

Information from BCS can be accessed directly by

all interested parties, making BCS a very effective

tool for students to find their dream job and for

companies to find a perfect fit.

BEST Career Support

The students can simply create an account and

fill in their curriculum vitae online. This service has

become very popular among students who are in

search for a career opportunity. Our CV database

is becoming larger on a daily basis, approaching

20 000 CVs from students and graduates. All the CVs

can be browsed easily with the help of very detailed

search options, which makes the system very

efficient for companies to find the candidates who

meet their requirements. Through BCS, students

can also receive a regular newsletter, informing

about the latest internships, job offers and special

programmes. The selection criteria are also added

here; students can see the offers that match their

requirements and wishes.

All job offers, internships and programmes can

also be posted on the external web page in our

career section, leaving it accessible by all students

who browse our website. In this way, students can

experience the advantages of BCS and then register

for the full service.


BEST Career Support is a virtual platform which connects students of engineering and technology with our partner companies.

Career events are the BEST way to connect students

and companies. Obviously, the direct contact

between students and company representatives

brings the ultimate glimpse of the company world.

We can divide career events into three main

categories. There are the official Opening Days of our

General Meetings, Closing Days of our BEST

Engineering Competitions and there are local career

events. All events are listed on our official website,

sorted according to the categories. Students can

choose to attend company presentations, Case

Studies, Jobfairs, Round Tables and other career

events like training sessions or seminars. We invite

our partners to official openings of our largest

events, where they have the chance to access

our network and promote their image among

students. The Closing Day of the European final of

Career Events

the BEST Engineering Competitions is a place where

companies, media and the brightest students of

technology meet all together. The companies

and media welcome the solutions invented by

the students and equally the students enjoy the

presence and attention given to them from the

company representatives and media.

The biggest advantage of our career events is that

they are so easy to attend. All interested parties can

simply go to our website, to the section of career

events and apply.

With a number of career events reaching one

hundred per year, students and companies have

endless possibilities to meet and find a perfect

career or employee. Join us today and become

one of our satisfied partners.


Testimonial from BekaertBekaert continuously searches for young engineers

from all over the world. Since BEST is an international

organisation targeting engineering students from all

over Europe, it is a valuable partner for us. Our co-

operation started in 2006 and today a fair number of

our employees are former BEST members.

Bekaert is a global technological and market leader in

advanced solutions based on metal transformation

and coatings, and the world’s largest independent

manufacturer of drawn steel wire products.

Bekaert is a global company with headquarters in

Belgium, employing 28 000 people worldwide.

Serving customers in 120 countries, Bekaert pursues

sustainable profitable growth in all its activities and

generated combined sales of € 4.5 billion in 2010.

The objective of BEST is to provide communication,

co-operation and exchange possibilities for

students all over Europe and to help them become

more internationally minded, by reaching a better

understanding of diverse cultures and developing

capacities to work on an international basis.

We acknowledge and can relate to the ambitions

of BEST. Our main field of cooperation is through

recruitment events, company presentations and

career newsletters. We send advice newsletters

through BEST, for example “How to prepare for

your first interview?”. With these tools we try to

broaden the scope of young graduates towards

doing business in an international context. BEST

and Bekaert have built up a strong relationship

throughout the years which results in a win-win

situation for both BEST and Bekaert. It’s another

proof of our baseline better together.

31

BEST has no limits when it comes to offering the

students and companies the opportunities to meet

each other, offering them the best environment to

discuss future career opportunities.

Since the needs of the companies, e.g. annual

partners, are not only to recruit students or recent

graduates from international events like General

Meetings which they may support, BEST tries to

facilitate the cooperation between annual partners

and Local BEST Groups all over Europe. Sometimes

these companies are also interested in other ways of

recruiting new people, they want to know what the

Local BEST Groups are doing, they want to participate

in local events, especially local career events, and be in

contact with local students. Therefore, BEST gives the

companies the possibilities to come in contact with

local BEST groups regarding local events in specific

countries, cities and/or universities.

A tool is available for Local BEST Groups to announce

any kind of local career event like job fairs or other event,

such as company presentations, BEST courses, etc. In

this way, these events can be promoted to companies,

which facilitates the contact between the companies

and local BEST groups to form a new partnership in

order to reach the companies’ expectations.

Schlumberger is one of those companies which

took this opportunity by seeing the different

advantages for the company. Schlumberger set up

quite some local partnerships with different Local

BEST Groups around Europe, such as

• a job fair organised by Local BEST Group Kraków in

Poland in March 2011 (at the AGH-UST - University

of Science and Technology),

• a job fair organised by Local BEST Group Ankara in

Turkey in March 2011 (at the Middle East Technical

University),

• a Local BEST Engineering Competition organised

by Local BEST Group Istanbul in Turkey in March

2011 (at the Istanbul Technical University),

• the Schlumberger Careers Day organised by local

BEST group Bucharest in Romania in May 2011 (at

the University POLITEHNICA of Bucharest). This

was a three day recruitment event dedicated to

Schlumberger.

This is just a part of the beginning of the cooperation

between Schlumberger, BEST and the local

partnerships. The company is eager to continue

the partnership with BEST and participating in

similar events in the future. Some of these events

are already planned for the near future. In this way,

Schlumberger and other companies, can combine the

benefits from the international promotion offered by

the annual partnership through Career Newsletters,

promotion on www.BEST.eu.org and internal events,

with the benefits of the local promotion during local

career events in their target countries and universities.

Local cooperation


It creates a platform, in order to raise the awareness

of students on educational matters and to provide

impartial student input to the stakeholders of

European Engineering Education (EEE). The need

for this service comes from the current low level

of unbias student input in the field and the

rapid development of the previous years in the

engineering education.

How does BEST Educational Involvement work in

reality? EEE is comprised by many specific academic

topics, such as curricula development, e-learning,

active learning, recognition and accreditation,

lifelong learning, student mobility, research in

EEE, women in EEE, etc. The BEST Educational

Programme is implementing the whole platform

for BEST Educational Involvement. Information

on educational issues is brought to students

and their input is provided to stakeholders

working on them, at the same time. Student input

is gathered during the Events on Education and via

surveys in BEST. The Educational Committee of BEST

(EduCo) is currently offering more possibilities on

Events on Education, starting with the traditional

Symposia and BACo Forums (BEST, Academics

and Companies Forums). Furthermore, EduCo is

involved in educational matters for the sake of the

delivery of this input to the various stakeholders.

This involvement includes the participation and

work in European Thematic Networks and Projects

and cooperation with associations involved in EEE.

It also includes representing BEST in conferences

and seminars related to Engineering Education.

Furthermore, EduCo supports BEST projects that

are related to academic matters, such as recognition

and BEST University Centre, and is the team capable

of helping Local BEST Groups when they need

assistance to improve their Public Relations with

their host university.

BEST Educational Involvement is a service that BEST currently offers to students all over the Europe.


The 1st World Engineering Education Flash Week,

organised by BEST, SEFI and ISEL (Instituto Superior de

Engenharia de Lisboa), took place in Lisbon, Portugal

between 26th September and 4th October 2011. This

event is notable for its new and unique concept of

gathering 300 professors and 300 students, pairing

them up in teams and solving various case studies

within topics of interest in engineering education.

The professors and the students are working

together and they can get to know each other and

the city whilst discussing a problem.

Flash Week has an interesting aim and role in the

history of the events on education - to deconstruct

pre-made groups, to deconstruct the concept of

conferences, to have the people in the centre of the

event, to support the interaction of knowledge and

people regardless their origin or job position, as a

mean to empower diversity. It gathers experts from

various European organisations, BEST being one of

the key elements of the event because of its role.

BEST has been involved in promoting the event to

students, in developing the social programme for

the participants, delivering training sessions and

organising small engineering competitions.

The event serves as an umbrella for several other

events organised by different organisations during

that week, so it represents a great opportunity for

BEST to increase its visibility and the recognition

of our organisation in the world of engineering

education.

1st World Engineering Education Flash Week



Apart from BEST Courses and Engineering

Competitions, BEST also organises Events on

Education as one of the faces of the external BEST.

Traditionally, these are seminars that last 6 days and

are focused on evaluating and finding new paths

for higher engineering education in Europe.

Hereby students can gain or share knowledge on the

specific engineering topic in the field of education.

Two types of the Events on Education can be held, -

BACo and Symposium on Education.

BEST Academics and Companies Forum – BACo,

where students from all over Europe together

with university representatives and companies are

gathered to discuss a certain topic in the field of

engineering education. They exchange opinions,

share experiences, offer suggestions and find

solutions to common issues. Local BEST Group in Sofia

was lucky to organise the event entitled “University is

not enough? Cross the bridge to real world!”. During

this event students had the chance to know the

actual situation in Europe for all the problems that

affect the transition from the University to the first

job experience. During working sessions, each group

was given valuable input by one of the professors

and a representative from StartPro, Mr. William Lis.

The topics vary on different educational issues: the

topics of this event were Lifelong Learning, Women

in Engineering and Transition from studies to your

first job. The outcomes of the working groups were

sent to StartPro and were used in other occasions,

so that students’ input contributed to the overall

quality of engineering studies in Europe.

BEST Symposium on Education – BSoE’s are

events where students and representatives of the

universities are discovering new issues and solutions

in the engineering education. The topics vary on

different educational issues: they can be proposed

by the Educational Committee (EduCo) or be related

to Educational Projects, run by Thematic Networks

connected to the European Commission, where

BEST, through EduCo, is involved. During July 2010

the BEST Symposium “Work virtually! Boost your

career at student speed” took place in Ljubljana. The

Symposium was led by the Educational Committee

of BEST (EduCo) with the help of EuroPACE, ERABEE

and the hosting Local BEST Group of Ljubljana.

The event was focused on virtual mobility of

students of technology. Existing programmes led

by EuroPACE – EU-VIP, Move-IT and EPICS were

discussed in order to improve the existing methods

used in virtual programs and to develop new ones

for the future. Another topic that was discussed was

about the innovation and creativity in university

Events On Education


As BEST is involved in different aspects of European

engineering education, in the past year several

members of the organisation attended conferences

in this field in order to bring students’ input on

projects which are meant to improve the education

in Europe.

During the SEFI-IGIP 2010 Annual Conference in

Trnava, Slovakia, which took place in September

2010, the BEST members, together with more than

400 professors and experts, were updated with the

latest results of European and Global Engineering

Education development. BEST also presented there

the outcomes of the Symposium organised in 2009

in cooperation with CFES (Canadian Federation

of Engineering Students), “Improving Engineering

Education? Let’s do it together!”.

During the World Engineering Education Forum

(WEEF) 2010 in Singapore, Myriam Teicher (Vice-

President for External Services) represented BEST and

presented the results of the survey “Grand Challenges

for Engineering in the eyes of the 21st Century

Students” realised together with Dassault Systèmes

in August 2010. This large conference gathered five

international events together, among them the

4th IFEES Summit (The International Federation

of Engineering Education Societies) and General

Assembly. It offered BEST the opportunity to network

with experts on education from all over the world

and to broaden the horizons of the organisation,

by attending and giving input on the topic of the

Presence at Educational Conferences

conference - “Effective collaborations addressing

common and global challenges”.

The EUGENE Scientific Meeting was organised

between 16th-17th December 2010, in Gothenburg,

where topics regarding PhD’s were discussed

(importance of the research in engineering education,

qualifications’framework domain and accreditation).

In addition, there were raised questions on Life Long

Learning, continuous education and attractiveness

of the engineering education.

WISE (World Innovation Summit for Education) in

Doha, Qatar, organised between 7th-9th December

2010, brought together 1000 education, corporate,

political and social leaders from all sectors of society

all over the world. This was the second time BEST

took part and the summit gave excellent networking

opportunities for BEST in a lot of various fields.

Furthermore, BEST was represented in the following

conferences and workshops:

• EUGENE Line A Meeting (Leuven, Belgium, July

2010),

• EUR-ACE SPREAD Final Conference (Brussels,

Belgium, October 2010),

• 3rd partner meeting of EU-VIP (Padua, Italy,

December 2010),

• SEFI Deans’ Conference (Paris, France, February,

2011),

• StartPro kick-off meeting: “Young professional

and managerial staff facing changes in the

working place” (Brussels, Belgium, March 2011).

settings and how it contributes to raising the

attractiveness of engineering among students.

The last topic discussed was delivered by ERABEE

and its focus was on Knowledge Management and

methods which could be used in order to preserve

the information during longer periods of time.

Also there was an interesting event in Riga in August

2011 - “If your life is online? Then make it work”.

The idea appeals to the European Union in such

a degree that a thematic network called EU-VIP

(Enterprise-University Virtual Placements) has been

created in order to gather the input from students

and companies on the topic of virtual internships.

Students had the chance to stand at the basis of this

new concept. Their ideas and feedback are going to

be brought back to the European Commission.


For many years, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven has had the pleasure of collaborating with BEST in the

framework of European Commission funded projects such as for example REVE, VM-BASE and SPUTNIC in

which both organisations have been partners. Currently, BEST is partner in the K. U. Leuven led project EU-

VIP (Enterprise-University Virtual Placements) [1]. This project looks into the possibilities virtual mobility can

offer in the area of international work placements in order to enhance the quality of these work and learning

experiences. Concretely EU-VIP will result in guidelines and online training material on how to organise

virtual and virtually supported (or ‘blended’) international work placements. Project outcomes are aimed at

the three stakeholder groups with an interest in undertaking such work placements: higher education staff,

representatives of businesses/organisations and of course the students.

BEST was taken on board of EU-VIP to represent the students’ point of view in each phase of the

project. Besides the constructive input at the project meetings, we also highly value the possibility of

organising interactive workshops in the framework of the BEST Symposia on Education. For example,

the outcomes of the symposium “Work virtually! Boost your career at student speed!” that was organised last

year in Ljubljana, Slovenia were used to fine-tune the intermediate EU-VIP project results.

We are already looking forward to the next event and further collaboration with BEST in future projects!

Ilse Op de Beeck

Media and Learning Unit – Katholieke Universiteit Leuven

Dassault Systèmes is a leading provider of 3D design, manufacturing, simulation and innovation software,

as well as product lifecycle management and search-based applications. Used by numerous industrial

employers and educational institutions across the globe, these solutions come to educators with a rich set

of tutorials and curricula to help them create their own leading-edge courses in a wide range of engineering

and non-engineering disciplines.

In collaboration with BEST, Dassault Systèmes has launched an international survey called “Grand Challenges

for engineering in the eyes of 21st century students: new findings from an ongoing global survey based

on the U.S. National Academy of Engineering Grand Challenges”. With the support of the BEST network

of talents, we received 3 397 replies from more than 90 countries. The survey aims to foster dialogue

on the major challenges, and also to develop awareness and curiosity among those who will be required to

provide solutions as part of their professional responsibilities. Dassault Systèmes also works closely with BEST on

several worldwide events related to education, such as the American Society for Engineering Education

Global Colloquium and the 1st World Engineering Education Flash Week.

Charles BONNASSIEUX

Dassault Systèmes

Testimonial from Dassault Systèmes

Testimonial from EU-VIP

[1] www.euvip.eu


In my capacity as director of a teaching and learning support center at the K.U.Leuven (Belgium), I have been

working with BEST already for a couple of years. We worked together in several (European) projects, where

BEST was one of our preferential partners when it came to raise the student voice on themes like

virtual mobility and lifelong learning. Well-organised, very knowledgeable, ready to engage, making clear

points, but also prepared to make compromises,… just a few characteristics how I got to know BEST, as an

organisation, and especially the students, the human capital of BEST. Recently, there was a new dimension

in our relationship, related to my function as president-elect of SEFI. As this is SEFI’s Year of the Student, we

had the pleasure to incorporate student participation in SEFI in a more structural way and to set up a series

of common activities, which will culminate in our Annual Conference, sorry the first ever World Engineering

Education Flash Week next September in Lisbon. SEFI and BEST are two natural twins, and I hope we can

share our lives together to the benefit of both our organisations.

Although people are coming and going – it was and still is my pleasure working with the young ‘potentials’

of BEST. Looking forward to continue along those lines!

Prof. dr. ir. Wim Van Petegem

SEFI President

Testimonial from EUGENE

EUGENE LLP Academic Network, active since October 2009, has now arrived at a crucial Milestone: the midterm

of the project. It is time for real actions to take place in order to demonstrate that such large cooperation

projects are a concrete measure to enhance the attractiveness of the European Higher Education Area (EHEA),

contributing to the global dimension of Engineering Education.

BEST, a historical partner of Networks in the field of Engineering Education is now leading, together with

Univ. Birmingham, one of the main activities of EUGENE: Line E - Increase attractiveness of EHEA. We

must recognise that the activities are proceeding well in different directions, e.g. learning how to increase

attractiveness from good practice.

The resonance of EUGENE is certainly increasing in Europe, and not only, much thanks to the important

networking support of BEST, connecting engineering students of all European countries and ensuring

a substantial representation of the students in the project activities. We wish therefore to officially

acknowledge the important contribution of BEST to EUGENE and, more in general to the whole sector

of Engineering Education in Europe hoping that this will continue also in the future. Thank you BEST!

Prof. Dott. Ing. Claudio Borri, Dr.-Ing. h.c.

Coordinator of EUGENE LLP Academic Network ([email protected])

Dott.ssa Elisa Guberti

Project Manager of EUGENE LLP Academic Network ([email protected])

Testimonial from SEFI


At the beginning of 2011 with help of the Grants

Working Group (GWG), BEST received for the first

time the Framework Partnership Agreement grant

covering a part of the operational costs of BEST

for the years 2011-2013. This is the grant distributed

by the European Comission through the Youth in

Action programme.

GWG is a team in BEST, interested in working on

grant applications and receiving financial support

in a different way than fundraising from corporate

partners.

The European Commission has a double mission: to

develop a framework for political cooperation and

to manage the Youth in Action programme. The

aim is to promote the active citizenship of young

people, to foster their social integration in society

and to ensure that a youth dimension is taken into

account in other EU policies.

Youth in Action (YiA) is a Program created by the

European Union to support youth activities. Amongst

others there was a grant of Youth in Action from LBG

Riga for a Culture Exchange project with LBG Brno,

LBG Louvain-la-Neuve and a student organisation

from Malta – and the amount of the grant was

14 000 EUR.

Cooperation with the European Commission

Cooperation with Institutions and Student NGOs

In BEST we work actively with developing

partnerships with other student NGOs that share

a similar vision and culture to ours. Through

the partnerships we aim to stimulate sharing of

knowledge, resources, best practices and ultimately

provide more opportunities and better services to

our students.

Our Official Partners – AEGEE, bonding and

CFES - are the NGOs with whom we cooperate

the most. AEGEE (Association des Etats Généraux

des Etudiants de l’Europe / European Students’

Forum) is a student organisation that promotes co-

operation, communication and integration amongst

young people in Europe. Their flagship projects

include the Summer University and also European

Schools, which are training events on specific topics.

bonding, our German partner, has been bridging

the gap between technology students and

employers since 1988. In order to fulfil this goal,

students from eleven university cities organise a

wide range of events, focusing especially on job fairs

of different sizes, European Workshops and training

events. CFES (Canadian Federation of Engineering

Students) represents over 65 000 engineering

students and aims to give support to the education of

engineering students so that they can have a greater

impact on society. The biggest project of CFES is

the Canadian Engineering Competition and they

also organise conferences on engineering related

matters annually

As a result of the external relations strategy that

was implemented during this year, we were able to

develop stronger ties with our current Official Partners

and at the same time get in contact with potential

partners such as ELSA (European Law Students’

Association), EFPSA (European Federation of

Psychology Students Associations) and ESTIEM

(European Students of Industrial Engineering and

Management).

During the past year, the partnerships mentioned

above enabled us to co-organise joint training

events where we had trainers and participants

from both organisations involved in each training

event. We organised a training event on Project

Management (May 2011) with bonding and

a training event on Corporate and Institutional

Fundraising (September 2011) with AEGEE.


One of the main activities of BEST is to provide

training sessions at BEST events, both internal and

external as non-formal education. To assure the

quality of these training sessions, the Trainers’

Forum (Ts’F) has been set up to discuss and

improve the training system.

In March 2010, LBG Budapest hosted the first Ts’F.

About 70 trainers gathered in Hungary and more

than 50 discussions were held on the topic: “What

can we improve in NGOs’ training field?”. This event

resulted in several NGOs building up their own

training system or improving the quality in existing

ones. Since Ts’F 2010 had a huge impact in

terms of networking, knowledge and practice

sharing, the Trainers’ Forum was an important step

for the Training Group (TiGro) in developing trainers

and achieving synergy between different trainer

generations. In order to succeed, a second, even

bigger Ts’F was held in 2011, which focused on

ensuring the quality of training sessions and the

trainers’ development.

The second Ts’F took place near Vienna (Austria),

between 3th-7th March. Prior to the event several

BEST trainers provided training sessions for almost

100 young Austrian students of the Technical

University of Vienna on topics such as presentation

skills, conflict and team management. About

100 passionate trainers from 26 different NGOs

attended the working sessions during the three

days of the event to share their knowledge. They

held more than 70 discussions, presenting their

ideas and concepts and inspiring each other. The

first day of the event was dedicated to Trainers’

Meeting sessions. These sessions are used to work

on specific training topics and as sessions in which

an experienced trainer trains the others on an

advanced topic.

If you are a passionate trainer willing to share your

knowledge with other trainers, then follow the

news on the Trainers’ Forum for our third edition

in Ljubljana!

Cooperation in the field of training

BEST, along with other 26 NGOs is under the umbrella

of the Informal Forum of the International Student

Organisations (IFISO). IFISO provides a platform

for collaboration amongst international students

organisations through knowledge sharing and

common projects. BEST plays an active role in IFISO

and has sent representatives to IFISO’s meetings in

Istanbul (October 2010) and in Krakow (March 2011).

This year was filled with wonderful exchange

opportunities and we had the pleasure of receiving

members from other NGOs in a wide range of

events - from Complementary Education Courses

to Statutory Events. At the same time, our members

were warmly received in the events of the student

NGOs we cooperate with.

We value the partnerships with other student NGOs

because we believe in diversity, in the power of

knowledge sharing and the improvement they

bring for our partners and us. We aim to increase

and improve the cooperation with student NGOs so

that our impact on the technology students, as well

as on the external world will be maximised through

shared growth and learning.

Did you know that? Besides cooperation with

student NGOs, the External Relations Strategy

of BEST covers partnerships with European

and Global bodies involved in matters related

to youth, education in engineering and

volunteering. These partnerships enable us to

fulfil our purpose and have a higher impact on the

external world. In 2007, BEST signed a Memorandum

of Cooperation with FEANI (European Federation of

National Engineering Associations) and in February

2011, the President and Ambassador met with

representatives of FEANI in Brussels, in order to

further develop the cooperation.

In September 2010, four members became the PR

Core-Team in order to take care of social networks,

partnerships and media-clippings. The team

gathered 10 more BEST members interested in

Public Relations development at the end of the year

in Bratislava for a Short Intensive Meeting. Outcomes

of the event became the goals of the year for the

team.

The first dimension of the project was to create a base

of knowledge about media and social networks.

The PR Core-Team is developing training sessions,

presentations and other resources to spread this

basic knowledge in the field of PR to our members.

The second dimension was to increase the

appearance of BEST in the media. With this purpose,

we are following cooperation opportunities with

different international media channels. Since April

2010, Young Innovations Europe is the first

media partner of BEST and they have already

published several articles in their publications.

Next year we want to continue this cooperation and

increase the amount of partnerships and articles.

Apart from that, we contacted a large number of

European and national channels inviting them to

attend and cover our biggest events: Presidents’

Meeting Krakow 2010, General Assembly Belgrade

2011 and the Final of the European BEST Engineering

Competition Istanbul 2011.

The third dimension was to ensure a planned

and coherent presence of BEST in different social

networks: Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter. This year

we will also open a blog where everyone will be

able to post their BEST experiences and connect

with their friends inside the organisation and our

partners.

Thanks to our work and to the support of other BEST

bodies, the Public Relations project has achieved all

those goals and is ready to take on new challenges.

The next steps are the creation of a new section

for press on the BEST Public Website, an increase

of exposure in leading national and international

media channels and an improvement in the support

provided to Local BEST Groups on PR matters.

Cooperation in the field of Public Relations

The Public Relations (PR) project was created two years ago in order to create a stronger external image of BEST and to develop the practices of public relations among the different bodies of our organisation.

Board of European Students of Technology 42

Cooperation in the field of Public Relations

CORPORATE PARTNERS

PARTNERS

MEDIA SUPPORTER

Photos: Danilo Vidovic, Dominika Kamola, Elena Ivashkina, Leire Barosso, Krzysztof Kowalczyk, Miguel Marzán, Paweł Gocyła, Stas Ivanov BEST archive.

Writers:Alexandra Cota, Andrei Iulian Ganci, Christophe Jouret, Dalibor Benak, Florian Valente, Ivanna Kushniruk, James Salmon, Juan Van Roy, Krzysztof Kobyłecki, Laura Hellebrandt, Leonid Kholkin, Lucia Cibulková,Lucía Marquina, Matija Lukic, Monica Kviljo, Myriam Teicher, Naga Sudha Mangeshkar Vankayala, Yulia Adalshina.

CAREER SUPPORT PARTNERS

SUPPORTERS

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