Massive CUAS representation during the ACE²-EU's biggest week of the year

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Last week, the city of Ingolstadt, Germany, was buzzing with international energy thanks to the ACE²-EU Alliance. Three landmark events were organised simultaneously and gathered an impressive 300+ participants: the ACE²-EU Annual Congress; the Kaleidoscope Culture Festival and three Applied Blended Challenges (ABCs), the alliance’s newly created format of short learning opportunities.

A strong delegation of 40 participants from Carinthia University of Applied Sciences (CUAS) – including staff, students, and a representative from Land Kärnten – took part in this unique celebration of European culture and collaboration. Among others, Rector Peter Granig, ACE Coordinator Julia Marinaccio, ACE ARIES Incubator lead Sangeetha Ratnayake, Heads of Departments Claudia Pacher (Research), Petra Bergauer (Marketing) and Martin Schneider (Faculty of Civil Engineering & Architecture) were on-site.

Annual Congress
At the Annual Congress, a series of meetings involved the General Manager, operational unit coordinators, Rectors & Presidents and the institutional coordinators of each alliance member, as well as student, staff and external stakeholders’ representatives. There, the decision-making bodies reviewed the progress at the one-year mark, discussed the strategic direction and priorities for the next year and were able to gather feedback from key stakeholders.
Special congratulations to our student & European Universities Office colleague Sonia Moncaleano, who was elected as the Chair of the Student Advisory Board, giving her the opportunity to carry the voices and interests of all alliance students to the Governing Authority.

Kaleidoscope Culture Festival
At the Kaleidoscope Culture Festival, under the theme "The Voices of Europe today", more than 100 students from all nine alliance partners (Austria, Germany, Latvia, Lithuania, North Macedonia, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Spain) prepared a large variety of activities, from workshops to exhibitions, performances (dance, music, theatre, skits, etc.) and a trivia quiz that highlighted our cultural diversity & unity - illustrating the European Union's motto “United in Diversity”.
Accompanied by School of Management Programme Directors Svetlana Buko and Colin Heller, CUAS’ twelve participating students worked tirelessly to offer four inspiring contributions: a multilingualism poster exhibition; a workshop on “the Voices of Europe”; a multilingual slam and an interactive video game “From Austria with… Confusion”.

In addition, Marika Gruber and Mélissa Pebayle co-facilitated a workshop from the Social Impactors operational unit on “The plurality of culture(s): Challenging existing stereotypes – performing new understandings” with colleagues from the Medical University of Gdansk (Poland) and Goce Delcev University (North Macedonia).

Applied Blended Challenges (ABCs)
Throughout the week, students from all partner universities, including twelve from CUAS, worked in international and interdisciplinary groups on real-world challenges provided by local external stakeholders, in the “Sustainable Cities” ABC series, divided into three topics:

  • Managing Sustainable Cities
  • Environmental, Social, and Economic Challenges
  • Re-designing Public Spaces – PlatzDa!

Closing Ceremony
The week culminated on Friday, with a closing ceremony gathering participants from all events above and mixing progress reports, speeches about the alliance’s future, musical performances from Kaleidoscope students and outcomes presentations by students from each ABC.

Learn more:
CUAS Student contributions for the Kaleidoscope Festival
Social Impactors
ACE²-EU Applied Blended Challenges (ABCs) & current opportunities
More ACE²-EU news about the events that took place in the week