Visiting Riga Technical University (RTU), influencers from Moldova, Ukraine, Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia explore the study, innovation and research environment, meet students, positively evaluate students' design and space engineering works, as well as try out the digital twin and other technologies themselves.
Liene Briede, RTU Vice-Rector for Innovations, meets with international influencers to talk about the benefits of Latvia's membership in the European Union (EU) for higher education and the innovation environment, including RTU students and researchers. Influencers also met several foreign students who have chosen to study higher education at RTU. Having started his studies in Mechanics at the undergraduate level at RTU's Faculty of Civil and Mechanical Engineering, Ilgar Jafarli is now a PhD student and research assistant. He shares his study experience and says he is very satisfied.
Daniil Hrynyshyn, a student of the Faculty of Computer Science, Information Technology and Energy (FCSITE) from Ukraine, who came to Latvia because of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, also views his studies at RTU positively. He had started his studies in his home country before, so he can compare the quality and offer of studies in Ukraine and Latvia. He is confident that after his IT studies at RTU, not only he, but also all his course mates will be able to find a job. Arsenii Prykhodko, who has chosen to study IT at RTU on purpose, having assessed the international rankings of various universities and the content of study programmes. Both Ukrainian students appreciate that there are many practical elements in their studies, the opportunity to prototype and develop their ideas, as well as to play sports.
The influencers also learned about digital twin and metaverse technologies developed by RTU scientists, including a tour of the RTU campus with virtual reality goggles under the guidance of Laura Goldberga, a researcher at the FCSITE Institute of Applied Computer Systems. They are also pleased to see RTU's assistance in preserving cultural monuments affected by the war in Ukraine: in 2022, several RTU scientists and a UNESCO expert, with the support of the Ministry of Culture, carried out three-dimensional scans of several important buildings in Ukraine, recording the damage and obtaining data to be used in the restoration of cultural monuments affected by the war.
International representatives also learned about RTU students' achievements in building high-power rockets and appreciated the work of young Latvian designers, who were introduced to them by Professor Andra Ulme of the RTU Institute of Architecture and Design. They also embarked on an adventure, travelling on a virtual luge track under the guidance of Mārtiņš Rubeņš, Head of the Sports Technology Centre of the RTU Science and Innovation Centre and an Olympian. Rubenis, who has evolved from a successful athlete to an engineer and innovator with a unique knowledge advantage to create sports innovations, also introduced the influencers to luge equipment, also developed by RTU scientists, and shared stories from his time as an active sportsman. In the RTU Laboratory House, they get unprecedented experience of flying an aircraft in a large-range-of-motion robotic simulator. The robot was introduced to them by Armands Šenfelds, a senior researcher at RTU FCSITE's Institute of Industrial Electronics, Electrical Engineering and Energy, and Andrejs Stupāns, a research assistant at the Institute.
Eastern Partnership influencers get to know the European Union by visiting Latvia and the Czech Republic.
