From ‘idea to operation’: practice-oriented summer university

At the end of July, we held our first Summer University at evosoft, focusing on 3D design and prototyping technologies. International students were invited to apply for the week-long challenge, organized in cooperation with BME and EELISA. 🎉🎓

The programme is aimed at foreign students who would like to

✨🏙️ gain an insight into a real industrial project environment,
💡 learn about market-leading technologies,
😎 experience a software development company with an informal, youthful and friendly atmosphere,
💻 all while being mentored by experienced developers.

The evo-camp participants were tasked with building a self-driving car, called a MicroMouse, which involved mechanical, electrical and software components capable of navigating a built-in maze. Unlike traditional, face-to-face training, they were able to immerse themselves much more deeply in creative prototyping, providing them with a new perspective on the design process that is closer to industry standards. A good example of this is the structure of the first day of the camp: in the morning, they were introduced to the basics of design theory and prototyping, and in the afternoon, encouraged to engage in creative problem-solving, they designed the final geometries of the first parts based on their own concepts. By the end of the camp, they had mastered the challenges and joys of the ‘idea-to-operation’ journey.

🌍👨‍🎓 The programme, organized for the first time this year, was successfully completed by 3 students: one from Vietnam, one from Nigeria and one from Kenya. All three participants approached the work with great interest and enthusiasm.

Thanks to the mentoring and training provided by our expert software development colleagues, we have been able to focus on professional work and handle the various challenges – both easy and difficult – that arose along the way. Beyond the core curriculum, we gave the participants a tour of the company's diverse professional areas through various demonstrations and lab visits, and introduced them to evosoft's full portfolio of industrial software solutions. According to their feedback, the participants thoroughly enjoyed the week.

Perhaps the most memorable event was the ‘MicroMouse Challenge’ on the last day of the camp. It was gratifying to see that everyone had successfully integrated the hardware and software components together, achieving the goals they had set for themselves. The students were so enthusiastic about optimizing their setups that they almost didn't want to go home at the end of the week.

Why is the challenge still special?

Starting from next academic year, we will launch our 🎓 Rapid prototyping 🎓course, a practice-oriented, proprietary evosoft programme for undergraduates at Óbuda University and ELTE. In this course, students will tackle a similar challenge over several days, based on the same principles. The course will be offered as an elective, allowing students to earn credits. It will be taught by our colleagues from evosoft.