Award for international commitment
Bergische Universität awards "Weltlöwe" to Wuppertal mechanical engineer
Prof. Dr.-Ing. Manuel Löwer has held the Chair of Product Safety and Quality at the University of Wuppertal since 2017. He has been committed to international exchange and interdisciplinary collaboration between engineering and design science students for many years. In subjects such as "Cooperative Product Development in Automotive Engineering", "Global Collaborative Engineering" and "Innovation of Safety-Compliant Products", students work together in internationally mixed teams and benefit from professional and intercultural exchange. The courses are run in cooperation with Hongik University in Seoul and in collaboration with over 25 universities from more than ten countries.
The organization of the participating groups across different time zones is particularly important for the successful design of digital and blended learning formats. Students are each intensively supported, challenged and encouraged by Manuel Löwer for one semester. In order to get to know the respective partner country and to work intensively on projects, reciprocal visits of around two weeks each take place. This combination of digital teaching and short-term stays abroad for project work is particularly attractive for those students who might not have been able to afford a full semester abroad.
Every year, around 25 Wuppertal students benefit from the exchange. Due to the regularity of the exchanges across the participating universities, the links at faculty level are also very close and are used in various fields of academic cooperation, making them strategic partners. The selection committee explicitly emphasized the curricular anchoring of the cooperation activities, which ensures long-term and sustainable collaboration between the participating universities.
This is the eleventh time that the University of Wuppertal has presented the award. "Science and research are international at their core," explained Prof. Dr.-Ing. Peter Gust, Vice-Rector for Third Mission and International Affairs. "And internationality is the central basis for excellence and competitiveness in research, teaching and transfer as well as for the attractiveness of the University of Wuppertal as a place for securing skilled workers, which is becoming increasingly relevant. In times of geopolitical uncertainty, the importance of international science and cooperation is all the more important in order to tackle global challenges together," Gust continued.
Internationalization also promotes intercultural dialogue and understanding. It is therefore an "intrinsic goal and cross-sectional task, with the sustainable realization of which the university would like to live up to its social responsibility", as Gust emphasized. "Professor Manuel Löwer shows us the importance of responsible, committed action for the benefit of the university as a whole, the students and the international visibility of the University of Wuppertal," said the laudator about the award winner. The mechanical engineer and safety technician Löwer receives the "Weltlöwe" for his many years of successful and visible commitment.
The "Weltlöwe"
Sustainable internationalization and internationality are key elements for the university to position itself in global competition in teaching, research and transfer. The "Weltlöwe", which has been awarded annually since 2012, has established itself as an award for the commitment of professors or academic staff who have rendered outstanding services to internationalization and/or the internationality of the university.
More information: https://www.uni-wuppertal.de/en/international/internationalisation-at-home/weltloewe/
