Award-winning cooperation between schools and MCI

MCI Management Center Innsbruck supports the “Be the Best” award 2015 sponsored by Förderverein Technik Tirol, an association dedicated to promoting technical education in Tyrol. This year’s award goes to a paper written on “Test plant engineering for extraneous material removal” submitted by a project group from two local technical high schools (HTL Bau & Design and HTLinn) in cooperation with MCI.

This year marks the fifth anniversary of the Be the Best award, which is presented annually by Förderverein Technik Tirol to the best thesis and project papers submitted by HTL students. Out of the 28 papers submitted, nine project groups were selected to demonstrate their technical know-how to a committee mid-April. The jury consisted of Wolfgang Eichinger, chairman of Förderverein Technik Tirol and vice president of the Industry Division of the Austrian Economic Chambers; Anton Lendl, state superintendent of schools; and Andreas Mehrle, head of the Mechatronics degree program at MCI.

With their final paper Anna-Sophia Triendl, Elisabeth Gram and Lisa-Marie Nagele from HTL Bau & Design together with Reinhold Poscher and Martin Gruber from HTLinn were able to convince the jury and won the contest. The paper describes the students’ efforts to build a test plant designed to examine the removal of extraneous materials such as sand, glass and metal from the sludge in a wastewater treatment plant. The project was embedded in a larger research project.

MCI actively supported the project group and has thus been able to expand its connections within the Tyrolean educational landscape. The project integrates the fields of process engineering, civil engineering and mechanical engineering while creating added value for all parties involved.

As the project initiator Michael Kraxner puts it: “As an Entrepreneurial School® we constantly strive to best possibly bring together existing expertise and infrastructure. This project is yet another example of how award-winning success can be produced through the use of synergies within our innovative Tyrolean marketplace.” Jury member Andreas Mehrle, head of the Mechatronics degree program, adds, “We are proud of the success of our project partners and will continue to expand our cooperation with technical high schools in Tyrol to help spark young people’s curiosity in science.”

The project group was rewarded for their successful work with an extended weekend trip to Barcelona. In addition, the top four participants will be entitled to a two-month internship with the Plansee Group that will include a stay abroad of several weeks.

Press contact:
Mag. (FH) Ulrike Fuchs
Leiterin
Marketing & Communication
+43 512 2070-1510
ulrike.fuchs@mci.edu