CONNECTING ENGINEERS WORLDWIDE

EDITORIAL

We live in a time of great change and challenge, an increasingly global society, driven by the exponential growth of knowledge and knitted together by rapidly evolving information and communication technologies.

The result and at the same time the driving force of all this is ‘connectivity’: between man and machine, between disciplines and specialties, between peoples and cultures, an internet of everybody and everything.

It is no coincidence that the Faculty of Engineering Technology of KU Leuven is based on the concept of connectivity. Our faculty consists of seven campuses, each of which is specialized in its educational and research domains. Their range is not limited to Flanders or Belgium, but covers the entire world.

That is exactly the essence of ‘connectivity’. Innovation no longer takes place in secret cenacles or behind closed walls. It is about finding the good ideas and practices where they can be picked up, bringing them together and then developing something new with them. Our mission is precisely to connect, integrate and transform the talents of our engineering students, professors, researchers and entrepreneurs into a leading faculty at a leading university in innovation and research.

How we do this can be found in this first international issue of our faculty magazine ConnectING. We do not just bring a selection of news from the faculty and from the campuses. We also highlight students, professors, researchers, alumni and entrepreneurs. Together they are part of the international connection of our faculty. This connection in turn results in an extensive network of 120 academic partners in the Europe and 40 in other continents. In this way, our faculty is a reflection of the world in which our students in Engineering Technology will be active. On our campuses they experience today their life and work of tomorrow.

Professor Bert Lauwers, Dean Faculty of Engineering Technology