In HEIBus project one work package is Expert level real life problem solving (EXPERT) aiming to develop and pilot a new cooperation model between HEIs and companies. The idea is that a company utilizes experts from HEIs in their development projects. This enables companies to bring complicated problems to be solved by international and multidisciplinary experts. The cooperation model is tested by pilot projects, which are running in two phases (the first three start in January 2018 and the last three in January 2018).
One of the first round pilot project companies was ITAB Shop Concept Finland. Their topic is “Inventory management by Smart Fittings” and the company wanted expertise in following areas: machine vision, mechanical engineering, electronics, data collection, user interface and usability as well as logistics. For this pilot project, the HEI experts come from University of Miskolc in Hungary (ME), University of Jaen in Spain (UJA) and JAMK University of Applied Sciences in Finland (JAMK). The control group of the project consists of Petri Kallberg from ITAB, Jorma Matilainen from JAMK, Szabolcs Szávai from ME and Silvia Satorres from UJA.
The kick-off meeting of the project was arranged on 23rd of January 2018 at ITAB in Jyväskylä and on 24th – 25th of January 2018 at JAMK in Jyväskylä. The project group consists of following experts:
- ITAB: Petri Kallberg (Project manager) and Jan Grönholm (Sales)
- ME: Róbert Skapinyecz (Logistics) and Vivien Sipkás (Machine and product design)
- UJA: Silvia Satorres (Machine vision) and Diego Martinez (IT and telecommunications)
- JAMK: Samppa Alanen (Machine vision) and Petri Luosma (Mechanical engineering).
The first day of the meeting at ITAB started with the presentation of the company including factory tour and exhibition area with the products of the company. After the tour, there was presentation of HEIBus WP4 and presentation of the topic. Then the group visited a local supermarket where the group could see the products in real environment. After the visit the project manager presented the topic and the preliminary project plan. The rest of the day the group made more detailed planning of the project and discussing of the problem to be solved. The group was divided to two sub-groups: machine vision and mechanical engineering.
The second and third day at JAMK consisted mainly project work and finalizing the project plan. Main thing was also to agree on next tasks and responsibilities as well as dates for the videoconferences.
As a conclusion, the group was very well involved with the project and worked efficiently. Three days of the kick-off meeting was suitable time for good cooperation of the group.