We wouldn’t be mistaken in the slightest, if we said that we were much earlier in getting to grips with and introducing to teaching and research remote controls, intelligent systems, robotics, automation, and a host of other disciplines, even nano-engineering
It was five years ago that the University of Belgrade’s Faculty of Mechanical Engineering officially organised the first international consulting of this kind in the country and stepped into the world of industry 4.0. Today it’s called the new technological revolution, the fourth of its kind, which changes from the root the devising and creating of new products and services, thanks in multiple ways to digitisation and automation based on artificial intelligence (see the article Creators of Futures).
In the decades ahead, information-communication technologies will move into all known machines and plants and change the industrial scene completely, and with it the living landscape of modern man. At the very heart of this major breakthrough, announced in Germany in 2011 and accepted in the world’s most developed countries, is the engineer, primarily the mechanical engineer, who designs and constructs all machines and all plants. This is precisely the reason for the increasing interest in mechanical engineering studies both in our country and around the world.
We’ve always been dedicated to the educating of top mechanical engineers, and in recent years that has had a special emphasis on four key tasks: high-quality teaching, scientific research, international cooperation and cooperation with the economy
For a higher school graduate with a Bachelor’s degree from the Mechanical Engineering Faculty in Belgrade – the leading higher education institution for technical professions in Southeast Europe – the doors are open to the leading world and domestic companies, institutes and colleges.
We note with pride that there isn’t a single one who hasn’t gained employment, which is undoubtedly the dream of all final year high school pupils, and also their parents, regardless of which studied they’ve opted for. Thus, a graduate mechanical engineer is today considered everywhere as having the most desirable vocation in the first half of the 21st century.
We at the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering have adapted massively to rapid technological changes, primarily the emerging industry 4.0. We’ve always been dedicated to the educating of top mechanical engineers, and in recent years that has had a special emphasis on four key tasks: high-quality teaching, scientific research, international cooperation and cooperation with the economy.
A future mechanical engineer, apart from having to solve every practical problem, should also be creative, innovative, enterprising and have a mind open to acquiring new knowledge.
As a consequence, we’ve modernised the content of the curriculum, visualised theoretical teaching, modernised and enriched laboratory exercises, improved and expanded professional practices, improved textbooks and introduced modern studies (I will mention only the first computer classroom connected with the whole world).
The diploma of the Belgrade Faculty of Mechanical Engineering has been recognised and accepted worldwide, while the quality of studies has been confirmed by international accreditations of the German National Agency for the Accreditation and Quality Control of Mechanical Engineering Colleges, as well as new re-accreditation from the British Royal Society of Shipbuilding Engineers. A novelty is an addition that sees future shipbuilding engineers, besides internationally recognised diplomas, also receive an internationally recognised license for design. Many of our former students are successful and respected researchers at leading world universities, or directors and managers in companies across Serbia, Europe and the world.
With such experts, Serbia can and must launch its new process of industrialisation, in 4.0, upon which it is based. Without that, the country has no future. After all, as our motto insists: Excellence now and in everything!