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The Siemens Industry Academy, a long-term partnership between industry and academia that connects engineering students and industrial players in Flanders, is celebrating its sixth anniversary this year. To mark this occasion, Siemens announced its first expansion across the language border. Haute École en Hainaut (HEH) and Haute École Libre Mosane (HELMo) are joining the partnership. In addition, the Academy’s offering is being broadened by actively engaging with the ecosystem. These milestones are testament to controlled growth.
Since the Siemens Industry Academy was founded in 2019, the initiative has grown into a structured and mature ecosystem that brings industry and higher education together. The number of industrial partners – machine manufacturers, industry players and system integrators – has risen year on year, to more than sixty today. The number of academic partners has also continued to grow; following KU Leuven, Ghent University joined in 2020, followed by Hasselt University in 2021 and the University of Antwerp in 2022. Now HEH and HELMo are joining them.
“At Haute École en Hainaut (HEH), we are delighted to be part of the Siemens Industry Academy,” say Fabrice Hubert and Fabrice Scopel, lecturers at l’Ecole d’Ingénieurs. “This partnership offers our students a unique opportunity to learn how to work with the latest technologies and gain valuable workplace experience. By bridging the gap between education and industry, we are preparing them as effectively as possible for the challenges of the future and strengthening their position in the labour market.”
“We are also proud to be taking part at the Haute École Libre Mosane (HELMo),” continues Dominique Hermesse, Deputy Director of the Automation – Industrial Robotics – Technical Sales programme at HELMo. “The Siemens Industry Academy enables our students to gain hands-on experience with advanced technologies and to learn directly from industry experts. Through this partnership, we are preparing our students for successful careers and contributing to our region’s capacity for innovation.”
After five years of steady, structured growth, the Siemens Industry Academy is ready to take the next step. However, the focus remains on applying new, innovative technologies through challenging projects for Master’s students in engineering.
“We have aligned our priorities with the needs of our partners, and are seeking to meet these by expanding our range of services,” explains Thierry Van Eeckhout, Senior Vice President and Head of Digital Industries at Siemens Belgium-Luxembourg. “These will be realised not just by Siemens, but jointly. The ecosystem in action!”
A good example of this is the guest lectures, for which the Academy will be adopting a more structured approach from this academic year onwards. Our industrial partners possess a vast amount of (shop-floor) expertise. Through the SIA network, we aim to ensure that this expertise is utilised to the full by our academic partners.
SIA has always placed great emphasis in its programme on developing soft skills in future engineers, and that focus remains important. “The engineer of tomorrow must be able – in addition to their technical, rational and analytical skills – to communicate fluently, collaborate effectively and transfer knowledge. Engineering programmes focus mainly on technical knowledge, but the nature of the job has evolved significantly,” explains Thierry Van Eeckhout. “A student who is educated solely in the field of technology is still lacking a whole host of other skills needed to succeed in the labour market. Hone social skills and soft skills such as giving feedback, delegating, communicating or chairing meetings efficiently are just as important.”
In addition, Siemens has developed its own Little Innovators Kits. The kits, which enable children to discover the magic of programming in an interactive way, can be used by SIA partners to allow employees’ children to explore the technology in practice, in line with Siemens’ Little Innovators initiative. The first positive experiences are now behind us, and the next initiatives are in the pipeline.
To celebrate its sixth anniversary, the SIA partners gathered at Siemens Industry Software (SISW) in Leuven, where they were able to discover the latest developments in simulation technology. With SISW’s Simcenter portfolio, engineers can generate ultra-realistic, multi-physics models and data that can predict product behaviour at the concept stage. These models are an essential part of digital twins, which combine software with mechanics, electronics, drives…
