Sakib Nawaz

Erasmus+ Blended Intensive Programme "Solution Design" at the University of Maribor
Period of stay: 28 August - 9 September 2022

This summer, I had the opportunity to attend ATHENA's Erasmus+ Blended Intensive Programme (BIP) "Solution Design Summer School" at the University of Maribor's Faculty of Civil Engineering, Transportation Engineering, and Architecture in Maribor, Slovenia. The topic for this year was waste management.

Erasmus+ provided full funding for this programme. This was my first summer school, so I was quite enthusiastic. Many students from different countries have participated in this programme. I was excited about this as I knew that I would get the opportunity to learn about different cultures and their lifestyles. I am happy that I got the chance to make friends from Serbia, Hungary, Croatia, Slovakia, Finland, India, Poland, Lithuania, and, of course, Slovenia. It was exciting and entertaining. Especially the cultural exchange. I was surprised to learn about how there are many cultural differences even though the countries are near each other.

Maribor was hosting more than one summer school at the same time, so there were also chances for us to meet and eat together as we all had lunch at the same time in the same restaurant. We also went on some trips together. The most beneficial experience was visiting many recycling and manufacturing facilities, including a research and development centre looking at the viability of recycling textiles.

We were split into groups and our tasks were to find creative solutions for waste management. My group chose disposable mask waste because we all realised how much it pollutes the environment after COVID-19. We had many ideas, but we had to find something creative. We finally came up with the idea of making a digital recycle that will collect the masks and, in return, will give you discount coupons in different shopping outlets and on its own website where it sells products made from recycled masks. It was enjoyable to work in an international environment together with my teammates. During this whole programme, the professors of the University of Maribor who helped us were very kind and helpful.

Maribor is a very nice place to live. We also went to Ljubljana, which is Slovenia's capital, and Bled Lake, which is its most popular tourist spot. I didn't realise that two weeks had gone by. When it was time to say goodbye, we all had tears in our eyes. We had no idea how close we all got to do this great thing. I am grateful for this fantastic opportunity and experience. I would love to attend another international programme like this.