The first MORE training week was organised by Tampere University (TAU) from the 14. – 16. September 2020. Due to the COVID 19 outbreak and all the travel restrictions MORE was required to organise the Introduction Week as an online meeting. Organising virtual meetings brings new challenges especially when the participants have never met before in person. However, the MORE project sees the first training event as successful given the difficult circumstances and saw very nice discussions on the research topics with the consortium members.
MORE managed to organise a successful three days online event with a variable program; a good compilation of technical lectures, soft skills and project management. All project beneficiaries and partners attended the online event. The seven recruited Early Stage Researchers (ESRs) attended the Introduction week. The main objective of the MORE Introduction week was to introduce all ESRs to the scientific and technological challenges in the HDM machinery sector.
Day 1 – Icebreaker
The first day of the meeting focused on introducing the project and the MORE ESRs. Each ESR prepared a three minute presentation to present their individual projects. The participants gave feedback on the talks and had the opportunity to ask questions. The company partners Deere, Liebherr and HIAB also introduced their organisations and roles in the project.
Day 2 – Automation and Autonomy: Today and Tomorrow
The second day consisted of further company introductions from Bosch Rexroth, Volvo, Novatron and GIM who are all involved in the MORE project. Presentations on mobile and autonomous mobile machines were held to bring the innovations being researched in MORE closer to the ESRs.
Day 3 – Dialogue
The final day of the meeting aimed to facilitate creating a dialogue and networking between the participants, especially the ESRs. For this, the ESRs received training on the principles of dialogue in action which is extremly important in online meetings. Afterwards, TAU organised online “sauna sessions”to bring participants together in smaller teams for deep discussions on the different ESR projects.
In the coming events we will give more floor to ESRs to present their research results and work progress and to obtain valuable input from their supervisors, industrial collaborator and external experts.