1. Introduction on EESTEC

What is EESTEC?

The Electrical Engineering STudents' European assoCiation is an organisation of and for electrical engineering students from universities, institutes or schools of technology in Europe that award an engineering degree. It was founded in the Netherlands in 1986. Today more than twenty countries are members of the associ- ation.

The primary aim of EESTEC is to promote and develop international contacts and the exchange of ideas between electrical engineering students. An other aim is to introduce students to the industry and the educational system of other countries. For these purposes several kinds of acctivities have been developed.

Activities

The electrical engineering aspects of EESTEC are expressed through Workshops, perhaps the most important activity. During a one week seminar lectures are presented by specialists from the industry and universities, and discussions are conducted in small group sessions. The subjects for example are new technologies, special fields of electrical engineering or social aspects of en- gineering.

The second kind of activity is the Exchange of groups of students from different countries for about two weeks. Exchanges are help- ful in gaining a deeper knowledge of the cultural and technical aspects of other countries.

The third main activity is the annual conference in one of the member countries, the EESTEC Congress. During this conference the current affairs of EESTEC are discussed and decided upon.

Any other activity corresponding to our aims is possible within EESTEC, for example projects or practice weeks.

The structure of EESTEC

EESTEC is an association of institutions in European countries. Each member is represented by a National Committee. The structure of the National Committees is not centrally controlled, so a Na- tional Committee can either be seated at only one institution or be an assembly of local committees situated in different institu- tions.

The cooperation and contacts between the members are supported by an elected Board which represents EESTEC on an international lev- el and works on general development and strategy. The "Newsletter", the publication of the association is published regularly to provide a continuous information-flow between the National Committees.

In 1993 the members of EESTEC are:

Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Israel, Ita- ly, The Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Russia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Switzerland

The advantages of EESTEC

What is the value of the EESTEC activities? A very positive as- pect is the opportunity to cooperate in an informal manner with other students from different countries of Europe, which often results in international friendships. Another advantage is that participating in the activities improves some special skills, like communicative and organising skills and language proficien- cy. Nowadays the university curricula do not contain any practice in these skills. On the whole, EESTEC provides electrical en- gineering students with a broader and more international view on their possibilities and future responsibilities.