It’s been a month since my Project Based Learning (PBL) course started at TU-Sofia. The students are mostly from two programs (Industrial Engineering taught in English and Electronics) and they are from all year-standings from freshmen to seniors. The course scheduling was a bit challenging given the cohort, and we had to split the class into three groups. After three weeks of in-person instructions, the COVID situation worsened in Bulgaria and we moved online later last week. Well, we had been prepared for this by lending everyone a lab kit and they could still do hands-on exercises at home. The campus will use a new schedule from next week, though, and our class time will likely change again, but maybe it is an opportunity to combine some groups.
The next phase in this course is to do some 3D printing. Through more and more colleagues we got to know at TU-Sofia, we got in touch with a professor at the prototyping center, who led us on a tour of the newly renovated building for many labs and the other building of their labs right now. The renovated building was constructed in 1970, and it was messy before. Thanks to a grant from EU that covers 75% and the Bulgarian government that covers 25% of the costs, the building is now nearly fully renovated with sustainability in mind, such as using sun-pipes for natural lighting, monitoring the micro-environment inside the building, and optimizing the machine running parameters. They are very proud of their patented system to do both subtractive and additive manufacturing in a single machine mostly via CNC machine and welding. They’ve also got a few metal 3D printers and used them to make medical implants. Their labs could cover the entire development from virtual engineering, prototyping, to final production. They would take some small orders to make hundreds of products to help the community test out ideas, as many production sites wouldn’t want to take such small orders. They have got many faculty members and students in the labs to help machine design and process improvement, often as their thesis topics. I sincerely hope that these new labs will be in use soon and they will be very helpful to train the students.
Everything at TU-Sofia is going along the right direction. Meanwhile, I can’t help thinking of my colleagues at WCU who have supported my taking this leave. They have shouldered all my responsibilities on teaching, advising, and service. There is the advising day coming up at WCU next week, and they will be very busy. Without their support, my visit wouldn’t happen. I am truly grateful for their support.
Next Mon is the Revival Day in Bulgaria, also called “The Day of Awakeners (Ден на будителите)”, dedicated to all teachers, lecturers, and all people who deal with culture in any way and “awaken” the nation. Supposedly the teachers will take a day off and there might be some celebrations in the town center.
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