Amman- 4 October 2021
This year’s network meeting of the School of Applied Medical Sciences (SAMS) marked the return to in person network meetings for the first time since the outbreak of Covid-19. The network meeting was hosted by TH Lübeck and took place from 20th to 21st of September 2021.
GJU’s vice president Prof. Dr. Ralf Rosskopf joined the meeting together with SAMS’ dean Dr. Walid Al-Zyoud, exchange coordinators Dr. Mohammad Khanfar and Dr. Adnan Lahham, as well Prof. Dr. Samer Gharabli and network coordinator Iris Wildfeuer.
The host university was represented by Dr. Veronika Hellwig and by Prof. Frank Schwartze, Vice-President of TH Lübeck as well as the International Office who took on the preparations.
The different German partner universities such as HS Beuth, HS Zwickau, HS Anhalt, HS Fulda, HS Furtwangen, TH Deggendorf, HS Kempten and HS Albstadt-Sigmaringen, were represented and Dr. Betram Wolf, the german network head was also present. Dr. Monica Heitz from the GJU project office in Magdeburg joined the session online.
Prof. Dr. Ralf Rosskopf opened the meeting with updates that GJU had undergone throughout the pandemic, including changes in digitalization and the new German Language Concept. The dean of SAMS Dr. Walid Al-Zyoud then spoke about the German Accreditation for the Bachelors Degree, for which the audit had taken place earlier the same month. This was followed by presentations on updates in each of the departments, biomedical -and pharmaceutical/chemical engineering by the respective exchange coordinators. New master programs were introduced to the network, such as the master in “Quality Assurance and Analytical Chemistry,” as well as the planned masters in Biomedical Engineering and “Health Informatics”. Prof. Dr. med. Georgi Chaltikyan introduced the Master in “Digital Health” at TH Deggendorf and discussions were held on collaboration on the mentioned degrees. Apart from the new masters, an idea for a new research cluster was presented by Prof. Dr. Samer Gharabli and discussed amongst the participants.
Furthermore, the collaboration between SAMS and SIEMENS in the Innovative Think Tank with its strong focus of student participation was presented.
Dr. Veronika Hellwig introduced her project ““valorization of olive mill wastewater” which is being carried out in collaboration with Dr. Mohammad Khanfar from GJU and was inspired by a similar project regarding the wastewater of marzipan production.
Part of the general discussion of the network were the Flying Faculty program and general attempts to further collaboration between Jordanians and Germans, as well as the improvement of the German year for GJU students. Dr. Ulrich Bauer from HS Kempten shared his progress in the elaboration of intercultural short films aimed at supporting the preparation of the German year. He appealed to the network for active participation in this project. The network meeting was summed up with general agreements about increased collaboration.
As supporting program to the discussions and presentations a lab tour was organized by TH Lübeck for both biomedical and pharmaceutical engineering to give network members an insight in technology used and projects carried out at the TH.
