Welcome to this month’s roundup of updates and events happening across the network.
International Day of Women and Girls in Science 2025
Tuesday 11 February is the United Nations designated ‘International Day of Women and Girls in Science’. The WTUN’s collective commitment to driving inclusive and sustainable innovation in education and research cannot be achieved without a sustained, intentional and impactful commitment to the advancement of gender equity and the inclusion of all talent in the sciences. This Day is a reminder that women and girls play a critical role in science and technology communities and that their participation should be strengthened.
The WTUN is proud to provide a platform to scientists and researchers across the network through our activities and online events. On this day, we’d like to pay particular attention to and highlight a cross-section of the contributions made by women at WTUN events over the past year:
The Accelerated Student Entrepreneurship Programmes (ASEP), established by the University of Bradford in 2016, offers students the opportunity to gain first-hand experience of running an enterprise. These programmes are fast paced, real-life experiences, with the goal of enabling students to progress from first meeting to securing funding for a social or business enterprise in just four months. Many of the students who have attended the programme have gone on to run successful businesses.
Inaugural WTUN- ASEP 2025
The first WTUN ASEP Workshops will be co-hosted by University of Bradford (UK) and Beijing University of Chemical Technology (China)
The WTUN – Accelerated Student Entrepreneurship Programme is structured around two 5 day workshops. The first workshop focuses on introductions, generation and selection of enterprise ideas and the formation of founder teams, where appropriate. Following this workshop students receive support to develop and test their business plan. Learn more.
Dr Qun Shao, Deputy Director, Bradford-Renduchintala Enterprise Ecosystem Director, Open Innovation.
“These workshops will bring together the most talented and entrepreneurial minded students across different continents within the World Technology University Network to create successful international businesses. We really appreciate the support from WTUN participating institutes and the WTUN central office, and we will continue to work with WTUN member institutes to expand the programme and develop a wider entrepreneurial community for our students and staff.”
Workshop 1: February 17 – 21, University of Bradford, UK.
Workshop 2 : June 30 – 4 July, Beijing University of Chemical Technology, China
Live: WTUN Exchange Programme and Student Competition 2025
WTUN Exchange Programme 2024/25:
Submit a proposal to access 1 of 18 x £2,000 GBP grants to support exchange visits and collaborative activities with colleagues at a WTUN member institution.
Open to: Academic and Professional Services staff and PhD students.
Deadline: Thursday 20 March 2025 (Internal Deadlines may apply)
WTUN Student Competition 2025
Multidisciplinary teams of 2-4 students are tasked to produce a new, sustainable and innovative solution to address their chosen UN Sustainable Development Goal under the 2024-25 theme “Sustainable Innovation for Planetary Health – Local Solutions for Global Problems”
Open to: Undergraduate, Postgraduate and PhD students f
Deadline: Thursday 10 April 2025
WTUN Member Summer & Winter School Opportunities
Thank you to members who have shared details of upcoming Summer/Winter mobility opportunities open to applications from WTUN member university students. The WTUN will share details in this newsletter.
Programme Name: International Summer Academy in Engineering for Women (ISAE4W)
Eligibility/Participants: Female engineering students aged 18-25
Programme Dates: 8-23 July 2025
Deadline for Applications: 30 April 2025
Programme Fee: € 920 (EURO) – including tuition fees, room for the entire stay, meals on weekdays (weekends are free for individual activities), numerous field trips.
Overview: The International Summer Academy for Women in Engineering (ISAE4W) offers an ideal opportunity for a selected group of highly-motivated and talented women (high school, college or undergraduate students) to experience top-class and challenging university-level coursework.
The Academy’s intensive, two and a half week program combines sophisticated theory with hands-on practical experience in engineering and natural sciences. In addition to knowledge transfer in these fields, social, cross-cultural and gender aspects are covered and discussed during lectures and workshops.
A team of highly qualified academic staff from our university as well as from other universities and organisations will provide scientific and technical background on workshop topics and information about the role of women in science and their opportunities in scientific careers.
Programme Name: International Days in Social Work
Eligibility/Participants: Undergraduate and Graduate Social Work students
Programme Dates: 9-13 June 2025 (5 days)
Deadline for Applications: 2 March 2025
Programme Fee*: €75,– Euro/student for program from Tuesday, June 10th – Friday, June 13th
Plus additional €55,– Euro/student for optional cultural day on Monday, June 9th
*This is a reduced fee offer for partner universities.
Lead Faculty or School: School of Medical Engineering and Applied Social Sciences
Overview: The Department of Social Work and the International Office Linz are happy to welcome you for a 5-day program of lectures, workshops and cultural activities – offering everyone the chance to meet people from different countries and to look at Social Work from an international and intercultural perspective. Lectures/workshops will be given by lecturers from various international partner universities. In addition, we will visit social organizations active in a variety of different areas, such as youth work, immigration, or violence prevention.
Coming Soon:
WTUN Member: University of Newcastle
Programme Name: Summer Down Under 2026
Eligibility/Participants: Undergraduate students in Business, Engineering and Science
Programme Dates: Late May to Early August, 2026
Overview: Summer Down Under 2026 – The University of Newcastle has announced a reform of its calendar, shifting the start and end dates of its two main semesters. In practical terms, this means that the mid-year break (Australian winter / Northern hemisphere summer) will be extended. This new mid-year break will start the last week of May and run through to early August, providing 9 solid weeks of short-term programming and intensive modules. Planning is currently underway to provide a range of programs relevant to UG cohorts in Business, Engineering and Science, alongside guaranteed on-campus housing.
Deadline for application(s), programme fees and full details will be shared in future newsletters.
Dr Aparupa Pani, Associate Dean of Research, School of Civil Engineering shares the growth of KIIT’s research and the impact of their Research and Development efforts and resulting patents.
National Taiwan University of Science and Technology
Taipei City, Taiwan
NTUST has released the latest edition of their Newsletter (December 2024). The edition includes an interview with Professor Ching-Wei Wang on the pioneering use of AI in medicine on Page 19 and reflections on cybersecurity from The IEEE Symposium on Communications and Network Security in September 2024 on Page 9.
Shibaura Institute of Technology
Tokyo, Japan
SIT share the latest developments from their researchers.
Quantum spin liquids defy the standard rules of magnetism which have fascinated researchers for years. Professor Yasuyuki Ishii and his team have made breakthroughs which expand scientific understanding of these materials and pave the way for pioneering work in quantum materials and technology.
Researchers have developed a novel 6D pose dataset which can improve robotic grasping accuracy and adaptability in industrial settings. The development of this dataset brings grasping accuracy to 98%, setting a new industry benchmark.
Prof. Dr. Mohd Shafry bin Mohd Rahim appointed as the new Vice-Chancellor of Universiti Teknologi Malaysia by the Ministry of Higher Education of Malaysia
Prof. Shafry is a distinguished Professor with expertise in Computer Science, specifically in Image Processing, Spatial Modelling, and Artificial Intelligence. He previously served as a Research Fellow at the Media and Game Innovation of Excellence (MaGICX) and the Institute of Human-Centred Engineering (iHuMeN) at UTM. Prior to his appointment as Vice-Chancellor, he held the position of Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Academic and International) at UTM.
On behalf of the World Technology Universities Network, Professor Shirley Congdon, Chair, WTUN and Vice Chancellor, University of Bradford extends a heartfelt congratulation to Professor Shafry and UTM on this appointment.
Join SAIT as they mark International Women’s Day 2025 with a full day of events.
Attendees will have the opportunity to attend keynote speaker, Gayathri Shukla, Diversity, Leadership & Human-Centred Design Expert’s session online at 9:00am (GMT-7) on March 5, 2025.
Workshops will follow the keynote under the theme of #AccelerateAction, exploring themes on leadership, gender diversity, and ally-ship in male-dominated industries.
TU Ilmenau launches European University Alliance SUNRISE which strives to foster interdisciplinary research and promote regional sustainable development. SUNRISE stands for Smaller (strategic) Universities Network for Regional Innovative and Sustainable Evolution”. Learn more about SUNRISE here.
TU Ilmenau is also involved in other initiatives which explore sustainable development. The Climate N network unites Thuringian universities across Germany to anchor sustainability into research, teaching and campus. In partnership with Brandenburg University of Technology Cottbus-Senftenberg, TU Ilmenau has launched the Mobility Economics Conference to research the upheavals within the automotive and mobility industry through the perspective of the German economy.
University of Bradford
Bradford, United Kingdom
A University project led by Dr Sobia Kauser and Stuart Walker has won a prestigious Times Higher Education Award 2024 for a project that allows disabled students to access scientific laboratories. The system, known as ‘Managing Risk for Impaired Laboratory Users’ (MaRiLU) won the Equality, Diversity and Inclusion category and was described by judges as “incredibly impactful”.
September 1-5, 2025, the University of Bradford will the Human Development and Capability Association (HDCA)’s annual conference. The theme for 2025 is “Culture, Peace and Capabilities”. The conference will showcase human progress in the development of justice, equality, human rights and inclusion.
Paper and panel proposal submissions extended deadline: 18th February 2025
All members are invited to contribute to this newsletter through their Operational Board Member (found here). Please contact your Operational Board member with stories or events which will be of relevance to the shared vision and commitments of the WTUN and its members, inspiring opportunity for engagement on commonalities, sharing knowledge, or collaboration.
All calls for content can be shared with the WTUN Secretariat at wtun@bradford.ac.uk.
About ASEP:
