Electromechanics AUTUMN

Exchange courses in Electromechanics

A programme for international Exchange students who achieved at least 120 ECTS in electromechanics, on bachelor level.

Courses with Dutch as official teaching language have tutoring and course material in English.

AUTUMN 2024

*Tutoring and course material available in English.

**Students can only register for this course in one semester, Autumn or Spring

*** Students that register for Technical Project (autumn semester) can’t register for Project Mechatronics (spring semester).

Language courses 

Course content 

For official course catalogue information check the course catalogue: 

Course Catalogue 2024-2025 (available from june 2024).

Below you can find a description of the course contents.

International Bachelor project

Approval and allocation is based on a CV with relevant experience and a transcript of records.

Students do a bachelor project in the field of climatisation or maintenance and incoming students are usually enrolled in a research project of our own research group. 

An important objective is that a student learns to work individually and to solve a problem. The student has to analyse the problem, search for different solutions and work out a plan. The student needs to collect knowledge in different ways, bring this knowledge and the results of the practical work together and needs to make a report/paper in which the entire project is described.In this bachelor project, practical work is always combined with a theoretical background of the subject.

Entrepreneural project 

This course allows young people to learn all aspects of entrepreneurship and especially to learn an attitude of entrepreneurship through the powerful learning experience.

Students create the blueprint of their company: they select a product or service, choose a company structure, carry out market research, search for business partners, gather a starting capital, and write a business plan (with special attention to financial aspects).  At the end of the semester students gather their shareholders to present their business plan/prototype and organise a first trade fair.  Depending on the semester a student enrolls, different activities within the company are necessary.

Global engagement

For this course students need to work independently and do assignments of their own choice.  This course tests the following competences:

• Intercultural competences
• International competences
• Sustainable competences

For each activity they will be appointed a number of hours. In total they need to collect 45 hours international and intercultural activities and 30 hours sustainable activities. Examples:

• North/South course at the university of Hasselt
• a reflection on intercultural experience abroad
• preparing study trip abroad
• helping with organization of our international day
• implementation of sustainability (life cycle analysis,eco design, systems thinking) in a project

Robotics

The student learns how to program  industrial robots. Various offline simulation and programming systems and different robot configurations are used for this.

Technical Languages (German)

This is a language course teaching students the basics of German (level A1).  Tutoring will be in German only.  The focus is on speaking.

The topics are: sich vorstellen, studieren an PXL Hochschule, Jemanden vorstellen, Dialoge im Betrieb, Arbeitssicherheit, Rollenspiele im Betrieb (Betriebsbesichtigung, Seminare beiwohnen,…).

Note: we start from the beginning but progress is fast since Dutch and German are very similar.

Technical project 

The students will do a technical project of which the content will be different each year depending on the needs of the industry (2 credits). There is a choice between projects which are maintenance based (mechancis, pneumatics, automation, sensors) and projects which are climatisation based (cooling, ventilation).

Communication and research skills will also be taught (1 credit)

• Orientation (choice of project)
• Formulating goals
• Planning and design
• Looking for background information
• Processing information
• Concluding
• Peer and self assessment
• The communication lessons and the technical guidance will be provided in English.

Reverse Engineering & Product Lifecycle Management

CAD design: modeling & drafting of mechanical components in 2D and 3D.

Reverse engineering: 3D drawing, 3D scanning, measuring, correcting and printing.

Finite elements: configure FEA calculation and interpret results in a CAD environment. Basic force calculations, fatigue, motion and flow are covered.

Reverse engineering & Finite Elements Analysis

Course description will be completed soon

Ventilation techniques and air treatment 1

Course description will be completed soon

Ventilation techniques and air treatment 2

Course description will be completed soon

HVAC - Acoustic and Thermal Comfort

Course description will be completed soon

Summer School English

An intensive English language course (held before the start of the other courses) for incoming and outgoing PXL students (45 hours divided over 7 days, not on Saturday and Sunday).

In order to determine your level you'll have to complete a written intake and an oral intake interview before the start of the Summer School on 4/9 on campus in Hasselt. The written intake can also be done online in advance.

Using authentic material, this course gives you the best possible chance of making the most of your educational opportunities and it provides help in developing essential skills for your career. You'll also make a field trip to get to know Hasselt and your fellow students.

With the focus on general English you will be given the opportunity to practice on:

• Writing reports, essays …
• Giving presentations, seminar discussions …
• Taking notes on the main points of a lectures …
• Understanding main ideas in paragraphs and longer texts …
• Brief recapitulation of the main grammar items…

Survival Dutch

You will learn the basics of the Dutch language so you will be able to take the bus/train, find your way in Hasselt or order a pint in a pub.There is a strong focus on communication, listening to conversations by native speakers and understanding the (basic) contents. 

Subjects:

• Meeting and greeting, on the road
• In town: shopping - eating – drinking – washing clothes
• The alphabet, pronunciation
• Numbers, time, dates
• Going out, making an appointment
• Health, going to the doctor and pharmacy.

The lectures will take place during 9 weeks (sept-dec), this with a frequency of 3 hours (evening) a week. 

English for eXchange

In this course, students learn how to communicate in an international (professional) context. Students work on their general language skills as well as improve their language competences so that they can function in an international working environment.

This course is designed to practice the four communicative skills: reading, writing, listening and speaking by e.g.:

• reading newspaper articles and short stories and understanding the (basic) contents;
• deriving the meaning of selected vocabulary items from a text;
• writing formal/neutral (professional) and informal emails or letters;
• listening to conversations by native speakers and understanding the (basic) contents;
• watching short movie fragments and understanding the (basic) contents;
• expressing one's opinion about topics of general or professional interest;
• having everyday (professional) conversations/performing role plays.

The exact contents of the course is subject to change and is open to suggestions by students. Students extend their vocabulary by reading real life texts, listening to conversations by native speakers and by having conversations and playing role plays.

They study grammar items by doing exercises and will have to put these grammatical items into practice in conversations and in writing.

The lectures will take place during 9 weeks (sept-dec), this with a frequency of 3 hours (evening) a week.