From 16th to 18th October 2019 the International Congress Centre in Katowice hosted the 9th European Congress of Small and Medium-size Enterprises, organized by the Regional Chamber of Commerce and Industry. Every year the event gathers numerous representatives of business, science, politics and economics. The co-organiser of this year’s edition was the University of Silesia in Katowice.
The Congress was an opportunity to discuss development prospects and challenges faced not only by entrepreneurs. The programme included numerous panel sessions and a number of workshops and meetings attended by domestic and foreign experts. The discussion programme was divided into twelve thematic tracks, including such issues as: city and local self-government, labour market and education.
Speakers and experts from the University of Silesia participating in the event:
- Prof. Ryszard Koziołek, Vice-Rector for Education and Student Affairs – panel: “Youth on the Labour Market”,
- Dr Eng. Andreas Glenz and Prof. Marian Paluch, representatives of the Council of the University of Silesia – panel: “The University Council as an opportunity to strengthen cooperation with entrepreneurs. Meeting of the Polish Higher Education and Business Forum”,
- Prof. Jolanta Tambor – panels: “Economic and social consequences of employing foreigners. Forecasts for the future” and “Tourism/regional products as the driving power of the region”,
- Dr Remigiusz Kopoczek – panels: “Passion + Business = Success” and “Creative Industries”,
- Assoc. Prof. Beata Oelszlaeger-Kosturek – panel: “How to effectively monitor the educational policy”,
- Assoc. Prof. Iwona Jelonek – panel: “Low emission – a big problem”,
- Assoc. Prof. Rafał Blicharz, Professor of the University of Silesia and Assoc. Prof. Andrzej Torbus, Professor of the University of Silesia – panel “Mediation in business – an alternative to court disputes”.
During the Business Expo Fair accompanying the congress, the stand of the University of Silesia presented the offer of the university and the results of its scientific and research works, including, among others, the following:
- the University’s Laboratories of Atmosphere Control – Aerial Mobile Laboratory that enables examination of air quality and sources of atmospheric pollution,
- results of the BARISTA international scientific project on barley genotype, which is characterised by better tolerance to water shortage, higher water content in leaves and more efficient photosynthesis,
- “PAMELA – Plant, Aranae and Microorganism Exposure to the Light Activity In the Near Space Environment” stratospheric capsule, designed to test the effects of cosmic radiation and hostile stratospheric conditions on living organisms, awarded in the Global Space Balloon Challenge 2019 (GSBC) – first place in the Best Educational Initiative category in the competition organized annually by the Stanford Space Initiative,
- hotel for pollinators, which is a result of the action “I don’t sting, I pollinate”,
- a model of a combustion boiler and an optical microscope, together with samples of wood pellets, eco-pea coal, coke and steel products,
- rehabilitation oscillation vest used in particular in chronic respiratory diseases,
- rehabilitation games supporting the process of traditional motor rehabilitation by means of wearable radio sensors, which reproduce the movement of an exercising person and allow to control the action of a game; used in neurological, circulatory and respiratory diseases,
- a mobile respiratory rehabilitation system that can be used during inhalation,
- a sleep monitoring system, allowing to monitor many people on many mobile devices simultaneously, and allowing to control various parameters related to the respiratory system and locomotor activity, which uses a broadcasting method for Bluetooth Low Energy transmitters. For this project Dr Paweł Janik, MSc Eng. Michał Pielka and Dr Małgorzata Janik received a bronze medal awarded by an international jury as well as a special award of the National Research Council of Thailand (NRCT) during the 47th International Exhibition of Inventions Geneva,
- a mountain suit from the winter expedition to K2, created, among others, by the scientists from the Institute of Chemistry who conduct research into properties of down used in thermal clothing,
- thermal imaging camera used to measure temperature on the surface of an object, used, among others, in medicine to locate injuries or inflammations,
- MADBIOTECH – a spin-off company of the University of Silesia, specializing in the management of fermentation processes in the non-alcoholic beverages industry.