Meeting in Austria 03/2022
On Sunday evening, the meeting started with a welcome dinner at Hotel Graf right in the center of Sankt Pölten. Most of us had "Wiener Schnitzel", a typical specialty of Lower Austria. It was exciting to see all the European friends again and to discuss the challenges and solutions for our Penny Press face to face.
In the following days, we spent a lot of time in the workshops at school. Before that we had a school tour through the HTL Sankt Pölten. The building is fascinating - everything is new, there is modern equipment, and the rooms are large and stylish.
Some students decided to focus on the electronic parts of our Penny Press and with the help and support of the teachers in Austria, we produced our own circuit boards. Some of us had never done that before and so it was very interesting but also challenging, but the two teachers from the electronic department did a great job! Thank you!
Some other students spent a lot of time in the mechanical department where some missing parts of the machine were prepared at the milling and the turning machines. Again, the Austrian teachers in the workshops supported us and helped us whenever we had problems.
Restart in Norway 11/2021
Sunday evening in the north of Europe! After all the delegations from different parts of Europe had finally made it to Trondheim, our third project meeting was started on Sunday evening Nov 14th,2021 at the "Egon Tarnet Restaurant", about 74 meters above the ground. Having a delicious pizza in a rotating restaurant with a beautiful view into the Norwegian night - what a start off!
On our first working day, we received an overview and an insight into project work so far, which was really complicated because of all the concessions and limitations due to the Corona pandemic. It became clear that we would have to take some major changes in the project organization and procedure to be successful in the end.
On the second and third day, we focused on what we had achieved so far, the difficulties we had encountered and discussed ideas and concepts for our next steps.
Corona Break 03/2020-11/2021
In March 2020 we still were able to have the second successful project meeting hosted by our partner school in Barcelona. But just a few days later, the spreading of the CoVid-19-virus developed drastically there (as well as all over the continent), so the number of cancelled flights to our home destinations was also rising. In conclusion, we had to consider quarantine after returning back home.
In the following months, our school partnership was dominated by the CoViD-19 pandemic. The high numbers of incidences throughout Europe were leading to many lockdowns in schools and home schooling.
The web-based conferences established as an alternative to the planned meetings did not work out the way we had been expected to because the periods of lock down in the different partner countries again and again made it impossible for students to get back to working on the product.
Meeting in Spain 03/2020
At the beginning of March 2020, we met in Barcelona to push our Erasmus+ project called "Penny Press Machine for Europe" further to the next stage. While in Luxembourg the basic structure and challenges were discussed and analysed, we met in Catalonia to further deepen the technical issues and to start Workline D, which so far was only meant for evaluating the first meeting.
In our well-structured work sessions organized in different work lines and work groups, we had the chance to discuss different ideas and concepts for realizing the different element of our "Penny Press Machine" such as parts of the base frame or the mechanical parts, which would later be relevant for "pressing of the pennies". Apart from the workload, we took our time to get to know the city of Barcelona, the vibrant, beautiful, and joyful metropole and center of this region. We enjoyed regional food, organized a guided city tour and of course, threw ourselves into nightlife …
Kick-Off in Luxembourg 11/2019
About twenty general mechanics high school students and their teachers from five different European countries came to Luxembourg in order to take part in the Erasmus+ project entitled "Penny Press Machine For Europe (PPM4EU)". The guests stayed for a week in mid-November and met at the Lycée des Arts et Métiers to work on their mission funded by the European Union.
Their task was to develop a penny press machine that will produces souvenir coins with typical national and European symbols or landmarks. Every school will produce its own very complex machine.
In addition to the demanding workshops, cultural visits and sightseeing tours were organized by the Lycée des Arts et Métiers. These included the Court of Justice of the European Union in Kirchberg, the Musée des Mines in Rumelange as well as the Lycée des Arts et Métiers itself. Another highlight was an afternoon spent at the Science Center in Differdange.