The high-end, modern equipment donated by the technical distribution company Haberkorn Llc. to Széchenyi István University serves the practical education of students. Thanks to the collaboration, the Department of Vehicle Manufacturing and Technology at the institution now offers the first Item profile demonstration and practice laboratory in the country, consisting of thousands of components. This enables students to assemble the designed machines and workstations on their own.

At Széchenyi István University, the education of high-quality professionals is ensured through practice-oriented education and well-equipped laboratories. The latest collaboration of the Audi Hungaria Faculty of Vehicle Engineering primarily aims to further enhance the preparation of mechanical and vehicle-engineering students. As a result of this partnership, the equipment portfolio of the Department of Vehicle Manufacturing and Technology has been expanded with unique tools, courtesy of Haberkorn Llc.

The Hungarian subsidiary of Austria's largest technical trading company has donated a demonstration laboratory to the institution, a curiosity in the field of higher education in Hungary. With the help of the training station, which contains thousands of aluminium machine-building parts, students can implement any design created in any software.

The cooperation between the Audi Hungaria Faculty of Vehicle Engineering of Széchenyi István University and Haberkorn Llc. serves the practical education of students (Photo: Máté Dudás)

At the inauguration ceremony of the lab, Dr Gábor Dogossy, Dean of the Audi Hungaria Faculty of Vehicle Engineering, said that in addition to learning about components and parts, engineering students can also practice assembling machines and workstations. "Up until now, design has mostly been done on software, but now they can put the blueprints into practice, gaining assembly experience," he said. He added that the "cube element", which is the crown jewel of the lab, shows all possible machine design solutions and allows students to dismantle and reassemble aluminium components.

Lajos Göndör, Managing Director of Haberkorn Llc., said that he considers the cooperation between industry and higher education to be very important. "This tool park helps students' creativity and gives them the opportunity to put what they have learned into practice," he said. He added that the cooperation was initiated by a former student of SZE, Máté Bognár, who himself an employee of the company and has been working a lot with the educational lab.

Dr Szabolcs Szalai, Head of the Department of Vehicle Manufacturing and Technology and Vice-Dean for Education, pointed out that the lab has already been used by students, who gave very positive feedback on its practical usefulness. "We have already introduced assembly practice in part of the Mechanical Engineering programme, but this laboratory will also be part of the curriculum of the automotive engineering specialisation of the Vehicle Engineering bachelor's programme, which will be reformed from September 2025," he noted. The popularity of this new feature is demonstrated by the fact that, in addition to student teams, industrial partners have already shown interest in the toolkit, which allows up-and-coming technicians to easily acquire the basic routines for their work.