Development of Industry Oriented Curricular on Cyber Physical Systems for Belarusian and Ukrainian Universities

Abstract

Rapid development of Cyber-Physical Systems (CPS) products and applications, encouraged by advances on the Internet of Things, generates high market demand on engineers with a multi-disciplinary background in applied physics, mathematics, mechanical, electrical and computer science engineering. One of the challenges in the development of study programs is bridging the gap between industry needs and educational output, in terms of training the prospective researchers and engineers in the CPS field. Riga Technical University cooperated in Multi-Paradigm Modelling for CPS MPM4CPS COST (European Cooperation in Science and Technology) Action that pursued to develop CPS expert profiles into a suitable format for educational purposes. Additionally, RTU and EU partners succeeded in the ERASMUS+ project Physics, which aimed at a reform of the master-level educational system in Belarusian universities in the field of Applied Physics. RTU and EU partners applied knowledge and methods to validate in practice the viability of the approach and the methods developed in the COST Action in order to support the introduction of industry-focused curricula at Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) in Partner' Countries. In this research, we discuss how cooperation between COST and ERASMUS+ project teams provide benefits to both projects, how the COST team efforts towards analysis of tendencies, industry needs and acquiring best education practice, have been applied by the ERASMUS+team in order to create industry-focused curricula in CPS for HEIs of Belarus and Ukraine.