TRANSTEC

The increasing use of Internet-resources in Europe offers new chances in net-based training. Especially for life long learning related to micro engineering technologies this is an increasingly important issue in design, production or application of products. In this area, net-based training opens new perspectives to learning and teaching.

As classroom courses and centralised training are expensive and draw personnel out of their productive working environment for prohibitively long periods, these training techniques are not well-suited for the increasing demands in life long learning. The TRANSTEC project addresses this matter by providing a novel concept of interactive Internet-based training entities.

Know-how and production facilities in micro engineering are located in institutes and small or medium sized enterprises all over Europe. Thus, no purely national effort can assure sufficient production volumes to keep and extend Europe's leading position in this field. To support the industrial activities in this field, the TRANSTEC project was set to realise a methodology for vocational training in

• taking into account the diversity of micro engineering technologies and the variability of the underlying knowledge,
• addressing all users spanning from graduate students to workers in design houses and fabrication facilities,
• providing means to teach complex contents making use of live media, real-life technology data and design software,
• creating a learning, working and problem solving environment for micro engineering professionals,
• guiding design and production engineers to appropriate solutions of technological problems,
• preparing a platform for an all-European network for design and fabrication of micro engineering products.

The TRANSTEC project achieves these objectives by research and development in concepts, software and course material for Internet-based multimedia training of high aspect ratio micro technology issues. It addresses the required network infrastructure and implements a course on the most important micro engineering technologies like LIGA technique, laser-based micro engineering and micro machining aspects of precision engineering.

The project consortium is composed of institutes and medium sized companies from four European countries. All these institutions are involved in micro engineering, computer science and publishing and have a strong background in post graduate and adult teaching.