Over 250 students of IT classes from secondary schools cooperating with KGHM are coming to our Faculty to gain knowledge about digitization, cybersecurity and the development of modern technologies.

Digital Future of Copper is a new educational program of KGHM for secondary school students from the Copper Basin and the Lubuskie Voivodeship. As part of the cooperation between the copper company and our Faculty, future IT specialists are coming to participate in a series of lectures on digitization, cybersecurity, and the development of modern technologies.

The cooperation initially covered 8 schools from Legnica, Lubin, Polkowice, Głogów, Bolesławiec and Wschowa. On the part of KGHM, the project is coordinated by its branch: the Central Information Processing Centre (COPI).

KGHM focuses on IT

The aim of the program prepared by the COPI team is to ensure the development of secondary school students in professions where digital competences are essential. The IT industry has recently become a leader regarding both the needs of employers and the attractiveness of salaries.

– KGHM offers students a program that will allow, among other things, to increase our impact on shaping the local market of IT specialists. In a company such as KGHM, the use of digital technologies is an everyday reality. We want to encourage young people to discover this world with us. The participants will have a chance to visit the company's branches and to participate in traineeships or internships,” says Tomasz Zdzikot, President of the Management Board of KGHM Polska Miedź S.A. He adds that he obviously hopes that future graduates from schools covered by the program will join the copper company's staff in the future.

Adam Bugajczuk, deputy general director of COPI, emphasizes that the program is a benefit for everyone. “We allow students to acquire specialist professional competences and to combine theory with practice. They have a chance to test their skills in real conditions,” says Adam Bugajczuk.

The Digital Future of Copper program is addressed to students of secondary schools: technical secondary schools with IT classes and general high schools with major options in sciences – future potential university students in IT-related fields. Eight schools, i.e. about 250 students, have already become interested in the cooperation with KGHM.

Teenagers at our Faculty

The program will be run by the specialists from COPI with the help of the staff and students from Wrocław University of Science and Technology and the T. Kościuszko Military University of Land Forces in Wrocław.

Scientists from our Faculty are willingly sharing their knowledge with students of IT classes. They have prepared classes and lectures, scientific conferences and seminars with the participation of experts for future IT specialists.

– We try to attract talented young people to our Faculty and University, says Prof. Andrzej Kucharski, dean of the Faculty. “Since the cooperation with schools covers a number of topics, with many schools and many cooperation paths, we decided (as the Faculty authorities) that it is worth to coordinate these works with an experienced academic teacher. Therefore, the organization of lectures is supervised by Dr. Jacek Mazurkiewicz – a great organizer and teacher loved by young people.

It is worth recalling that in 2019, Dr. Jacek Mazurkiewicz won the Radio LUZ plebiscite for the friendliest lecturer in Wrocław.

As part of the Digital Future of Copper program, on 13 May, students from the Copper Belt took part in lectures run by Tomasz Serafin, M.Sc. and titled "Image Processing Mechanisms" and by Dr. Tomasz Zamojski, titled "3D scanner". And this Saturday, on 27 May, young people will listen to lectures by Dr. Piotr Ciskowski: "Neural Networks Without Secrets" and by Dr. Tomasz Szandała: "The Problem of Explainability in Neural Networks."

The program is in line with the WUST trend

– The Digital Future of Copper program proposed by KGHM is in line with the trend of cooperation between Wrocław University of Science and Technology and secondary schools. Lectures and presentations conducted by the employees of our Faculty are, on the one hand, a good opportunity for young people to get to know the specifics of the Faculty and the areas of research we deal with, and on the other hand, to see that studying is a different, next way of transferring knowledge, acquiring skills or competences. The variety of scientific and practical challenges undertaken at our Faculty is wide. We have something to brag about – in a way that is interesting for a young person – says Dr. Jacek Mazurkiewicz, the dean's representative for cooperation with secondary schools.

He added that the researchers from our Faculty will make sure that the meetings are conducted not only by well-known and experienced lecturers, but also by students. By participating in the project, the secondary school students will have the opportunity to gain knowledge and meet the staff teaching classes to university students.

– I hope that as a result, young people graduating from secondary schools will make a conscious choice about their path of academic education – of course with the hope that they will direct their steps to our Faculty and the "transformation from a pupil to a student" itself will be smooth and give them a lot of satisfaction – said Dr. Jacek Mazurkiewicz.

The Digital Future of Copper program is a pilot project, and after the summer break we will start with new classes for young people in the fields of:

• intelligent data processing,
• image processing,
• embedded systems and microcontrollers,
• design and programming of digital circuits,
• natural language processing,
• artificial intelligence,
• analysis support systems,
• medical data,
• data science,
• Internet of Things.

We also hope that young people will be interested in the achievements of student research clubs that function well at our Faculty.

Below you can find a short backstage footage from the event. You can see more similar ones at the TikTok channel of our Faculty.