Last week, from 1 to 3 September, a group from our project team travelled to Piacenza in northern Italy for a specialist training course at the Siemens Digital Experience Center (DEX). It was the first major training activity within the MISIO project, and we came back with full notebooks and quite a few ideas.
Who went and why
The MISIO project assumes, among other things, a series of trainings for the teaching staff of Lublin University of Technology, run in cooperation with foreign experts. The logic is simple: if we want to teach modern manufacturing technologies at a high level, our own instructors have to stay current first. There is no way around it – software and machining technology move fast, and what was state of the art five years ago is now the baseline.
Eight people took part in the Piacenza training: seven members of our university's teaching staff and one representative of a foreign research centre. The course focused on Siemens NX CAM and modern manufacturing technologies, and was led by experts with international experience in CAM technology and CNC control systems – people who work with this software daily, at the source.
What the training looked like
This was not a slideshow marathon. The three days in Piacenza were built around real programming tasks: participants worked on actual examples of technology development and optimisation of production processes in Siemens NX, from CAM programming through to process virtualisation. Working at the software producer's own centre had a clear advantage – whenever a question went beyond the standard scope, there was someone in the building who knew the answer.
The stay also included a study visit component, which gave us a chance to see how the tools we teach are used in an industrial setting and to exchange observations on technical education with our hosts. Some of those conversations were at least as valuable as the training itself.
What it means for the project
The point of all this is not certificates on office walls. The competences gained in Piacenza go straight into the intensive international education programme (IMPK) we are preparing within MISIO. Better-trained instructors mean better classes, a more even level of teaching across the whole team, and a curriculum that actually matches what the labour market expects from engineering graduates. That, in short, is what the project is about.
More training activities are ahead of us, and we will report on them here as they happen. For now – grazie, Piacenza.
About the training
Date and place: 1–3 September 2026, Siemens Digital Experience Center (DEX), Piacenza, Italy Participants: 8 (7 teaching staff members of Lublin University of Technology, 1 representative of a foreign research centre) Scope: Siemens NX CAM, modern manufacturing technologies, virtualisation of production processes Organised within the MISIO project, funded by the Polish National Agency for Academic Exchange (NAWA).
