FH Upper Austria’s Wels Campus hosted the 11th International Summer Academy for Women

Top-level engineering, teamwork, and intercultural exchange
Wels, July 2025 — For the eleventh time, the ‘International Summer Academy in Engineering for Women’ (ISAE4W) took place at FH Upper Austria’s Wels Campus. Twenty‑three female students from twelve countries took the opportunity to spend two and a half weeks diving deep into current topics in engineering and the natural sciences — all while pursuing their STEM studies, right in the middle of summer.

Engineering meets diversity”
This year's participants came from countries including Mexico, Ireland, the United Kingdom, Switzerland, Turkey, Thailand, and Hong Kong. Through workshops, lab sessions, and interdisciplinary projects, they worked together on solutions to global challenges — from sustainable energy and medical technology to extended reality applications.

“The commitment and enthusiasm of the participants, all of whom are already pursuing technical degree programs, highlight the importance of international initiatives like this,” says Prof. Dr. Roman Froschauer, Dean of the Faculty of Engineering and Applied Natural Sciences. “Our goal is to empower young women around the world in their technical careers and show them how they can actively shape the future with their knowledge and ideas.”

To give the STEM students deeper insights into careers in research and development, the academy also fostered exchanges with established female professors and researchers.

Hands-on and well connected 
In addition to the academic program, the schedule also included excursions to companies such as Rosenbauer, Andritz, and Backaldrin. The participants gained exclusive insights into industrial practice and had the opportunity to build connections with international companies. The leisure program wasn’t neglected either: whether visiting the Ars Electronica Center, attending the MusikfestiWels, or exploring Upper Austria together — intercultural exchange was actively lived.

Learning from one another
“The diversity of perspectives and experiences is incredibly enriching,” emphasize the organizers, Prof. Dr. Karin Nachbagauer, Prof. Dr. Claudia Probst, and Mag. Kamilla Trubicki. “Especially in the group projects, you can clearly see how valuable interdisciplinary and intercultural collaboration is — it sparks innovative ideas that go far beyond the classroom.”

International future opportunities
FH Upper Austria’s Wels Campus is an international hotspot: around 500 students from more than 70 countries study here alongside their Austrian peers. “These networks are more important than ever,” says Trubicki. “They not only strengthen mutual understanding but also open up new academic and career perspectives.”

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