Ten Ukrainian engineering students are completing an internship in Offenburg

As part of the partnership agreement with Zaporizhzhia Polytechnic University, they spent two weeks as visiting students at the University.

05.05.2026 · Press release · Editorial Office: jd

A group of young people is sitting on or standing behind a bench in front of some trees
Prorector Prof. Dr. Tobias Hagen, Prof. Dr. Evgenia Sikorski, and Dr. Oksana Lozovenko (seated, from the right) welcomed the Ukrainian students and their professors.

For the second time, Ukrainian students majoring in Maschinenbau, electrical engineering, materials science, aerospace engineering, automation, Mechatronik und Robotik have come to Hochschule Offenburg to conduct hands-on lab work using state-of-the-art equipment and to visit companies. These are things that are currently not possible in the city of Zaporizhzhia, which lies near the front lines. “We have almost exclusively online classes,” “We can only come to the university in exceptional cases and only in small groups, since there aren’t enough bomb shelters for all students,” the visiting guests said, describing their daily lives marked by bombing raids.

And so, the practical project in the labs—covering hands-on (power and machine) engineering as well as materials science (metals and plastics)—alongside faculty, staff, and students at Hochschule Offenburg was a completely new experience for most of the Ukrainian students. Through company visits to HIWIN in Offenburg, the ZIMMER Group in Rheinau, and Richard Neumayer GmbH in Hausach, the students and the two professors who accompanied them gained additional insights into modern manufacturing technologies and processes. At the end of the program, the Ukrainian students presented the results of their laboratory experiments at a colloquium and reported on their experiences from the company visits as well as various leisure activities. Among other things, the group—which stayed at the Scout House at Sägeteich and was accompanied by Biomechanik student Illia Artamonov, as well as Prof. Dr. Evgenia Sikorski, as well as Dr. Oksana Lozovenko—who came from Zaporizhzhia Polytechnic and now teaches at Hochschule Offenburg—took trips to Strasbourg and Basel, as well as a bike tour of the surrounding area.

At the end of the program, Rector Prof. Dr. Stephan Trahasch and the Director of the International Center, Dr. Alexander Burdumy, presented the students with their certificates of participation and a goody bag. Stephan Trahasch echoed a hope that Prof. Dr. Tobias Hagen, the prorector for internationalization, had already expressed when welcoming the visiting guests: namely, that these connections will become a true tradition and even be expanded further. The Rector explained that “Zaporizhzhia Polytechnic” has since become an associate member of the European university alliance ChallengeEU, of which Hochschule Offenburg is also a member, and that discussions are underway regarding joint degree programs and research projects. The partnership was established in 2023 through personal contact between Evgenia Sikorski and Oksana Lozovenko.

Highlights from the visit

Young people are working on piping at a workbench
A group of young people is standing in a lab around a flow channel, looking at measuring instruments
Two young men are standing next to a turbine control unit; two young women are standing at a table, watching the readings on a laptop
Three young people are standing in front of a screen in a lecture hall, giving a presentation to the seated audience
Three young people are standing in front of a screen in a lecture hall, giving a presentation to the seated audience
Four young people are standing in a lecture hall in front of a screen, giving a presentation to the seated audience
A man presents a certificate to a young man in a lecture hall in front of a seated audience
Group photo of people sitting in a lecture hall