FERIT Students Gain Practical Knowledge from Cooperation with ENT

Continuous cooperation between Ericsson Nikola Tesla and the Faculty of Electrical Engineering, Computer Science, and Information Technology, Osijek (FERIT), resulted in two recent activities. They were aimed at stronger connections between the academic community and industry and were held in the Osijek office of ENT during January.

The goal of the initiative is to enable students to gain insight into real projects and technologies that are applied in everyday work in the field of mobile communication systems. The cooperation includes internships for students, joint projects, mentoring by company employees, and guest lectures by experts from the field. In this way, students get the opportunity to work on real projects and develop skills that are directly applicable in a professional environment. The goal is to provide students with real work experience during their studies and to facilitate their transition from education to the labor market. On the other hand, this kind of partnership improves the quality of study programs and additionally motivates students at FERIT.

As part of the Mobile Communications course, students of the Electrical Engineering graduate study program in the Information and Communication Technologies module visited our company together with the course professor, Snježana Rimac‑Drlje. Nikola Biondić held a lecture on the topic of 5G radio access networks in mid-January. Students had the opportunity to hear about the key components of 5G RAN, the functional architecture, and the challenges and trends that shape the future of mobile networks.

A few days later, Bernard Galić led laboratory exercises related to measuring the strength and quality of RF signals. The professional equipment that ENT uses every day in the delivery of services to mobile operators was used, which gave the students a unique opportunity to work with industrial tools and solutions. This approach enabled students to build on their theoretical knowledge from the course with concrete practical experience. Working on real technologies and examples from practice significantly contributes to understanding the operation of modern mobile networks and prepares students for the challenges that await them in a professional environment.