A Collaborative Approach for Practical Applications in Higher Education

As part of the University of Craiova, a comprehensive university, the Faculty of Automation, Computers Electronics offers a number of bachelor programs, such as: Control System, Multimedia Systems, Computers, Applied Electronics, Mechatronics and Robotics. Other study programs are offered at master and doctoral level. Following the tradition and specific local perception, both influenced by the social, the technical and economic context, study programs have been perceived differently by stakeholders, professors and students. The System Engineering study programs are considered to be more theoretical oriented, given with their curricula and students' skills. The programs within the Computer and Information Technology field are ranked higher if considering the demand of the labour market and the opportunity to find better-paid jobs. Mechatronics and Robotics programs are the newer ones and by consequence not well known from the point of view of curricula and skills offered to diploma holders, and not so demanded in relation to other programs. In this paper we shall be presenting the methods used to develop new practical activities in order to support the students' ability to discover new things, and to solve practical problems even if they do not yet have a higher theoretical background related to the imposed task.