WeldGalaxy project will deliver, a B2B online Platform that brings together global buyers (end-users/OEM) and EU sellers (manufacturers/suppliers/distributors/service providers) of welding equipment along with auxiliaries/consumables and services, thereby enhancing the visibility of EU’s welding products/prototypes/services to global users (via digital marketing strategies) and providing innovative web-based services (e.g. equipment selection and inventory management, digital design/testing of equipment capabilities) to boost EU market share and competitiveness. The digital platform will incorporate Knowledge base engineering (KBE) tool that streamlines equipment selection process for end-users and allows ‘plug and produce’ digital manufacturing of the right equipment to specified customers’/end-users’ requirements and regulatory compliance. Though the full capability of the WeldGalaxy platform including associated product services (including the services from all third parties) will be demonstrated in welding equipment (along with auxiliaries) and consumables manufacturing domain, yet, the conceptual and functional framework of WeldGalaxy technology concept can be used in any industrial domain related to manufacturing. The Dynamic Knowledge Management based B2B platform will be designed by following the standard 3-tier architecture. Scalability and reliability will be assured by the use of: RESTfull architecture for API layer, cloud-based backend platform hosted on mainstream cloud providers like AWS or Google Cloud Platform who offer clustering, loading balancing, caching to support scalability and redundant data backup to ensure reliability. Use of blockchain/Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT) will make the platform inherently stable, highly scalable and always up. The digital platform, supported by integrated blockchain/DLT for improved reliability/visibility/ transparency/ security of transactions, will enhance the competitiveness of EU manufacturing sec

Plants have a strong yet extensible wall as their outermost layer, which is indispensable for the survival of the cell and permits cell adhesion. The plant cell wall (CW) plays an essential role in response to biotic stress, as it constitutes the first contact substrate for microbes. Our findings using the model pathosystem consisting of the plant Arabidopsis thaliana and a root pathogen that can infect it, Fusarium oxysporum (Fo), confirm that the plant CW is not the static barrier it has been seen as until recently. On the contrary, based on our preliminary data, we hypothesize that plant CW remodeling at the subcellular level plays an essential role in the outcome of the plant-microbe interaction, which might explain the sophisticated mechanisms of plant-endophyte (pathogen, neutral or beneficial) co-evolution. Our work has established a foundation of tools that provide a timely and unprecedented opportunity to test this idea. We aim to elucidate the role of root-specific CW composition and its dynamic changes in root-Fo interaction. Then, we will use this knowledge to modulate the CW properties of the root cell layers to reduce Fo pathogenesis while maintaining beneficial endophytism. Through a unique combination of well-established and high-risk/high-gain molecular, biochemical, bioimaging, and genetics approaches, this project will provide groundbreaking insights not only into the molecular mechanisms underlying CW-dependent establishment and regulation of innate immune signaling in plants, but also into general mechanisms that control plant-microbe interaction outside the plasma membranes. The knowledge gained from this work will advance our current understanding of plant-microbe co-evolution. In addition, we will generate innovative methodologies that will be applicable in designing strategies to reduce damage caused by vascular pathogens in crops.

CONTEXTDigital technology has transformed the way we use visual resources to share knowledge. Today’s business executives prefer processing information through non-text formats, including infographics, photos, graphic storytelling and video and both the influential enGauge report and the EU’s work on digital media literacy has established the importance of visual literacy in the 21st century because of its relation to critical thinking and learning to learn.The topic is especially relevant to engineering education, across all disciplines from mechanical and electrical engineering, to automotive, environmental and computer engineering. While sketching was traditionally used to cultivate spatial reasoning and problem solving, the recent digital technology transformation has rekindled debate how today’s engineers should use the myriad digital tools available to them. Put simply, engineering is a strategic sector in European economies driving innovation and growth. If we want our engineers to be more creative, productive and competitive, and produce more value for our economy and society, we can do through improved visual literacy. Yet, paradoxically and worryingly, visual skills are almost entirely absent from engineering curricula. Updating research carried out by our colleagues at UPM, in 2018 the NOT team found only two European HEIs that offer engineering graphics courses linked to creativity and that visual literacy is entirely absent from engineering VET. OBJECTIVEHence, the objective of our project is clear: strengthen the visual literacy of engineers across participating countries and further afield by introducing innovative visual literacy training into our vocational teaching and provision. ACTIVITIESTo achieve our objectives, we will undertake the following activities: Catalogue and communicate the specific visual competences that most contribute to engineers’ creativity and productivity by producing the VLEE Competence Framework - so that stakeholders and VET organizations are motivated to introduce this new element of teaching. Carry out rigorous testing to determine the most relevant, useful and easy-to-use digital graphic, image and video technology and share this knowledge with the VET sector so that engineering teachers have the knowledge, skills and resources to improve teaching and learning using visual content - VLEE Toolkit. Produce the first visual literacy for engineering VET training course to enable engineers to develop their visual competences in a very practical manner - VLEE online course.PARTICIPANT PROFILEThe project will respond to the following needs of these target groups: i) ENGINEERS. Students attending vocational colleges and working engineers need practical training opportunities to become better at problem solving, innovation and communication, and to stay up-to-date with the technologies affecting their sector ii) VET TRAINERS need support in modernizing their pedagogic approach and strategic use of digital technology in ways that better cater to students’ learning needs and future performance in the workplace. iii) VET ORGANIZATIONS AND STAKEHOLDERS, from technical colleges to professional membership bodies, education policy makers, need cost-effective, scalable solutions to improving the quality of education and its relevance to real life work skills.RESULTSWe will produce 3 main results:1 Visual Literacy for Engineering COMPETENCE FRAMEWORK, a digital publication that introduces our target groups to the concept and benefits of visual literacy education and the digital innovations that help teach it effectively. 2 VLEE TOOLKIT, an interactive publication providing practical guidance on the top 20 digital technologies, tools or platforms can be used to teach different aspects of visual literacy in engineering and advance students’ visual competences.3 Visual Literacy for Engineering ONLINE COURSE, a multilingual e-learning course & user driven platform which consolidates learning for students who have received classroom teaching, and enables distance/flexible learning for engineers already in employment irrespective of age, level of study or geographic location.IMPACTVLEE has been carefully structured to enable VET Schools & providers of professional education for engineers to better respond to labour market needs by enabling the introduction of high quality visual literacy education for engineers. All of our project’s outputs, combined with our dissemination/exploitation strategy, are focussed on both raising awareness of this gap, & equipping educators with the means to better teach these competences. As a result, thousands more engineers will have the skills they need to flourish in an ever-changing labour market.Furthermore, the unique structure of the VLEE project provides a reliable means of introducing and scaling improved visual literacy competences for engineering students & engineers in the workplace across Europe.