Page 82 - Annual Report 2014-2015

BOARD OF EUROPEAN STUDENTS OF TECHNOLOGY (BEST) ADRIEN MERLIER/ President of BEST 2016-2017
BEST (Board of European Students of Technology) is a student non-governmental organization striving to empower diversity by developing students of technology all around Europe. The foundation of BEST happened in 1989, when a group of students decided to gather in Berlin to promote and support the mobility for the European students.
Since then, we strive to develop the engineers of tomorrow and more speci cally their ability to work in culturally diverse environments and to achieve an inter- national mindset. Through our 95 local groups based in 33 countries, we seek to help 1.7 million students of technology to reach their full potential.
For 28 years now, we kept following our core values, and we have been innovating constantly to achieve our vision. Every year since 1992, we offer seminars on technology and soft skills to students in order to complement the formal education that they receive at universities and prepare them for the future. We also organize the biggest engineering competition in Europe, where 6000 students
compete and challenge themselves to nd solutions for today’s trending problems.
In addition to that, BEST raises the awareness of students on engineering education issues and seeks to improve engineering education through different events and scienti c papers disseminated in our network. Finally, we connect talented students and business leaders through our online tools and various job fairs happening all around Europe.
For 10 years now, BEST and FEANI have been working together in order to connect present and future engineers and thus improve the collaboration between the two organizations. This collaboration has taken different form throughout the past years, from the exchange of represent- atives in events and general meetings to the introduction of the BEST Of ce under FEANI’s headquarters. In addition to that, many experts from FEANI and its members partic- ipate in our Events on Education, members of FEANI support our engineering competition in several countries and BEST disseminates the outcomes of many projects from FEANI, such as the engineering card.
Overall, BEST highly values the collaboration with FEANI and looks forward to increase the cooperation during the next years. We hope to improve the connection between the two organizations, both at the local, national and European level and henceforth enhance the alliances between the professional engineers of today and the students that will work together with them in the following years. 