Mini-conference held on September 20th at Department of Road Engineering, Tallinn University of Technology

The “Future Way”  mini-conference, dedicated to the 55th anniversary of the establishment of the Department of Road Engineering of the Tallinn University of Technology (TUT) took place in Tallinn on September 20th 2013. This conference was organised in combination with the convention of all graduates of the Department. The Department of Road Engineering of TUT is the only higher educational institution in Estonia that prepares road and bridge engineers and geodesist to a Master of Engineering and PhD level. During its 55 years of activity, the Department has had over 800 graduates.

The topics of the conference were related to the future developments in road engineering and geodesy and from that came also the philosophical name of the conference “Future Way”. They included:

• Forever Open Road – presented by the invited lecturer Mr. Darko Kokot from the Slovenian National Building and Civil Engineering Institute (ZAG), who represented FEHRL as part of his seven-week secondment to the FEHRL office.
•  Development of the Geodesy – presented by Prof. Artu Ellmann, Head of the Chair of Geodesy of the Department of Road Engineering;
•  Laser Scanning of Road – presented by Mr. Urmas Saar from Estonian Environmental Engineering Ltd.

The purpose of the conference was to give a general overview of the recent and future developments in road engineering and geodesy sector as part of the Instiute's graduates are no longer actively involved in the studied area, as well as to give new knowledge for practicing specialists.

The conference was organised in cooperation with the Estonian Road Cluster (including financial support from them), uniting different parties of the road construction supply chain – from design and construction to materials suppliers, education and research institutions and professional organisations (currently 20 members). The Cluster aims to enhance the competitiveness of companies through innovative solutions, as well as establish a competence centre for the road construction sector that would combine the best practices and know-how of the industry. Clusters’ activities are 30% financed by the members of the Cluster and by 70% by the Enterprise Estonia. Established in 2000, Enterprise Estonia promotes business and regional policy in Estonia and is one of the largest institutions within the national support system for entrepreneurship, providing financial assistance, counseling, cooperation opportunities and training for entrepreneurs, research institutions, and the public and non-profit sectors.

The conference had in total over 200 participants including graduates of the Department of Road Engineering and invited gests from different partners and companies. For more information, contact Professor Andrus Aavik at andrus.aavik@ttu.ee.