13 master's degree students in Auto Project Engineering (IPA) of the Polytechnic University of Bucharest, the „Gheorghe Asachi” Technical University of Iaşi, the University of Piteşti and ICAM (Institut Catholique d’Arts et Métiers) benefited between February - July 2014 of an internship at the engineering centre of Renault Romania, Renault Technologie Roumanie. This internship offered to the best master's degree students the possibility to work in a complex auto project.
The interns' team was coordinated by dedicated tutors, specialists in Renault Romania, as well as a project manager. The internship topic was to find innovative solutions for new equipment and facilities for a Duster car, while at the same time performing technical, cost and quality analyses.
The project, called Duster Plus, within the master IPA 2014, brought together various new ideas, from the vehicles' architecture, the assembly processes, the physical prototypes for various new equipment, to calculating part costs.
Loredana Terzea, graduate of the Polytechnic University of Bucharest, former intern, currently an employee of Renault Technologie Roumanie, had the role of team planner. She got involved in logistics, she negotiated with suppliers, she took care that the parts would get in time to the location where the car was assembled, as she recounts:
On his turn, Sebastian Ciocoiu, graduate of the Technical University of Iasi and currently design engineer at Renault Romania, was in charge with managing any modification of the car body:
During the four and a half months of internship, the 13 interns became familiar with specific activities for the car industry and were able to develop various skills, such as: project management, team work and working in international environments, communication and use of foreign languages.
The Duster Plus project manager, Mariana Vasilca, tutor at Renault Romania, supported them during the internship and was impressed with their enthusiasm: „They became aware of time pressure within the project development as well as of the challenge of the permanent optimisation of project approval costs", as he says:
Initiated in 2009 upon the request of Renault Romania, the IPA Master programme is accredited by the Ministry of National Education in Romania and is developed in a partnership with four universities in Romania: the Polytechnic University of Bucharest, the University of Pitesti, the University of Craiova and the “Gheorghe Asachi” Technical University of Iaşi. 350 students of these universities undertook the master's degree programme, and 57 of them were involved in the IPA internship projects within Renault Romania over the last 5 years. The vehicles used as master's programme subjects include Duster mobile office (2011) and Duster 4x4 hybrid (2012 and 2013). About 80% of the IPA interns were employed by Renault Romania or by company suppliers.
Renault Romania
Renault Romania currently employs about 17,000 staff. The main company activities are performed at: the Dacia Plants in Mioveni (the Vehicle Plant, the Mechanical and Chassis Plant, the Logistics Department, including the ILN centre), Dacia Moulds (Piteşti), the design centre Renault Design Central Europe, Renault Technologie Roumanie (which includes the Technical Centre in Titu) and the trade department Renault Commercial Roumanie (including the Spare Part Centre in Oarja).