LEONI opened the doors of production to students. They responded with serious engineering concepts.
In mid-March, a group of ten students entered the production halls of LEONI Serbia for the first time. A few weeks later, in front of the company’s top management and university professors, those same students presented conceptual solutions for the automation and digitalization of production processes — with the confidence of young engineers who clearly understood what they were proposing and why.
This marked the conclusion of the “Engineering Challenge” program, organized by LEONI Serbia over the past two months in cooperation with the Faculty of Electronic Engineering and the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering of the University of Niš. At the initiative of General Manager Aleksandar Petrović, LEONI Serbia launched this program with the aim of giving students the opportunity to gain experience through real production processes and industrial challenges.
Ten students, selected from 30 applicants, spent four working days in LEONI plants in Niš, Prokuplje, and Kraljevo. Their task was to identify real production challenges and develop conceptual solutions for process improvement through automation and digitalization. Their work impressed both academia and industry representatives.
One team proposed an integrated system for automation and digital management of internal wire transport in the Niš plant, another developed a semi-automated station for module assembly and control in the Prokuplje plant, while the third team created the “Smart Lens” concept — an AR glasses and AI-based assistance system supporting operators during the wire pinning process.
The “Smart Lens” solution was recognized by the evaluation committee as particularly outstanding, primarily due to its application of advanced technologies and its potential practical use in production.
“We expected interesting student ideas, but what we received was much more than that — a serious approach to problem-solving, detailed analyses of existing processes, consideration of feasibility and sustainability, and even investment return assessments,” said Aleksandar Petrović, General Manager of LEONI Serbia.
The evaluation committee consisted of Aleksandar Petrović, GM of LEONI Serbia; Ivan Đorđević and Stefan Đorđević, Plant Managers of the Prokuplje and Niš plants; Prof. Dr. Dejan Mitrović, Vice Dean at the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering; and Prof. Dr. Nikola Danković from the Department of Automatic Control at the Faculty of Electronic Engineering.
“The young future engineers answered the committee’s questions confidently, with strong arguments and clear trust in their own solutions. That was the moment we all realized how seriously they had approached the challenge — and that they knew far more than what they presented on the slides,” members of the LEONI evaluation committee stated.
All participants received symbolic awards, while the team behind the particularly recognized concept solution was additionally awarded a monograph about Serbia, as a symbolic message to preserve their roots wherever their future career paths may lead them.
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Radmila Vesković
Expert Communications Serbia
