News from our alumni members. Experience report from Misi Nagy (part I)

Mihály Nagy was an undergraduate student in technical earth sciences at the Faculty of Earth and Environmental Sciences and Engineering of the University of Miskolc for 7 semesters, from September 2018 to December 2021. He joined the TEKH Vocational College at the beginning of his studies and was a key member of it throughout. Misi tried his luck in the wider world, he is currently studying abroad (between 2022 and 2024) and working, but he keeps in touch with us regularly.

And then follow Misi's experience report about his year in Lisbon:

"In September 2022, I started my first year at the University of Lisbon Instituto Superior Técnico (IST or Técnico) in Lisbon, in the International Master in Mining Engineering Double Degree. Briefly, this is a contract between Técnico and the China University of Mining and Technology Beijing (CUMTB), which means that I spent my first year in Lisbon, where I took a selection of courses from the faculty of earth sciences, and I am now starting my second year in Beijing. Here I only have to work on my thesis (but that's more than enough… :D).

So, after spending a year in Lisbon, I can say that the education is very good there. And much different. Fun fact: they only have master degrees in English (I would have had a hard time in Portuguese… :D). The training system is very different, the semesters are broken down into additional quarters, some subjects are 1 quarter and some are 2 quarter long. The grading system is from 1-20, 20 is the best, usually from 10 you pass the subject. On average there are about 5 subjects per semester. Or at least that was it for me. These changed things in the sense that it made the classes more intense. There were also less tests, and more large project works in teams of 2-3. In almost all of the classes we had to use some kind of software or programming (in Python), which I really liked. For the project works, there was a lot of emphasis on the presentation style and less on the formality of the submission. There were several invited speakers from industry whose presentations were very inspiring for everyone. But what were my subjects?

On the right side of the photo you can see Misi Nagy

Semester I:

1^st quarter:

• Mine Planning,
• Innovation and Strategy in Mineral and Energy Resources,
• Geostatistics.

2^nd quarter:

• Innovation and Strategy in Mineral and Energy Resources,
• Geo-spatial Data Science,
• Rock Blasting and Ventilation.

Semester II:

1^st quarter:

• Geophysical interpretation and inversion,
• Design Excavation and Support,
• Computational Geomechanics.

2^nd quarter:

• Mineral and Solid Waste Processing Plant Design,
• Geothermal Energy.

To sum up, I had a very good year in Lisbon, I learned a lot of useful things, met a lot of interesting people, and had a lot of life changing experiences. I can highly recommend the university and the city, whether for study, Erasmus or just for a holiday.

P.S.: If anyone has any questions about the course, I will be happy to answer them. (My email address: nagy.misi.0206@gmail.com.) The website of the course (although the subjects are not what they were): imme.tecnico.ulisboa.pt."