WorldSkills is a cyclical international event designed to promote professional skills. This year, the final was scheduled to take place in Shanghai, but this proved impossible due to pandemic restrictions in China. The competition during the WorldSkills Competition 2022 Special Edition, as the name suggests, takes place in a unique formula. 61 contests take place – not in a single location, but in 15 countries on three continents.

Kamil Kwiatkowski and Przemysław Rył participated in the Industry 4.0 competition, which took place on 4-7 October 2022 in Stuttgart. The two students of Automatics and Robotics at the Faculty of Mechatronics came first in the WorldSkills Poland Lublin 2021 eliminations last year.

– We started preparing for the final immediately after the win. In addition to the training and knowledge we gained during the course of our studies, we found that teamwork, confidence in other people, getting to know your strengths, and the ability to make decisions proved to be extremely important – says Przemysław Rył.

The Industry 4.0 competition debuted at this year’s WorldSkills. – It’s a young discipline that’s constantly evolving and expanding due to the addition of supplementary themes. This makes it an even greater challenge for the participants – explains Przemysław Rył.

The participants were asked to perform eight tasks relating to the various aspects of industry 4.0, starting from production management systems, through the exchange and aggregation of data, cybersecurity, and concluding with augmented reality.

– The competition required huge commitment and a great deal of cooperation from us. We were also a bit lucky – said Kamil Kwiatkowski. – We had to demonstrate knowledge in several areas that could easily constitute separate competitions. However, the essence of Industry 4.0 is to build synergy by combining various themes.

In the end, the students found themselves just off the podium, behind the teams from Switzerland, Germany and Great Britain. They received the “Medallion for Excellence”.

– We demonstrated that our knowledge and experience gained both during our preparation and studies at Warsaw University of Technology were enough to compete at the highest level – said Kamil Kwiatkowski.

Przemysław Rył and Kamil Kwiatkowski with one of the experts who helped our students prepare for the competition, photo: www.flickr.com/photos/worldskills

This year’s WorldSkills final featured the largest ever number of representatives from Poland. Warsaw University of Technology was also represented by Kamil Kośnik of the Faculty of Electronics and Information Technology, who took part in the Mechatronics competition.