Truly multidisciplinary

Engineering researchers create an integrated research environment that brings together various disciplines, blurs the boundaries of different fields, and utilises the experience of various experts to create solutions for particular challenges. Cooperation is at the heart of engineering. In Latvia, the opportunities for synergy are enhanced by the physical proximity of almost all major research institutes and laboratories.

Digital literacy is growing at all levels of the research environment and information and communications technologies (ICT) have made engineering even more widely applicable. This enables the creation of new digital tools that could significantly improve the efficiency of other sciences. ICT solutions range from education technologies to complex system designs like machine learning and artificial intelligence (AI). Designs like this are being developed at both leading Latvian universities. Technologies are closely integrated with social sciences and neurosciences in the creation of virtual and augmented reality solutions.

Several scientific institutions have already put in a significant effort in developing robotics and automation. Engineering expertise allows for the combination of mechanics and electronics with AI and machine learning, cognitive sciences, and optics. When you add linguistics and semantics, even more effective channels of communication between humans and machines emerge. This direction of integration is just one way to design smart social, socio-political, and economic systems.