As part of the Erasmus+ staff mobility training programme, Associate Professor Dr. Lejla Džumhur, Head of the Department of Theory and History of Architecture and Architectural Heritage Protection, participated in the Erasmus+ Staff Training Week “Artificial Intelligence in Teaching and Research: Transforming Academic Practice”, organized by Saarland University in Saarbrücken from 8 to 12 June 2026. The programme focused on the role of artificial intelligence (AI) in higher education, research, digitalization, and society.
Within the programme, Prof. Džumhur attended a series of lectures, presentations, workshops, and poster sessions addressing current developments in the field of artificial intelligence, including extended reality (XR) in education, AI-supported teaching methods, ethics and AI, digital competencies, entrepreneurship, and interdisciplinary research projects. The programme provided valuable insights into innovative approaches to teaching and learning, as well as the integration of AI tools into academic and administrative processes.
The programme was opened with a presentation of Saarland University by Prof. Dr. Dominik Brodowski, Vice-President for Internationalization and European Relations, and Dr. Ekaterina Klüh, Erasmus+ Institutional Coordinator. Among the highlighted lectures was “Learning in Extended Reality (XR)”, delivered by Prof. Dr. Roland Brünken (Empirical Education Research) and Kristin Altmeyer (Human Sciences and Economics).
Throughout the week, numerous research projects were presented, including “FORGE AI”, presented by Julia Bellmann and Morelia Vazquez Renteria from the Central Department Triathlon Entrepreneurship, and “Neuroexplicit Models”, presented by Prof. Dr. Alexander Koller from the Department of Computational Linguistics and Language Technology. Particular attention was given to the lecture “Digitalization. AI. Society”, delivered by Prof. Dr. Astrid Fellner from the Department of English Studies, American Studies, and Anglophone Cultures.
Participants also had the opportunity to attend presentations by international guest lecturers.
Two workshops were organized for the training participants: “Ask the Bot! AI as an Additional Tutor”, led by Dr. habil. Philipp Hövel from the Department of Theoretical Physics and the Centre for Biophysics, and “AI for the Brave: The Hero’s Journey as a Teaching Method across Disciplines”, led by Prof. Dr. Christina Andenna and Dr. Miriam Weiss from the Faculty of History.
Although originating from diverse disciplines, all lectures engaged with cross-disciplinary challenges, benefits and limitations, as well as ethical questions and issues of authorship encountered by researchers, educators, and students in the everyday use of AI tools.
The mobility enabled the exchange of experiences with colleagues from various European and partner universities and contributed to strengthening international academic cooperation.
Participation in this Erasmus+ mobility contributed to the expansion of the international academic network and opened new perspectives that can be integrated into teaching, research, and institutional activities at the Faculty of Architecture, University of Sarajevo.
