Standards. All of them.
This was the starting point of "Standards4Future Skills – Hack Your Way Into the Industry", the Academic Standards Day organized by ASRO on 28 May 2026 at the "Gheorghe Asachi" Technical University of Iași, Romania, as part of the Edu4Standards project.
Most students walk into a standardization event expecting acronyms and grey slides. They walked out of this one having debated AI trustworthiness with industry experts, challenged speakers from CEN and CENELEC and the European Commission's DG CONNECT on drones, 3D bioprinting and quantum technologies, and competed in standardization games that turned technical concepts into something you can actually play.
"Standards are the invisible infrastructure of modern life. We use them every day without noticing, from Wi-Fi connections to card payments. They do not block creativity, they carry it forward: today's innovations become tomorrow's standards," said Iuliana Chilea, Director General of ASRO. "This is what we wanted to show the students in Iași, that standardization is not a barrier, but a gateway into the industry."
The day flew by. Opening panels put public administration, academia, and industry at the same table to talk about one uncomfortable truth: the labour market is changing faster than curricula. Cybersecurity made the point sharply, with a skills shortage that no single university can fix alone, and a clear call for a common competence framework.
Then came the core of the event, "From Innovation to Impact: How Standards Shape Digital Technologies", five interactive panels covering AI, digital transformation, cybersecurity, circular economy, and medical informatics. No lectures. Students asked, professionals answered, and a technical requirement suddenly looked like what it really is: a product decision, a project decision, sometimes a career decision.
The loudest moment of the day? The standardization games at the end. Proof that even the driest topic comes alive when you stop presenting it and let people play with it.
Over 100 students showed up. More importantly, they stayed, argued, asked questions, and came back with proposals. That is what it looks like when the next generation discovers a world #PoweredByStandards.
See it for yourself: browse the photo gallery and watch the video highlights.
Standards4Future Skills was organized in collaboration with the "Gheorghe Asachi" Technical University of Iași, with the support of Edu4Standards, the Iași Chamber of Commerce and Industry, and the State University of Moldova.
