Summer School "Sustainability & Technological Decision Making"

Contact

Name

Daniel Holder

Deputy Head of Division Strategy America & Australia

Phone

work
+49 241 80 90695

Email

E-Mail
 

Technology plays a crucial part in contributing to the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals and in solving global challenges such as climate change. RWTH Aachen University, as one of the leading universities of technology in Europe, commits to its responsibility in shaping science and society for the future in a lasting and reliable way.

The virtual summer school “Sustainability & Technology” builds upon this commitment. It is a summer school, which will offer participating students an insight into recent trends and new perspectives at the intersection of sustainability and technology. The summer school consists of two parts: A first lecture-based part where students will participate in three modules, as well as a second project-based part where students work on a concrete case and will present their results in a final symposium.

Furthermore, participants will be able to engage in an intercultural program that will enable them to learn about German culture & history and virtually discover one of Germany’s most beautiful regions – Aachen and the Rhineland area, located in close proximity to the Netherlands and Belgium.

The summer school is aimed at engineering students on the Master’s level studying at Australian partner universities of RWTH Aachen University. For their successful participation, students will receive a certificate with 7.5 ECTS. 50 students will be able to participate each year.

 

Program Details

The summer school consists of two parts. A first teaching-based part will include the following three one-week modules at the intersection of technology and sustainability:

 

Modules

Module 1: Green Entrepreneurship

The module Green Entrepreneurship provides an overview of the entrepreneurial process of discovering, evaluating, and implementing new business ideas/models for fostering sustainable development. During the course, students will explore the concept of Eco-Venturing, which includes the foundations of entrepreneurship, entrepreneurial mindset, sustainable business models and entrepreneurial tools for sustainability. Students will have the chance to work on sustainable business opportunities and innovative ideas by developing a sustainable business model.

  • Principles of Entrepreneurship
  • Sustainable Entrepreneurship

Module 2: Sustainability Assessment in the Engineering Sciences

Due to an increasing digitalization and integration of cyber-physical systems in production, the amount of recorded production data is constantly increasing. As pure data itself does not bring any value, target-oriented analyses have to be conducted in order to derive insights from the data. The course gives an overview of the potential of data analysis in the context of Industry 4.0 and provides an introduction to basic analysis techniques.

Module 3: The Environmental Impact of Textiles

Textiles have a major impact on the environment during their production as well as while we use them. This module shows you different ways to transform the textile industry towards a sustainable production which can serve as a blueprint for other industries. We will look into biomimetics for a different approach when designing textile products, we will discuss recycling possibilities and limitations and also look at completely new processes for textile manufacturing etc. Basic knowledge about textiles helps but is not a requirement.

  • Textile Products for Sustainable Applications – Textiles in Filtration
  • Development of Sustainable Ideas – Bionics in Textile Technology
  • Introduction to the Complexities of the Textile Value Chain and Aspects of Sustainability
  • Recycling in Textile Technology
  • Environmentally Friendly Production of Elastic Yarns via Meltspinnings
  • Biopolymers and Biological Degradability

 

Program Dates

  • The virtual summer school will be held from June 27 to July 17, 2022
  • The virtual symposium will be held at the end of October 2022 (tbc)
  • Application deadline: May 8, 2022
 

Project-based work

A second project-based part will enable students to work on a concrete case from mid-July to the end of October (ca. 120 working hours in total) with the results being presented in a final symposium.

Sample projects that students can work on will be the following, among others:

  • Biomimetics in textiles – Concept for circularity in textiles inspired by biological role models
  • Ecological Impacts of Elastane Production
  • Market Overview of Sustainable Elastic Yarns
  • Performing a comprehensive Life Cycle Assessment in coordination with the participating institutes
  • Performing a comprehensive Social Life Cycle Assessment in coordination with the participating institutes
  • Development of an own sustainable venture (incl. identification of sustainable issues with opportunities for new business models, new idea generation and evaluation, testing into the market and pitching)

Participating institutes

Eligibility

Master students in the field of engineering studying at Australian partner universities of RWTH Aachen University are eligible to apply.

Fees

The costs are 250 euros per participating student.

Application Documents

Please hand in the following documents until the application deadline on May 8, 2022:

  • Letter of Motivation
  • CV
  • Transcript of Records
  • Enrollment certificate

Contact

Please send your application to:


Division 2.4 – International Strategy
Department 2.0 - International Office

RWTH Aachen University
Templergraben 57
52062 Aachen
Germany