Blended Intensive Programme: Sustainable Cities and Communities

Faculty of Science and Technology
He joined the Research Group in Building Physics and Building Energy Systems in 2016.

BIBLIOMETRIC INDEXES:

Dr. Pernigotto is  author of more than 100 papers published in national and international journals and presented at national and international conferences, reviewer for several international journals in the field of building physics and editor for the journals “Energies” and “Buildings”.

MAINRESEARCHTOPICS:

1. Building envelope components: Characterization of the thermal behavior of opaque components, thermal and optical characterization of fenestration systems.
2. Building system:
   1. Optimization of energy efficiency measures in the framework of building refurbishment
   2. Assessment of indoor environmental quality conditions, especially in school buildings, in particular related to thermal-hygrometric comfort, visual comfort and indoor air quality IAQ, as well as to the impact on occupants ’performance and productivity’
3. Building stock and urban-scale analysis:
   1. Analysis of the energy performance of the existing building stock, study of historical data of final uses and identification of reference case-studies
   2. Building simulation at district / urban scale, energy policies definition
   3. Study of climatic boundary conditions for building energy simulation analyses-modelling of solar irradiance, analysis of multi-year weather data series, climatic classification

Giovanni Pernigotto (BSc and MSc in Management Engineering) received his PhD in Industrial Engineering in 2013, discussing a thesis titled "Evaluation of building envelope energy performance through extensive simulation and parametrical analysis", which he developed at the University of Padova, Italy, and at the Eindhoven University of Technology, The Netherlands. After PhD defense, he spent the next 3 years as research fellow at the Free University of Bozen-Bolzano and at the University of Padova, Italy, and in 2016 he joined the Research Group in Building Physics of the Free University of Bozen-Bolzano as Assistant Professor. His main research interests include experimental and numerical characterization of the thermal behavior of building materials and building envelope components, monitoring and simulation of the energy performance of the building system, analysis of the indoor environmental quality, and urban scale simulation. At the Free University of Bozen-Bolzano, he serves as a lecturer for three courses on building energy efficiency, high performance buildings, indoor lighting and daylighting design in bachelor and master degree engineering study programmes.

Peter Van Hout, Master of Science in Electronics, lectures at UC Leuven-Limburg on AC-DC machines, power electronics and energy technology. He is also researcher sustainable resources – projects, international – DC-technology, renewable energy, Li-ion batteries.

Jan Van Dierdonck  is the manager of the centre of expertise “Sustainable Resources” at University Colleges Leuven-Limburg. He aims at setting up collaborations with SMEs, government organizations, universities or universities of applied sciences, etc. to initiate innovative research projects on a national and international scale. These projects are centered around three focus areas, i.e., (i) valorization of waste streams into new products, (ii) sustainable energy systems and (iii) the link between environment and human health. Following the latest innovations and trends within these fields and translating them into tangible research output beneficial for the involved stakeholders and students is a key element for the centre of expertise “Sustainable Resources”.

Alice Lemesle

After graduating a Master’s degree in Sustainable development at Paris Dauphine University in France, I’ve joined Danone in 2020, to work on packaging, circular economy and product environmental footprint among other topics.

At Danone Belux, I am responsible for co-building, deploying and animating our “One Planet One Health” strategy for all our categories (plant-based and dairy products, waters, infant and medical nutrition).

I work transversally with the different functions of the company and engage our Danoners to be activists and contribute to the transition to a more sustainable food system.

We are also connecting and working hand in hand with external partners to mutually benefit from various expertise and develop impactful projects and partnerships.

Together, we aim at best serving the communities considering our planet’s limits and continuously improving, as part of Danone B-corp engagement.

Henk Van der Hyde

I graduated as a mechanical and electrical technician. I had the opportunities to fill positions ranging from hands on maintenance and reliance technician, maintenance manager, project engineer and sustainability manager. With this background I have learned the importance of efficiency of operations in all aspects to reduce dependency on natural resources. Through collaboration with key stakeholders and peers I have co developed projects to see us reducing water consumption and circular technologies, energy efficiency improvements and ultimately green energy, efficient maintenance practices and circular economy of packaging. The key to success for us as manufacturers and any other industrial operation is to future prove our businesses as a collective – when it comes to nature there may not be any competition.

Martijn Kiers is Senior Lecturer and Senior Researcher at University of Applied Science FH JOANNEUM GmbH in Austria. His areas of knowledge are: Project management and negotiation skills; Highway expansion Projects inclusive environmental impact assessment highway A1; Utilization projects e.g. hard shoulder running A27 and A28, Ramp meters; Spatial planning; Transport planning; Traffic Telematics; Dynamic Traffic Management; Shared Space; Indoor Navigation; Benchmarking; slow mobility; surveys and evaluations; municipal transport plans; customized public transport, etc.

Isabel João is a Chemical Engineer and holds master’s degree in Management and Quality of Materials and a PhD in Industrial Engineering and Management. She is Professor at the Chemical Engineering Department at ISEL-IPL, Portugal and currently the coordinator of the Quality and Environmental Engineering Master Course at ISEL. She is a Researcher at CEG-IST, Portugal, and Member of de DECISING group, member of the International Society on Multiple Criteria Decision Making (MCDM), member of the Portuguese Society for Engineering Education (SPEE), and Vice President of the General Assembly of SPEE since 2020. She is also committee member of the CT 150 (Environmental Management)/SC4 (Environmental Performance Evaluation) within the Portuguese Environmental Agency and Expert Academic in the Consumer Policy Advisory Group (CPAG) of the European Commission (EC). She is a Senior Member of the Portuguese Engineers Order and Vice-President of the Jurisdictional Council from 2022- 2025. Her research interests include the use of methods, models and decision-support tools to Product and Process Innovation, Quality and Environmental Performance Appraisal, and Engineering Education with special focus in Gender and Diversity, Entrepreneurship and Sustainable Production and Consumption.

Thomas Vanhove is lecturer mechanics and energy systems. He is also researcher in the research centre ‘Sustainable Resources’. Thomas Vanhove has participated in the project ‘ Control of residential loads and energy storage supports the integration of renewable energy sources’  and a second one ‘Power quality with green energy sources linked to the net and microgrids’. He has also been part of some European projects such as ‘DCT-REES: Direct Current Technology – Renewable Energy education and Skill development”.

Jan Elsen is lecturer electricity, power electronics and drive technology in the study programmes Energy Technology, Electromechanics and Electronics-ICT.

Together with Thomas Vanhove Jan Elsen was the driving force of the mobile energy unit and the Moving Lab. As a researcher in the research center ‘Sustainable Resources’ he is involved in various projects such as  ‘Overcoming an electrical black-out in a residential microgrid’ and ‘Power quality with green energy sources’. He also participated in the European projects ‘DCT-REES: Direct Current Technology – Renewable Energy education and Skill development’.

Luis Araújo Santos is a civil engineer, specialized in geotechnics, holding a PhD in Civil Engineering (Geotechnics) from the University of Coimbra. Recently, he has expanded his academic background with a Master’s in Environmental Studies from the University in Aveiro. 

He has been teaching Soil Mechanics related subjects at the Coimbra Institute of Engineering (ISEC) of the Polytechnic Institute of Coimbra (IPC) since 2004, and since 2019, he has been responsible for subjects whose syllabus addresses issues such as environmental pollution, waste management and green and blue solutions.
He is a research member of the Research Centre for Territory, Transports and Environment, through which he has studied liquefaction related phenomena, being engaged in a research project that intends to study the geotechnical response of tailing dams. He is also member of the workgroup of “Characterization and modelling of geomaterials in environmental geotechnics” of the Portuguese Commission of Environmental Geotechnics of the Portuguese Society of Geotechnics.

Combining the knowledge on Geotechnics and Environmental Studies, he enhanced the use of nature-based solutions, such as blue and green infrastructures, as solutions to mitigate climate change impacts in cities, namely urban floods. At the same time, he tries to understand how to enhance public awareness to urban waste management.

Anna is the UN Youth Delegate on Sustainable Development for the Flemish Youth Council (Belgium). She represented Belgian children and youth at the High Level Political Forum on Sustainable Development in New York in 2022 and at COP27 in Sharm El-Sheikh.
With a background in Arabic and Islamic studies and Conflict and Development studies, she is particularly interested in topics related to climate justice, gender equality and LGBTQI+ rights, youth participation and sustainable development.