Blended Intensive Programme: Sustainable Cities and Communities

Erasmus students with Erasmus grant from home university and students from Belgian partner institutions: no registration fee (accommodation not included)

Erasmus students without grant from home university: registration fee 100€ (accommodation not included).

Please consult your own International Office to see if you get the grant or not.

Deadline registration: 15/1/2023

By submitting the registration form, you declare to participate in the entire programme.

You commit yourself to participate in all activities, to pay the personal costs involved and to behave correctly during the International Week, in the university buildings and in the accommodation.

Registration - Travel - Info - Programme - Speakers - Learning outcomes

Find all travel information on this page.

You can book your accomodation yourself (at your own expense).

Some suggestions:

Youth Hostel: https://www.jeugdherbergen.be/en/hasselt
Yup Hotel, Thonissenlaan 52, 3500 Hasselt, https://www.yuphotel.com/en/home(link is external)
Holiday Inn Express, Thonissenlaan 37, 3500 Hasselt, https://www.guestreservations.com/holiday-inn-express-hasselt/booking?msclkid=04c749ded3e61391a98e28a602686d6a(link is external)
Hotel The Century, Leopoldplein 1, 3500 Hasselt, https://century.be/
B&B De Kiezel, https://www.dekiezel.com/

Registration - Travel - Info - Programme - Speakers - Learning outcomes

Online: ‘Take off’

Before our International Week: approx. 23h

20/02/23 - 26/02/23

Reception of virtual assignment (sent by e-mail)
Your preferred choice of project work (top 3).
Personal development on SDG’s and calculation/self-reflection on ecological footprint of yourself and your country.
Preparation of one or two slides (of a presentation (PPT)) to introduce yourself to your team and the results of your self-reflection to start discussion with your team members.

27/02/23 - 7/03/23

Allocation to project team (send by e-mail)
Virtual meeting with the other members of your project team (online session(s), preferable Microsoft Teams)
Discussion on SDG’s.
Reflection on the parameters influencing the ecological footprint of your team and your country.
Designing a team-presentation with the summary of your team’s discussion.
Uploading of this team-presentation (deadline 7/3/23, in Microsoft Teams).

International week in Belgium (see ‘Programme’)

International Week in Diepenbeek, Belgium, incl. project work: 50h

13/03/23 - 17/03/23

Full week programme
Inspiring lectures on this week’s theme.
Project work in teams on selected case studies.
Final presentation of the project work on Friday.

Online: ‘Off-boarding’

After our International Week: approx. 8h

20/03/23 - 30/03/23

Self-reflection on lessons learned (in preparation of the team discussion).
Team discussion (virtual meeting) on lessons learned, starting from the PPT from the ‘Take off’ assignment.
Uploading the new and final version of your team’s presentation (PPT) including a summary of lessons learned on your team and your country sustainability route.

Grading criteria

Take off/off-boarding: 30%
Participation during exchange week: 10%
Presentation: 60%

Registration - Travel - Info - Programme - Speakers - Learning outcomes

9.00 – 9.30	Registration on UCLL-campus
9.30 - 10.00	Welcome
10.00 - 11.00	Key note speaker: Anna Paeshuyse UN Youth Delegate on Sustainable Development for the Flemish Youth Council (Belgium), on ‘Sustainable Development’
11.00 - 11.15	Break
11.15 - 12.15	Mr Jan Van Dierdonck , UCLL (Belgium) ‘Circular Economy’
12.15 – 12.30	Getting to know project teams
12.30 - 13.30	Lunch
13.30 - 14.30	Campus tour and presentation of UCCL
14.30 – 15.00	Break/transport to Hasselt city center
15.00 – 17.00	City Game Hasselt

8:45 - 9:00	Registration in Foyer
9.00 - 11.00	Mr Giovanni Pernigotto, Free University of Bozen/Bolzano (Italy) ‘Introduction to Building Performance Analysis and Simulation’
11.00 - 11:15	Break
11:15 - 12:15	Mr Martijn Kiers, FH Joanneum University of Applied Sciences (Austria), on ‘E-mobility in smart cities’
12.15 – 13.15	Lunch
13.15 - 15.00	Introduction projects 1) E-mobility: Mr Martijn Kiers (Austria), 2) Second life batteries - Re-using car batteries in homes: Mr Peter Van Hout, UCLL 3) Building Performance Simulation: Mr. Giovanni Pernigotto (Italy) 4) Sustainability in higher education Mr. Evert Vanecht, UCLL + start project work
15.00 – 15.30	Transport to city center
15.30 – 17.15	Guided tour @ Genever Museum

8:45 - 9:00	Registration in Foyer
9.00 - 10.00	Mr Martijn Kiers, FH Joanneum University of Applied Sciences (Austria), on ‘Mobility opportunities within Smart Cities’
10.00 – 10.15	Break
10.15 - 12.00	Isabel João – ISEL – Lisboa, Portugal on ‘Circular Product Design’
12.00 - 13.00	Lunch
12.15 – 13.00
13.00 – 14.00	Danone: One Health One Planet (company)
14.00 – 14.30	Presentation requirements/guidelines + Info assessment
14.30 - 17.00	Project work
17.00 – 19.00	Flemish Evening (typical dishes)

8:45 - 9:00	Registration in Foyer
9.00 - 10.00	Dr. Joaqim Meléndez, UDG-Girona-Spain on 'Energy communities: RESCHOOL, Horizon Europe project on energy communities' (on-line presentation)
10.00 – 10.30	Break
10.30 – 12.00	Mr Thomas Vanhove and Mr Jan Elsen, UCLL on ‘The cooperation of UCLL and the Pop Festival Pukkelpop. The use of UCLL’s mobile energy unit’
12.00 – 13.00	lunch
13.00 – 14.30	Mr Luis M. Araújo Santos, Instituto Superior de Engenharia de Coimbra, Portugal on 'Green infrastructures for sustainable cities'.
14.30 – 17.00	Project work and rehearsal presentation

8:45 - 9:00	Registration in Foyer
9.00 – 12.00	Final presentations
12.00 – 13.00	Lunch break
13.00 – 14.00	Award and Closing Ceremony
14.00 – 15.00	Assessments by lecturers

Registration - Travel - Info - Programme - Speakers - Learning outcomes

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:

Building envelope components: Characterization of the thermal behavior of opaque components, thermal and optical characterization of fenestration systems.
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’
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”.

Danone Belux is a leading food & beverage company built on three businesses: Essential Dairy and Plant-Based Products, Specialized Nutrition (early life nutrition and advanced medical nutrition) and Waters. With production and distribution sites in Rotselaar (for the production of dairy products such as Actimel, Danone Fruit, Activia Fruit and Light&Free) and Wevelgem (for the production of Alpro's plant-based products), Danone is an important player in the Belgian and European market and the export industry. Danone employs about 1,800 people in Belgium and partners with more than 80 dairy farmers in an average radius of 70 kilometres around the site in Rotselaar.

At Danone, we believe that each time we eat and drink, we are voting for the world we want to live in. We consciously concentrate on growth and health-focused categories and commit to operate in an efficient, more sustainable, responsible, and transparent manner - because we only have One Planet. One Health. At Danone BeLux, we share one mission: We serve our 5mio BeLux households by offering and inspiring healthy sustainable food for every day, at any stage in life. This is why, we are proud that since 2021, all activities of Danone Belux are B Corp certified, valorising our past actions and further commitments. You can find more information on Danone and our sustainability ambitions 2022-2025 here: https://www.danonebelgie.be/fr/les-ambitions-durables-2025/.

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.

Registration - Travel - Info - Programme - Speakers - Learning outcomes

	Module leader:	University:
Contact hours: 1	Peter Van Hout	UCLL

CONTENT

Battery technology
2nd life batteries
DC technology

LEARNING OUTCOME

Students will know the basic characteristics and parts of Li-ion Batteries
Students understand the benefits and barriers of 2nd life Batteries
Students can explain the history of AC and DC technology with their benefits

Name of class:	Module leader:	University:
Introduction to Building Performance Analysis and Simulation Contact hours: 2	Eng. Giovanni Pernigotto, Ph.D	Free University of Bozen-Bolzano, Italy

LEARNING OUTCOME

This course aims to provide students with knowledge about the fundamentals of building energy balance and with the main aspects of the state-of-the-art of building performance analysis and simulation. Students will learn the most typical solutions for building energy renovation, as well as some methodologies to assess their impact on both building energy performance and comfort conditions for the occupants.

	Module leader:	Company:
Contact hours: 1	Sarah Eyckmans and Sonia Bonus	Danone

CONTENT

Big companies like Danone can play a role to solve the global social and environmental issues tackled by the SDG’s (eg climate change, inclusiveness, good health and well-being, malnutrition…)

LEARNING OUTCOMES

Students will learn how this is translated into a company vision where every single employee has a voice
Students will learn that sustainability is not something you can do on your own, but have to do together with your communities
Students will learn how this is transformed to tangible goals, actions and results

	Module leader:	University:
Contact hours: 2	Isabel João	ISEL – Lisboa

CONTENT

In the development of new and improved products it is important to think how the users will be make use of the products in their daily life. In fact, humanity should make development sustainable to ensure that it meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs. The central driver of product design must be the exploration of opportunities to innovate and design products with respect to sustainable development values. Decisions made early in the design of new products significantly impact the way that products will be used and handled later at the end of the life cycle. The integration of environmental and social aspects into the early stages of the design process have been two of the key factors that are being considered in product design and concepts such as green design, eco-design and sustainable design have evolved during the last decades. The urgent need to change the paradigm of the linear economy based on the “take, make, dispose” logic and move away from this production and consumption patterns has become urgent and the designers committed to the circular economy have the challenge to instigate the change and reframe products adding the circular perspective. Circular product design can have a crucial role in the light of the transition to the circular economy with the integration of the circular economy principles in new product development process. The circular Product designers must respond to the society´s needs by the integration of circularity criteria in an innovative way adjusted to the needs of the users, companies, and society.

	Module leader:	University:
Contact hours: 1h30	Luis M. Araújo Santos	Instituto Superior de Engenharia de Coimbra

CONTENT

Climate change will bring new challenges for cities and their citizens. Given the impossibility of halting the presumed effects of climate change, cities must adapt to mitigate them and reduce the risks they entail for citizens. Green infrastructures, in addition to the environmental, social and economic advantages they bring to cities, are also an important tool to increase the resilience of cities to extreme events that plague cities around the world.

LEARNING OUTCOMES

At the end of this lecture, students should be able to:

Understand the paradigm shift that the use of green and blue structures brings in the environmental management of cities.
Identify the benefits of taking advantage of ecosystem services provided by soils.
Know the several solutions that can be implemented to mitigate flood events in cities.