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Global Minds - Open Faculty Project 2019
Integration of academic expertise from the South (Ecuador and Vietnam)
into energy-related education and research at KU Leuven – FIIW
Promotor Prof.dr.ir. Emilia Motoasca
Activities and timeline
A detailed description of the activities carried out in this project together with evidence is provided in the Annexes 1 to 4.
Period
Realized activities
April 2019
(Annex1) Workshop in Vietnam related to solar energy
April June 2019
- Preparation of workshops/mini-courses in July 2019;
- Consultations for integration of energy challenges and North/South expertise in existent and new FIIW context and the ones at ESPE and NUCE
July 2019 (Annex 2)
- Visit of 2 experts from FIIW to Ecuador, ESPE, UPS (7 days)
- Multidisciplinary workshop for ESPE-students related to energy challenges (the ESPE students follow lectures until July; local energy experts will be invited) - Discussions on common mini-courses based on consultations with local energy experts: academics, industrial, NGOs, etc., and visits to relevant communities
July Aug. 2019
- Preparation of workshops/mini-courses in Sept. 2019;
- Consultations and further preparation for integration of energy challenges and N/S expertise at FIIW, ESPE and NUCE
Sept. 2019 (Annex 3)
- Visit of 2 experts from FIIW to Vietnam NUCE (7 days)
- Multidisciplinary workshop for NUCE-students related to energy challenges – workshop in cooperation with the activities in another project: Bamboo and sustainability
(academic year already started in Vietnam; local energy experts will be invited) -- Preparation of common mini-courses based on consultations with local energy experts: academics, industrial, NGO and visits to relevant communities
Oct. 2019
- Preparation of workshops/mini-courses in Nov. 2019;
- Consultations and further preparation for integration of energy challenges and N/S expertise at FIIW, ESPE and NUCE
Nov. 2019 (Annex 4)
- Visit of 3 experts from ESPE + 2 experts from NUCE to FIIW (7 days)
- Multidisciplinary workshop for FIIW-students related to energy challenges: (local energy experts and specially profiled organis./SMEs will be invited)
-Preparation of appropriate multidisciplinary course material to include energy challenges and solutions in N/S countries for FIIW, ESPE, UPS and NUCE students - Cons ltations ith specific local organi ations energ cooperati es and SME s ith specific/unique energy profile)
Dec. 2019
- Preparation of a common (conference) paper Practical e pertise in energy challenges (electrical and civil engineering) from Ecuador/Vietnam/Belgium: how to incl de it into f t re ed cation and research of North So th work in progress
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The people who visited KU Leuven in the frame of this project:
1. Assoc. Prof. Nguyen Duc Luong,
Vice Dean, Faculty of Environmental Engineering
Deputy Head, Department of Environmental Technology and Management
National University of Civil Engineering (NUCE), Vietnam
2. Assoc. Prof. Tran Ngoc Quang,
Head, Department of Building Services and Built Environment
Faculty of Environmental Engineering
National University of Civil Engineering (NUCE), Vietnam
3. Prof. Diego Arcos Aviles
Department of Electrical, Electronics, and Telecommunications Engineering
Research Group of Propagation, Electronic Control, and Networking (PROCONET)
Universidad de las Fuerzas Armadas ESPE, Ecuador
4. Prof. Paul Ayala
Department of Electrical, Electronics, and Telecommunications Engineering
Research Group of Propagation, Electronic Control, and Networking (PROCONET)
Universidad de las Fuerzas Armadas ESPE, Ecuador
5. Prof. Gabriela Haro
Dean of Department of Earth Sciences and Construction
Universidad de las Fuerzas Armadas ESPE, Ecuador
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Content
Annex 1. Workshop and visit Vietnam – April 2019 ... 4
Annex 2. Visit and workshop Ecuador – July 2019 ... 10
Annex 3 Visit and workshop Vietnam – September 2019 ... 18
Annex 4 Visit and workshop Belgium – November 2019 ... 25
The contribution of all the team members below to the project activities is greatly valued and
acknowledged. Also the cooperation that continued and/or started through this project is of great
value both for education and research.
Project Team
FIIW TC Gent: Emilia Motoasca, Hilde Breesch, Alexis Versele
ESPE: Diego Arcos Avilés, Paúl Ayala, Gabriela Haro, Alexander Ibarra, Jacqueline Llanos, Julio Torres,
José Guasumba,
UPS: Diego Carrión
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Annex 1. Workshop and visit Vietnam – April 2019
Motivation/purpose
As results of previous cooperation initiatives in April 2019, Nguyen Duc Luong and Tran Ngoc Quang from NUCE (National University of Civil Engineering) Faculty of Environmental Engineering together with Emilia Motoasca from KU Leuven and with the support of Embassy of Belgium in Hanoi and a few Belgian
representatives (see names of the speakers in the program below) organized on the 10-th of April 2019 at NUCE in Hanoi a workshop with the title: Solar energ in Vietnam grid integration challenges and
opport nities .
None of the costs of this workshop and visit were covered by the budget of this project. As the project under reporting was just approved, none of the costs related to the workshop could be reported under the budget of the project. Emilia Motoasca travelled with a Global Minds staff mobility grant while the other speakers were supported from their own organizations. The catering and other costs like the simultaneous translation of the talks associated with the workshop were covered by the Embassy of Belgium, KU Leuven, NUCE and some of the Belgian entities. Their contribution is greatly acknowledged.
Program of the workshop, evidence and contribution to the reported project
The morning session of the workshop (see program, invitation and list of participants below) was dedicated to solar energy challenges and opportunities in Vietnam, while during the afternoon session an interactive session related to energy challenges was organized for/with NUCE students. During the interactive session with the students, two representatives of Belgian companies (Avalon and ThreePower) provided a short training session related to design of PV-installations and afterwards a discussion and a quiz related to sustainability issues had taken place.
Figure 1 - Invited speakers and NUCE- officials at Workshop Solar energy - 10 April 2019, NUCE, Hanoi
The discussion points and online quiz showed that the Vietnamese students are well aware of the challenges and opportunities related to sustainability. However the curriculum of the students present at the interactive session does not include yet much information and knowledge related to sustainability and
lessons/experiences from around the world. The students present at the workshop were interested to work together with students from Belgium and Ecuador on small projects with online cooperation around
7 More than 100 participants, from different types of organizations have been present at the morning session of the workshop. The list of registered participants is below. As you can notice except for the regular participants also the media representatives were present. This resulted in good media coverage of the workshop, see for example: http://vneconomictimes.com/article/vietnam-today/vietnam-to-lead-region-in-solar-energy , https://en.vietnamplus.vn/more-comprehensive-solutions-needed-for-solar-energy-development/150854.vnp , https://m.giaoducthoidai.vn/khoa-hoc/den-nam-2035-dau-tu-khoang-42-ty-usd-cho-dien-mat-troi-tai-viet-nam-3994598-v.html http://hanoitimes.vn/investment/2019/04/81E0D57B/vietnam-projected-to-attract-us-42-billion-in-solar-power-projects-by-2035/
The large number of participants at the workshop showed that of the Vietnamese inhabitants have a great interest for the sustainability issues. Moreover, the workshop had not only presentations with technical content, but also issues related to economic and to the social (end-user) aspects were tackled and this made the workshop interesting for a wider audience. At the end of each presentation a few interactive discussions related to sustainability started based on very interesting questions took place.
With the workshop and the very interactive afternoon session with the students and a few NUCE-staff members involved in this project we can conclude that the goals of the project to raise awareness about
8 energy challenges in developing countries (Ecuador, Vietnam) and in EU for and with the participant students and academic staff of NUCE has been reached.
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Annex 2. Visit and workshop Ecuador – July 2019
Motivation/purpose
Due to some educational obligations of the project participants the planned visit at ESPE took place in July 2019 instead of June 2019 as initially planned. The Belgian delegation from KU Leuven consisted of Emilia
Motoasca and Sylvain Quoilin. The workshop related to solar energy took place on the 11-th of July 2019 at
ESPE in Sangolq i Q ito and as entitled Solar energ in Ec ador grid integration challenges and opport nities since we intended to tackle the same challenges and opportunities as in Vietnam.
The travel, accommodation and per diem costs for Emilia Motoasca and Sylvain Quoilin together with the catering of the workshop were covered from the budget of this project. The other costs related to visits and other local activities were covered by ESPE.
Program of the workshop, evidence and educational purposes
The morning session of the workshop (see program, invitation and list of participants) was dedicated to solar energy challenges and opportunities in Ecuador, seen from various perspectives: electrical, mechanical, civil engineering and also social and economic perspective.
Figure 2 ESPE-students participating at the interactive session related to sustainability - ESPE, 11 July 2019 The discussion points and online quiz showed that the participant students from ESPE are aware of the challenges and opportunities related to sustainability in their country and also abroad. However similarly to the situation at NUCE-Vietnam, the curriculum of the students present at the interactive session does not include yet much multi-disciplinary information and knowledge related to sustainability and
lessons/experiences from around the world. The students present at the workshop were also interested to work together with students from Belgium and Vietnam on small projects with online cooperation around sustainability issues.
The number of participants to the workshop was satisfactory and we can conclude that the workshop reached the proposed objectives of raising awareness about energy challenges in Ecuador and in EU and of
understanding the local similarities and differences in the boundary conditions and in the proposed technical solutions to solve some of the energy challenges. Most of the participants were students and staff members of ESPE, one guest speakers was from Universitad Politécnica Salesiana (also participant to the project) and a few external speakers.
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Program of the related visits/activities
Except for the workshop, other activities and discussions took place in order to continue and expand the cooperation. One of the activities was a visit together with a group of ESPE students and staff members to a water treatment plant in Papallacta where the water plant generates also renewable energy. The visit allowed interaction with ESPE staff and students and more in depth discussions related to sustainability and how to include these issues in new education/research projects.
During the meetings with the staff members of NUCE we have discussed new cooperation initiatives, either as exchange of students as well as research cooperation in the area of microgrids and sustainable energy for remote areas. A visit to the research center CITECNIA revealed the local efforts and expertise related to the solar energy.
17 During these visits, discussions about various possible cooperation domains took place. Possible future
cooperation in the area of smart/micro grids for remote areas is considered, as well as application of solar energy harvesting for various purposes. Cooperation can start with exchange of MSc-students for their final projects, either in the frame of Global Minds or with the funding from ESPE/KU Leuven, until the first generation of MSc students in the new MSc-program started at ESPE in sept 2019 will graduate. Afterwards the cooperation can be extended also to PhD-students.
All the visits together with the workshop and the interaction with the ESPE-students contributed to the goald of the project by
- raising awareness about energy challenges in Ecuador and worldwide through the organized workshop for and with students and academic staff of ESPE
- understanding some of the local similarities and differences in the boundary conditions and in the proposed technical solutions to solve energy challenges for future integration of these local energy challenges, boundary conditions and solutions in the existent and/or future curriculum at ESPE, especially in the new MSc-program in Electrical engineering.
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Annex 3 Visit and workshop Vietnam – September 2019
Motivation/purpose
As results of previous cooperation initiatives with NUCE and the cooperation with other colleagues from KU Leuven, a common workshop Bamboo and S stainabilit on the theme Bamboo and Solar po er for S stainable to rism was organized in Vietnam in the period 10 18 Sept 2019.. The workshop included sessions with presentations, classical lectures and hands-on trainings in Hanoi at NUCE and a practical part realized and Thanh Tam bamboo eco-park (in Thanh Hoa).
Only the travel and per diem costs of the 2 KU Leuven participants (Bram Ronsijn and Erik Rombaut) were covered from the budget of this project. The accommodation costs for these two persons and the costs of the workshop were covered from other sources, mainly from the project-budget of the co-organizing colleagues from KU Leuven.
Program of the workshop, evidence and educational purposes
The workshop started with a day where invited speakers from various academic and non-academic institutions and entities provided lectures related to bamboo and renewable energy (see program).
Approx. 40 persons participated to this interesting event, not only NUCE academic staff and students, but also professionals from energy, construction and bamboo sectors. The multi-disciplinarity of the participants leaded to interesting discussions.
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Program of the related visits/activities
Among the activities during this period we mention only the activities involving interaction with the NUCE-students like coaching the NUCE-students during the preparation of their bamboo building design as part of the workshop, presentation and judging of the NUCE student and their projects with a closing award ceremony. The second part of the workshop took place at Thanh Tam Bamboo Ecopark, Lam Son Township, Tho Xuan District, Thanh Hoa Province. It started with a meeting with a local architect to talk about sustainable and renewable energy integration in building projects, also technical aspects were raised. Lectures and
presentations were also provided for the students on solar energy integration in the ecopark, on building up the model of sustainable bamboo value chain in Tanh Hoa province and also practical work for a bamboo construction was done with the students, see some impression below.
24 The activities carried out during this period contributed to education and research in North and South partners through
Exchanging ideas and technologies during the workshop with NUCE academic staff and students.
Going in dialog together to discuss the local problems and problems in our own country, other countries. Learning about local techniques of using bamboo in construction and in making all kinds of handicrafts Intensive training of NUCE-staff members by presenting them the approach used in the Erasmus courses at
KU Leuven (Department of architecture and urban planning Technology campus Ghent) and learning them to apply in a Vietnamese setting: How to tackle climate change by ecological sound urban planning.
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Annex 4 Visit and workshop Belgium – November 2019
Motivation/purpose
In the period 9 16 Nov. 2019 three academic guests from ESPE (Diego Arcos, Paul Ayala and Gabriela Haro) together with two academic guests from NUCE (Tran Ngoc Quang and Nguyen Duc Luong) visited Belgium, KU Leuven - Technolog camp s Ghent On the of No a orkshop entitled Sustainability, circular economy and solar energy: lessons and experiences from South and North countries as organi ed The travel, accommodation and per diem costs of the 3 guests from ESPE (Diego Arcos , Paul Ayala and Gabriela Haro) and of the two guests from NUCE (Nguyen Duc Luong and Tran Ngoc Quang) were covered from this project. The travel was arranged also for a third guest from NUCE Nguyen Cao Lanh, but
unfortunately he could not come anymore due to other obligations at NUCE. The budget of the project covered also the organizational costs (catering) of the workshop and of the visit to EnergyVile and of a networking diner.
Program of the workshop, evidence and educational purposes
The morning session (see program/invitation below and list of participants) was dedicated to sustainability, solar energy and circular economy with various presentations from external speakers. However the
presentations were interesting , the number of participants was not so large. Probably because of the late announcement of the workshop and planning in the middle of the semester as an unique, optional activity without any relation with the rest of the curriculum activities.
Figure 4 Invited speakers Workshop Ghent - 13 Nov. 2019
With the smaller group of the participants nice discussions around sustainability were carried out. It was interesting to witness the multidisciplinary of the subjects and also similarities in the challenges and approaches of sustainability challenges in Vietnam, Ecuador and Belgium.
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Program of the related visits/activities
On the 12-th of November the visiting academics from NUCE and ESPE together with a group of students and staff from KU Leuven TC Gent (25 pers. in total) visited EnergyVille in Genk the research hub in energy in Belgium. Both the students and the guest were impressed with the warm welcome of the dean of Faculty of Engineering Technology and also with the outstanding research labs, facilities and researchers at EnergyVille. The guests visited also Technology campus Bruges and meet there with some KU Leuven academic staff working in energy related domains. Meetings with and visits to various research groups at Technology campus Ghent were organized. Impressions of these visits are below.
30 To conclude this project it was decided to prepare together a (conference) paper related to the activities and finding of this project. This is still work in progress and will be finalized soon. The cooperation of the three institutions (ESPE, NUCE and KU Leuven) will continue beyond this project since it was decided to prepare a common VLIR-UOS TEAM project for the next call in 2021. For example at the Department of Earth Sciences and Construction of ESPE , as a result of this project, they are working on a proposal for seismic design considerations for solar PV arrays on flat roofs for Ecuador, as an undergraduate final project. Furthermore the colleagues from NUCE started also the preparation of more concrete cooperation through the application of a common PhD-project in the Global Minds program of PHD scholarships for the South.
All the activities organized in this period contributed also to the main goals of the project:
- raising awareness about energy challenges in developing countries (Ecuador, Vietnam, India, South Africa, Bolivia) and in EU through the organized workshop for and with students and academic staff of all the participants
- understanding the local similarities and differences in the boundary conditions and in the proposed technical solutions to solve energy challenges and discuss the manner of integrating these local energy challenges, boundary conditions and solutions in developing countries in the existent or future curriculum at KU Leuven FIIW and at NUCE and ESPE.
As it can be seen from the evaluation forms of the participants to the workshop below, they valued the multi-disciplinarity and the quality of the provided information during these presentations. Also the fact that both
31 experiences from South and North have been presented was greatly valued by the participants and they asked for the regular organization of such workshop as part of the regular curriculum.
