One month on, we see how these ATLAS students are doing in their efforts to improve transport in the Brazilian city.
(The group, from the front: Natasha Birari, Florian Kleinhoven, Titus Venverloo, Mélanie Droogleever Fortuyn, Joost Voskuil, and Saskia van Kesteren. The home team consists of Aliyya Galuh Laksmiandari and Oscar Bradley.)
Over the past semester, a group of eight ATLAS students got involved in a project to improve transport in the Brazilian city of Curitiaba. Last month, six members of the Curitiba Crew departed from Enschede to the Brazil. Now, having gone there, they have had the chance to try and act practically, getting more relevant input, and relaying it to the people who can act upon it. I'll let the team itself tell you about what it has been doing, as they were kind enough to discuss it:
"Having spent the first weekend after we arrived exploring the city, we had a good grasp of what Curitiba’s topography was like. Our professional track record started out with a presentation at the postgraduate programme department of the Pontifical Catholic University of Paraná. We presented our scenario to a group of postgraduate students and teachers."
"Up until now, we’ve mostly been working on collecting information regarding actors and the public transportation systems currently in place. We’ve scheduled meetings for the coming two weeks with almost every actor and we’ve executed six actor interviews so far. The work is diverse and it almost seems like we’re moving on to a different stage of the project every day. One day is analysing pre-interview facts, the next day is determining bus routes we’ll use for our empirical data collection to get a feel of the way the City's infrastructure was planned."
In terms of the project's reception, we’ve received nothing but warm welcomes from everyone. Thus far, everyone has been more than willing to assist us in what we’re trying to do. Working on a larger scale, e.g., in establishing contact with big organisations such as Renault and Volvo, however,has proven to be challenging, but this was expected."
"As is explicated in our schedule, the coming month will mostly consist of processing empirical data, further investigating actors, and conducting interviews with actors, citizens and information sources. We’ll be spending our time mapping the requirements for solutions set by the actors, and trying to find accordant interventions that could potentially improve the sustainability of urban mobility in Curitiba."
(The Curitiba Crew's Schedule for their stay in Brazil)
The group originally started with an ATLAS semester project which allowed them to research the city, and the technologies they hoped to promote there. When asked what role their semester project played in what they're currently doing, they said their current work was 'essentially an extension' of their semester project work:
"Coming to Curitiba, we realised that a lot of what we deemed to be feasible in our scenario was either not possible in the short-term, or needed a lot more investigating before it could actually be considered."
They have been quite busy with the project, but they've still had the opportunity to experience some of the culture:
"We have explored the City, seen some of Paraná’s natural reserves and visited Morretes and Antonina. The last are two coastal towns on a touristic train route away from Curitiba, more towards the seaside. In fact, the ginormous harbour of Paranaguá is visible from Antonina’s beaches. We’re also planning on visiting Foz do Iguaçu and the Iguazu Falls later this month. Apart from all that, the food culture in Brazil may be the most spectacular thing we’ve yet experienced, save for the vegetarians"
The group will return at the end of August, just in time to start the new semester. However, they hope their contributions will outlive their stay there. We'll see more on that next month.
University College Twente offers a unique bachelor’s programme, Technology, Liberal, Arts and Sciences, to top students. Visit the University College Twente website for more information about the college and Technology, Liberal, Arts and Sciences website for more information about the bachelor program. Or visit us during the open day, a student-for-a-day or an insight-day.
