Courses

Additive manufacturing (AM) or 3D Printing are a group of recently developed processes that create shape layer by layer. This layered approach has both advantages as disadvantages. For example the freedom of shapes that can be produced is almost unlimited and the number of materials that can be processed are enourmous. On the other hand the processes are expensive (when compared directly with other processes), slow and often result in high surface roughnesses.

Six choice topics are offered in the third quartile to provide students with the theoretical background on scientific disciplines addressed in case study project 3 on Human-induced Earth Movement. Each choice topic has a study load of 28 hours and focuses on one of the three core knowledge domains of the Spatial Engineering Master's programme, namely Spatial Planning and Governance, Technical Engineering and Spatial Information Sciences.

Detailed descriptions, viz. content and learning outcomes, of the individual choice topics are given on the following pages. Students choose a total of three choice topics.

This course is introducing the basic concepts of (operations) management. The focus is on optimizing the value chain within a company. The learning goals can be achieved by working out a real case study for a company which is making carbonised biomass in an innovative and efficient way. The rest products are heat, gas and oil. Clients are the traditional charcoal sellers but also industry show interest to replace cokes with high quality charcoal. The company is not performing in line with the expectations of the owner

Building with Nature (BwN) advocates for a new approach to hydraulic engineering by using natural (eco-)systems to benefit the environment, economy and society. BwN has gradually gained momentum over the past years, with nature proving to provide sustainable alternatives to conventional hard engineering solutions. This paradigm shift requires different skills from (future) engineers, who will now have to work with dynamic ecosystems that develop over time as opposed to the static structures of the past

The course teaches students the basics of business segment development and company start-ups. There is a special focus on including current fields of research and on the students drawing up a business plan themselves. The students acquire elementary competencies in setting up a company. These include spin-offs from companies and universities as well as start-ups. The students become acquainted with the content and structure of a business plan. The students are also acquainted with business opportunities, managerial issues and technological trends in sustainable energy sector. The students will directly apply the newly acquired knowledge and skills to a practical case of their own choice within sustainable energy sector. The entire course follows a student-centric approach to teaching.

You will start the Change Leaders Master Honours programme with the cognitive part, which is devoted to various topics within the fields of ‘change and leadership’. The course consists of (guest) lectures and group-based, written preparations and post-lecture reflections. In addition, you will also choose a topic that you will examine more in-depth by engaging, with a self-chosen group of other Change Leaders students, in the writing of a literature review on the basis of desk research.

The aim of the experiential course is to develop leadership, consulting, coaching, and change skills and insights: through reading about those skills, lectures, training and written reflections. In other words, in this second course, you will sharpen up your own personal change and leadership skills. Close to the beginning of this second course, all students get a well-known customized behavioural preferences assessment (of 20 pages). This assessment report will be used as a guide to further your personal development in the experiential part of the programme, and in the context of the coaching during your project in Q4. Thus, at the end of quartile three, you will have a Personal Development Plan that you will work on, with a coach, during the project (Q4) part of this programme.

Big plans for innovative initiatives that aim to change our lives in various ways are easier designed than realised. This module will increase your knowledge of and skills in the change making process that has many different layers: cognitive, behavioural and affective. The module will provide answers and insights into: What are your unique talents and skills as a change agent? How can you persuade others and mobilise them to participate in the change? What factors must be considered when trying to change or co-create with (transdisciplinary and cross-cultural) colleagues, teams, among whole organisations, or even societies? How can you span boundaries and act inclusively regardless of existing scheme’s such as hierarchy/seniority?

Change Management & Consultancy in a Global Context (CMC) aims to develop knowledge and skills within these closely related, practice-relevant fields. This course bridges the gaps between the theorizing and the many complex practical issues that managers and consultants in today’s organizations face, around the globe. It is key that you, as future change managers and/or consultants, learn about effective organizational change which is a subject of rapidly increasing importance.

Transition from unsustainable linear economy to sustainable circular economy is a top priority of our society. Future business models will be shaped according to the circularity of our resources, which will provide employment to a wide range of engineers (industrial, mechanical, design, construction, biotechnology, chemical, etc.), business administrators, managers, and policy-makers. Do you want to be a well-equipped graduate for this transition phase to circular economy? Then, Circular Sustainable Business Development is the right course for you! This is a multi- and cross-disciplinary course open to all students of UT.

In this multi-disciplinary course, students (from Industrial Design Engineering, Communication Science, Interaction Technology and other relevant programmes) work together on a challenge in the domain of behaviour change. In doing so, this course reflects the notion that current societal challenges are complex and require input from multiple disciplines. Based on this reflection and spanning the faculties of ET, BMS and EWI, this course aligns with our university’s “people first” mission statement. Throughout the course, topics and theoretical frameworks related to Design for Behaviour Change are practiced in various lectures and online discussion sessions. At the end, student groups are expected to write a scientific paper and complete a design assignment.

The 21st century has witnessed an increase in the availability of Earth observation (EO) data and their use in addressing critical problems in natural resources management (NRM). The myriad of datasets and stakeholder needs can make the selection of a specific sensor and analytical technique to address a problem a daunting task. At the heart of this dilemma is the scale of observation at which we can effectively address the problem. Biophysical processes, flows or interactions can occur at the plant, canopy or regional scale. Similarly, image-based map products have a specific purpose. For example, food security analysts may want to know the location of crop field boundaries in an agroecosystem, while foresters may want to assess forest stand biomass.

Water and energy are fundamental for life on Earth, their variations, trends, and extremes are sources for drought extremes, heat waves, heavy rains, floods, and intensive storms that are increasingly threatening our society to cause havoc as the climate changes. Better observations and analysis of these phenomena will help improve our ability to understand their physical processes (as introduced in Q2.1) and to model and predict them. Earth Observation technology is a unique tool to provide a global understanding of essential water and energy variables and monitor their evolution from global to basin scales. In this course, you will learn the physical principles of how electromagnetic signals were applied to monitor these essential variables by spaceborne sensors, and learn tools and methods to collect, process, and visualize Earth observation data of surface solar radiation, evapotranspiration, precipitation, soil moisture, and terrestrial water storage. Furthermore, students will learn how to retrieve the essential water/climate variable – soil moisture from Earth observation data, applying the radiative transfer theory.

The goal of the course is to provide a basic understanding of energy conversion technologies comprising state-of-the-art advanced conversion technologies using fossil fuels and new emerging conversio…

The aim of this course is to provide students with a basic understanding of the biomass conversion routes to useful products, as well as more detailed knowledge about the main thermochemical conversion processes of combustion, gasification and pyrolysis.

The course offers an introduction to the organization, governance and management of the energy system. It discusses the opportunities and problems related to the transition towards a more sustainable configuration of energy markets, regions, cities, communities and industries.

The course objectives are to provide the participants with practical tools, knowledge and insights into:

General problems with energy efficiency and possibilities for improvement through energy management.
The key elements of an energy management system
Preparation and execution of energy audits
Preparation for reaching ISO 50001 Energy Management
Policies and instruments to support energy efficiency improvements in SMIs

This course aims to enable students to identify the optimal solutions to any potential energy storage application, whether in the electrical, heat or transport sector.

To distinguish similarities and differences among the most applied environmental management schemes to meet the Sustainable Development Goals

This course emphasizes the role of environmental modelling as a tool for examining the causes and impacts of changes in natural resources. During the course, students study a range of generic statistical techniques and specific environmental models to assess the possible impacts of environmental changes on natural resources. Throughout the course students will be exposed to discipline-specific examples.

This choice topic is focused on the extraction of fossil fuels, particularly gas in Groningen, and the effects of this exploitation on society. The choice topic will cover the whole range from the formation of gas and oil to the resulting effects of human-induced earthquakes and related deformation. After an introduction into the Groningen area, you learn about general characteristics of a gas reservoir, its geological history and formation. Next step in the process is the exploitation of the gas, and its effects on the gas reservoir, earthquake mechanisms, with a particular focus on human-induced earthquakes.

Acquiring (knowing) an up to date impression of current research, development areas and novel technologies, related to the development of sustainable technologies, reduced use of material resources and environmental impact, sustainable energy production, energy storage and harvesting, flow optimization, both experimental as well as in modeling and simulation, with different scales ranging from industrial down to nano/micro. Acquiring in-depth knowledge of a particular development aspect. Further development of technical paper/report writing skills and research skills and/or deep literature study and condensation/presentation of the state of the art and open challenges.

This course will ask what good technology is, and will consider various ways of assessing, guiding and improving the moral and nonmoral goodness of technology. We will have a particular emphasis on theories of wellbeing and the good society that define individual and social notions of goodness. Different theories of wellbeing (e.g. objectivist, desire satisfaction, mental state) will be discussed and compared, as well as different theories of what constitutes a good society. We will then consider what these theories mean for technological design and technology development. We will also consider non-Western perspectives on the goodness of technology, by considering non-Western and intercultural ethics and philosophy.

The first sub-course addresses the ocean-climate nexus and the role of satellite-based essential climate variables in describing these interactions. The second sub-course focuses on the vulnerability and resilience of coastal areas. The third sub-course handles water quality and land-based pollution. The fourth sub-course addresses the productivity of aquatic systems (aquatic vegetation, primary production) and their role in the global carbon cycle. In addition to these themes, the course closes with a group assignment for the students to apply the gained knowledge and for the teacher to assess the learning process.

There are different types of organizations, such as firms with shareholders, foundations, co-operatives, and (other) associations. This course deals with the objective(s), the governance and the other characteristics of these types of organizations, and how they affect the way the organization and its leaders function. Until now, the literature has paid little attention to the differences between organizations in this field. Therefore, the assignment for the group is as follows: create a general theory of the prevalence of different types of organizations in different sectors of society and at different periods of time. Typical questions to be answered by this theory are: why do almost all current big beer breweries have shareholders while only one big brewer (Carlsberg) is a foundation, and what is the reason that many – but not all – professional football clubs have changed from associations and foundations into firms with shareholders? Another important question for this course is: how can someone be very ambitious and possibly creative on the one hand, and accept failure on the other hand?

The course is globally dealing with: Selection of production processes, fabrication methods and machines. Determination of production capacity. Capacity planning and line balancing. Facility and layout planning. Manufacturing systems. Systems for material handling and warehousing. Material flow planning. Facility location.

Surface waters such as lakes and rivers play a key role in water management and ecosystems in many countries. On the one hand, they offer direct access to water needed for agriculture, domestic uses, and industry. On the other hand, surface waters act as the interface between groundwater and the atmosphere, through processes such as evapotranspiration, runoff, and aquifer recharge.

At a geopolitical level, unsustainable anthropogenic use of surface water have a serious potential for conflicts. Many rivers cross international boundaries and upstream usage therefore can create shortages and pollution downstream.

This course focuses on (transport) infrastructure planning and process management of transport infrastructure projects and area developments. Current developments in cities realities force authorities to plan, manage and monitor their transport and infrastructure systems more accurately, for example to take into account the requirements of a growing number of complex and sometimes conflicting interests like congestion relief, pollution reduction, efficient resource use, equity and accessibility.

This course aims to develop a critical understanding of spatial planning based on academic discourses, the international development agenda and students' own experiences. Throughout the course the role of spatial data and information systems in urban planning and management will be highlighted and illustrated.

The objective of this course is the transfer of insight, knowledge and experience for the technological design of (chemical) process equipment. In this course you will learn to design a compressor or pump, a heat exchanger and a distillation column, including mechanical aspects, for a given industrial process.

This course is an introduction to the sustainable use of bio resources in the regional context. Regions have different physical, cultural and organizational qualities. And they have different capabilities to achieve their sustainable objectives. Geography and natural environment influence the economic specialization of a region. The economic specialization is also influenced by the available human capital. Geography relates to market access and social and human capital relate with socio-economic institutions.

Six choice topics are offered in the third quartile to provide students with the theoretical background on scientific disciplines addressed in case study project 3 on Human-induced Earth Movement. Each choice topic has a study load of 28 hours and focuses on one of the three core knowledge domains of the Spatial Engineering Master's programme, namely Spatial Planning and Governance, Technical Engineering and Spatial Information Sciences.

Simulation is the process of designing a model of a system and conducting experiments with this model for the purpose either of understanding the behaviour of the system or of evaluating various strategies (within the limits imposed by a criterion or set of criteria) for the operation of the system. The course consists of a theoretical part (1/4) and a practical part (3/4). For the practical part, we use advanced simulation software to implement simulation models and, as an examination, to carry out a small but realistic simulation project. Besides, the course contains three small assignments to get acquainted with the principles of simulation and to learn working with the simulation software.

In the Smart Environments module students learn various techniques from different disciplines that are needed to invent, design and realize a (prototype of) a smart environment. The module is a mix of smart technology, additional knowledge and skills from other disciplines and a project in which the students apply the skills they just learned. The smart technology components in the module are "Sound & Circuits", "Programming and Physical Computing", "Smart Environments" and the module’s project. Subjects are (distributed) electronic and digital systems in increasing complexity and with increasing interaction with the physical environment.

First, an introduction will be given to irradiance and photons and ,next ,the basic functional principles of semiconductors (relevant for photovoltaics) will be illustrated: such as doping and diffusion, absorption, generation, recombination and carrier transport, PN-juncions and diode equations. Subsequently, various photovoltaics technologies will be introduced to the students: ranging from crystalline silicon technologies, chalcogenide thin film solar cells, thin film silicon based PV technologies to organic photovoltaics. Particular topics in relation to photovoltaic solar technologies are: materials, cell device structures, optical and electronic properties, light management, contacts, and surfaces and interfaces.

Species distribution modelling and environmental niche modelling are types of modelling where the occurrence or absence of certain species or crops are linked to environmental conditions that are relevant. The type of organism that is modeled can be variable in nature, ranging from the presence of rare and endangered species, to the outbreak of pest species.

It is used to make interpolations of observations of species over space using relevant explanatory variables. These extrapolations can be used to assess how likely the occurrence of such an species is in unvisited areas. Also, it can provide insight to what extent the spatial distribution of a species will change as a result of changes in conditions, for example due to land cover change, or climate change

This course deals with the emissions associated with the production of chemicals through conventional (fossil fuel-based) methods, and the sustainable approach to replace their production. During the course, the route for the production of the most important chemicals in the industry will be investigated. The advantages and the bottlenecks in the sustainable production of chemicals will be studied to identify future development possibilities. At the end of the course we expect students to be able to synthesis alternative production processes, to simulate this process with the flowsheeting tools available (e.g. Aspen Plus). A thermodynamic correct description of the different phase equilibria is critical for an adequate description of the process.

The course Sustainable Transport reviews and discusses sustainability issues associated to transport and solutions to make the transport sector more sustainable. Literature comprises of a textbook and scientific articles complementing the discussions in the text book (e.g. methodological and modelling issues in sustainable transport). This part is finalized with a critical book review. Based on the students' individual interest one or more topics or dilemmas of sustainable transport will be addressed in an issue paper that will be presented in a public seminar.

Urban areas are characterized by high population density as well as clustering of capital and infrastructure networks. These characteristics make them vulnerable to shocks and stressors, including extreme weather events. Considering the impacts of climate change and other technological and societal developments, there is an urgent need for cities to become more resilient. A resilient urban system is able to sustain key functions when disruptions occur. The civil engineering domain – that is occupied with the design, construction and management of the physical environment including natural and artificial infrastructure – plays a key role in maintaining and strengthening urban resilience.

This course is about long-term water policy and planning in the face of climate change. The course provides a methodological basis in scenario methods, adaptation pathways and optimization techniques. The topical focus is on climate change and its effects on water systems, flood risk management and planning for droughts and water scarcity.

Water is crucial for welfare and wellbeing of people, in fact life is literally impossible without water. Safeguarding sustainability and resilience of water resources is crucial, problems of too little water (droughts), too much water (floods) and water of too little quality (availability and pollution) are assessed, as well as improvement strategies and the governance of these

With mankind facing the crucial challenge to make the transition to a sustainable resilient society by developing and exploiting alternative resources of energy this course provide the essential insights into the design process of wind turbines and wind farms. An area of high practical relevance in view of the rapidly increasing importance of wind energy, the size of wind turbines in terms of e.g. blade length and generated power, and the increasing economical competitiveness relative to traditional fossil fuel based methods. Introduces students into the science behind wind energy conversion systems, the relevant aspects for design and evaluating designs, as well as to non-technical issues related to wind energy.