TU Delft:Start

First Blue Engineering Course at TU Delft - Starting in September 2021

The Blue Engineering course at TU Delft is proud to be the first to be hosted at a university beyond Germany. Introduced as a pilot project in September 2021, the seminar draws from the english online version at TU Berlin. This winter semester we welcome 42 students to a hybrid in-person-online Master course within the Environmental Engineering program, with hopes to expand further in coming years. The course, within the context of the program, encourages students to see nature and society within their discipline as engineers, to develop a critical perspective and build their understanding of responsibility. Within a structured curriculum, the seminar also provides a venue for students to pursue their interests freely.

The introduction of Blue Engineering at TU Delft was student-led from the beginning. Environmental Engineering Master students Emma and Vanessa drove the movement forward. Initiated in their roles as members of the GreenTeam CEG, they strengthened the network of those passionate about sustainability in engineering education, joined the seminar at TU Berlin and delivered the inaugural TU Delft seminar themselves. This would not have been possible without the commitment and trust of Dr. Martine Rutten, who is hosting the pilot seminar in her lecture, and assisting its implementation. The initiation of the pilot was also supported by members from the GreenTU Board of 2020-2021 Dr. Irene Fernandez Villegas. Further information will follow here on the website and feel free to contact blue-engineering@tudelft.nl

Blue Engineering at Delft University of Technology successfully launched as an in-person seminar in English for an international group of Master students.

On August 31 we held the first session of our Blue Engineering seminar at TU Delft with 44 participants from a range of different backgrounds. Everyone was happy to be back in a real-life classroom and talk to the people next to them. As tutors we were surprised to see how well the participants took the first session and how easy it was to initiate a lively discussion among them. While some were (and still are) quite shy sharing their ideas in the plenum, everyone participates eagerly in smaller group discussions and actively engages with the course material. Looking at the first learning journal entries most of them found the setting quite refreshing and enjoyed having the opportunity to critically discuss important topics around sustainability. Some others had some question marks popping up and still need to get used to this unconventional form of learning that requires them to develop their own perspectives. But we would say that is exactly what Blue Engineering is all about.

In any case, we really loved our first tutoring experience and are looking forward to whatever our next sessions will bring!

Tot later, Vanessa and Emma