New Master’s programme: Understanding and implementing sustainability

Understanding and implementing sustainability

New Master‘s programme combines engineering and sustainability

Be it society, the environment or the economy – the question of what sustainable solutions exist for a climatefriendly future reaches into all areas of life. For years, H-BRS has shown how important it is to start dealing with sustainability issues and concepts during studies. Since 2017, there has been a Bachelor‘s degree programme and since 2021, a Master‘s degree programme in Sustainable Engineering. Bachelor‘s and Master‘s

“By intertwining electrical engineering and mechanical engineering with environmental and sustainability issues, students in the Bachelor‘s degree programme learn on the one hand to think in an interdisciplinary manner and develop future technologies. On the other hand, they should reflect on what sustainable development actually means using concrete technical examples,” explains Stefanie Meilinger, Professor of Sustainable Technologies. In the Bachelor‘s course “Ethics and Sustainability”, for instance, students think about which norms and values are relevant in the context of sustainable technologies – this is rare in engineering degree programmes. In the Master‘s programme, the focus is on energy and transport systems. “It deals with how to optimise such systems according to various criteria and how to spur on the energy transition in all sectors.”

Strong practical orientation

After graduation, students should be able to develop technical systems and find an optimal balance that takes various aspects of sustainability into account. In both the Bachelor‘s and Master‘s programmes, content is taught with a heavy focus on practice. “The students need to understand how they can make a difference. To do this, we offer hands-on projects where solutions have to be found for concrete problems,” says Stefanie Meilinger.

Master‘s student Antonia Schelnberger was convinced by this approach. “I chose this degree programme because I’m interested in technology, but I can‘t imagine not thinking about the impact this technology has on our society and environment.” With 274 enrolments since it launched, the Bachelor‘s degree programme, in particular, is in high demand. This is because there are hardly any similar degree programmes in Germany. “H-BRS is a pioneer,” says programme director Professor Dieter Franke. “Some universities have now followed suit and oriented themselves along our curriculum. A change is taking place, which is very positive!”

More: www.h-brs.de/en/emt/study/master/ sustainable-engineering Renewable Energy Lab at the Department of Electrical Engineering, Mechanical Engineering and Technical Journalism (EMT): Students test solar modules