TY  - CHAP
A1  - Steuer-Dankert, Linda
A1  - Leicht-Scholten, Carmen
T1  - Social responsibility and innovation - Key competencies for engineers
T2  - ICERI 2016: 9th International Conference of Education, Research and Innovation: Conference Proceedings : Seville (Spain), 14-16 November
N2  - Engineers are of particular importance for the societies of tomorrow. The big social challenges society has to cope with in future, can only be mastered, if engineers link the development and innovation process closely with the requirements of people. As a result, in the frame of the innovation process engineers have to design and develop products for diverse users. Therefore, the consideration of diversity in this process is a core competence engineers should have. Implementing the consideration of diverse requirements into product design is also linked to the development of sustainable products and thus leads to social responsible research and development, the core concept formulated by the EU.
For this reason, future engineers should be educated to look at the technical perspectives of a problem embedded in the related questions within societies they are developing their artefacts for. As a result, the aim of teaching engineering should be to prepare engineers for these requirements and to draw attention to the diverse needs in a globalized world.
To match the competence profiles of future engineers to the global challenges and the resulting social responsibility, RWTH Aachen University, one of the leading technical universities in Germany, has established the bridging professorship “Gender and Diversity in Engineering” (GDI) which educates engineers with an interdisciplinary approach to expand engineering limits. The interdisciplinary teaching concept of the research group pursues an approach which imparts an application oriented Gender and Diversity expertise to future engineers. In the frame of an established teaching concept, which is a result of experiences and expertise of the research group, students gain theoretical knowledge about Gender and Diversity and learn how to transfer their knowledge into their later field of action.
In the frame of the conference the institutional approach will be presented as well as the teaching concept which will be introduced by concrete course examples.
KW  - diversity
KW  - innovation
KW  - social responsible engineering
KW  - engineering education
Y1  - 2016
SN  - 978-84-617-5895-1
U6  - http://dx.doi.org/10.21125/iceri.2016.0353
SN  - 2340-1095
SP  - 5967
EP  - 5976
ER  - 
TY  - JOUR
A1  - Jablonowski, Nicolai David
A1  - Kollmann, Tobias
A1  - Nabel, Moritz
A1  - Damm, Tatjana
A1  - Klose, Holger
A1  - Müller, Michael
A1  - Bläsing, Marc
A1  - Seebold, Sören
A1  - Krafft, Simone
A1  - Kuperjans, Isabel
A1  - Dahmen, Markus
A1  - Schurr, Ulrich
T1  - Valorization of Sida (Sida hermaphrodita) biomass for multiple energy purposes
JF  - GCB [Global Change Biology] Bioenergy
N2  - The performance and biomass yield of the perennial energy plant Sida hermaphrodita (hereafter referred to as Sida) as a feedstock for biogas and solid fuel was evaluated throughout one entire growing period at agricultural field conditions. A Sida plant development code was established to allow comparison of the plant growth stages and biomass composition. Four scenarios were evaluated to determine the use of Sida biomass with regard to plant development and harvest time: (i) one harvest for solid fuel only; (ii) one harvest for biogas production only; (iii) one harvest for biogas production, followed by a harvest of the regrown biomass for solid fuel; and (iv) two consecutive harvests for biogas production. To determine Sida's value as a feedstock for combustion, we assessed the caloric value, the ash quality, and melting point with regard to DIN EN ISO norms. The results showed highest total dry biomass yields of max. 25 t ha⁻¹, whereas the highest dry matter of 70% to 80% was obtained at the end of the growing period. Scenario (i) clearly indicated the highest energy recovery, accounting for 439 288 MJ ha⁻¹; the energy recovery of the four scenarios from highest to lowest followed this order: (i) ≫ (iii) ≫ (iv) > (ii). Analysis of the Sida ashes showed a high melting point of >1500 °C, associated with a net calorific value of 16.5–17.2 MJ kg⁻¹. All prerequisites for DIN EN ISO norms were achieved, indicating Sida's advantage as a solid energy carrier without any post-treatment after harvesting. Cell wall analysis of the stems showed a constant lignin content after sampling week 16 (July), whereas cellulose had already reached a plateau in sampling week 4 (April). The results highlight Sida as a promising woody, perennial plant, providing biomass for flexible and multipurpose energy applications.
Y1  - 2016
U6  - http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/gcbb.12346
SN  - 1757-1707 (online)
SN  - 1757-1693 (print)
N1  - Special Issue: Perennial biomass crops for a resource constrained world
VL  - 9
IS  - 1
SP  - 202
EP  - 214
PB  - Wiley-VCH
CY  - Weinheim
ER  -