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- Fachbereich Energietechnik (24) (remove)
Implementation of gender and diversity perspectives in transport development plans in germany
(2020)
As mobility should ensure the accessibility to and participation in society, transport planning has to deal with a variety of gender and diversity categories affecting users’ mobility needs and patterns. Exemplified by an analysis of an instrument of transport development processes – German Transport Development Plans (TDPs) – we investigated to what extent diverse target groups and their mobility requirements are implemented in transport strategy papers. Research results illustrate a still-prevalent neglect of several relevant gender and diversity categories while prioritizing and focusing on eco-friendly topics. But how sustainable can transport be without facing the diversification of life circumstances?
Promoting diversity and combatting discrimination in research organizations: a practitioner’s guide
(2022)
The essay is addressed to practitioners in research management and from
academic leadership. It describes which measures can contribute to creating an inclusive climate for research teams and preventing and effectively dealing with discrimination. The practical recommendations consider the policy and organizational levels, as well as the individual perspective of research managers. Following a series of basic recommendations, six lessons learned are formulated, derived from the contributions to the edited collection on “Diversity and Discrimination in Research Organizations.”
Diversity management is seen as a decisive factor for ensuring the development of socially responsible innovations (Beacham and Shambaugh, 2011; Sonntag, 2014; López, 2015; Uebernickel et al., 2015). However, many diversity management approaches fail due to a one-sided consideration of diversity (Thomas and Ely, 2019) and a lacking linkage between the prevailing organizational culture and the perception of diversity in the respective organization. Reflecting the importance of diverse perspectives, research institutions have a special responsibility to actively deal with diversity, as they are publicly funded institutions that drive socially relevant development and educate future generations of developers, leaders and decision-makers. Nevertheless, only a few studies have so far dealt with the influence of the special framework conditions of the science system on diversity management. Focusing on the interdependency of the organizational culture and diversity management especially in a university research environment, this chapter aims in a first step to provide a theoretical perspective on the framework conditions of a complex research organization in Germany in order to understand the system-specific factors influencing diversity management. In a second step, an exploratory cluster analysis is presented, investigating the perception of diversity and possible influencing factors moderating this perception in a scientific organization. Combining both steps, the results show specific mechanisms and structures of the university research environment that have an impact on diversity management and rigidify structural barriers preventing an increase of diversity. The quantitative study also points out that the management level takes on a special role model function in the scientific system and thus has an influence on the perception of diversity. Consequently, when developing diversity management approaches in research organizations, it is necessary to consider the top-down direction of action, the special nature of organizational structures in the university research environment as well as the special role of the professorial level as role model for the scientific staff.
Engineers and therefore engineering education are challenged by the increasing complexity of questions to be answered globally. The education of future engineers therefore has to answer with curriculums that build up relevant skills. This chapter will give an example how to bring engineering and social responsibility successful together to build engineers of tomorrow. Through the integration of gender and diversity perspectives, engineering research and teaching is expanded with new perspectives and contents providing an important potential for innovation. Aiming on the enhancement of engineering education with distinctive competencies beyond technical expertise, the teaching approach introduced in the chapter represents key factors to ensure that coming generations of engineers will be able to meet the requirements and challenges a changing globalized world holds for them. The chapter will describe how this approach successfully has been implemented in the curriculum in engineering of a leading technical university in Germany.
Lately there has been an increasing concern about uranium toxicity in some districts of Punjab State located in the North Western part of India after the publication of a report (Blaurock-Busch et al. 2010) which showed that the concentration of uranium in hair and urine of children suffering from physical deformities, neurological and mental disorder from Malwa region (Fig. 1) of Punjab State was manifold higher than the reference ranges. A train which connects the affected region with the nearby city of Bikaner which has a Cancer Hospital has been nicknamed as Cancer Express due to the frenzy generated on account of uranium related toxicity.
Wind loads have great impact on many engineering structures. Wind storms often cause irreparable damage to the buildings which are exposed to it. Along with the earthquakes, wind represents one of the most common environmental load on structures and is relevant for limit state design. Modern wind codes indicate calculation procedures allowing engineers to deal with structural systems, which are susceptible to conduct wind-excited oscillations. In the codes approximate formulas for wind buffeting are specified which relate the dynamic problem to rather abstract parameter functions. The complete theory behind is not visible in order to simplify the applicability of the procedures. This chapter derives the underlying basic relations of the spectral method for wind buffeting and explains the main important applications of it in order to elucidate part of the theoretical background of computations after the new codes. The stochasticity of the wind processes is addressed, and the analysis of analytical as well as measurement based power spectra is outlined. Short MATLAB codes are added to the Appendix 3 which carry out the computation of a single sided auto-spectrum from a statistically stationary, discrete stochastic process. Two examples are presented.
There is a broad international discussion about rethinking engineering education in order to educate engineers to cope with future challenges, and particularly the sustainable development goals. In this context, there is a consensus about the need to shift from a mostly technical paradigm to a more holistic problem-based approach, which can address the social embeddedness of technology in society. Among the strategies suggested to address this social embeddedness, design thinking has been proposed as an essential complement to engineering precisely for this purpose. This chapter describes the requirements for integrating the design thinking approach in engineering education. We exemplify the requirements and challenges by presenting our approach based on our course experiences at RWTH Aachen University. The chapter first describes the development of our approach of integrating design thinking in engineering curricula, how we combine it with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) as well as the role of sustainability and social responsibility in engineering. Secondly, we present the course “Expanding Engineering Limits: Culture, Diversity, and Gender” at RWTH Aachen University. We describe the necessity to theoretically embed the method in social and cultural context, giving students the opportunity to reflect on cultural, national, or individual “engineering limits,” and to be able to overcome them using design thinking as a next step for collaborative project work. The paper will suggest that the successful implementation of design thinking as a method in engineering education needs to be framed and contextualized within Science and Technology Studies (STS).
Concentrating solar power
(2022)
The focus of this chapter is the production of power and the use of the heat produced from concentrated solar thermal power (CSP) systems.
The chapter starts with the general theoretical principles of concentrating systems including the description of the concentration ratio, the energy and mass balance. The power conversion systems is the main part where solar-only operation and the increase in operational hours.
Solar-only operation include the use of steam turbines, gas turbines, organic Rankine cycles and solar dishes. The operational hours can be increased with hybridization and with storage.
Another important topic is the cogeneration where solar cooling, desalination and of heat usage is described.
Many examples of commercial CSP power plants as well as research facilities from the past as well as current installed and in operation are described in detail.
The chapter closes with economic and environmental aspects and with the future potential of the development of CSP around the world.