Teaching is one of ZHAW’s main focus and a key aspect of knowledge transfer from research to society.
This is why both DeCarbCH partners at ZHAW place a special focus on integrating scientific findings from the DeCarbCH program into teaching.
- The Institute for Sustainable Development (INE) of ZHAW has started including insights and topics from DeCarbCH in its teaching activities. A first student thesis on the decarbonization of industrial processes, working in synergy with DeCarbCH and complementary projects, was successfully submitted at the end of last semester. Further theses on the socio-economic aspects of heating and cooling decarbonization are planned for next semester and beyond, with close involvement of industry partners. Besides student projects, insights from DeCarbCH are included in INE’s lecture portfolio, covering topics such as business model innovation, innovation management and the digital transformation of the economy.
- At ZHAW, we engage students at various levels and in various form with decarbonization. Every year, the Center for Public Commercial Law (ZOW) offers an optional course on energy law for third year students. The course deals with general topics such as the construction of renewable energy plants, but also addresses specific decarb-issues such as the construction of district heating networks or CO2 reduction by means of causal taxes. In addition, ZOW frequently assigns project papers and bachelor theses on topics relevant to DeCarbCH.
In the longer term, INE and ZOW are planning to offer new modules on the decarbonization of the energy system, both at undergraduate and advanced level.
Our involvement in DeCarbCH allows us not only to give first-hand insights in these topics, but also to ensure that our offer provides tomorrow’s engineers, lawyers and managers with the knowledge required to tackle the dynamic complex problem of decarbonization.
