Welcome to this month’s roundup of the stories, updates and events happening across the World Technology Universities Network.

WTUN News:

• Join us for the next in our Exchange Speaker Series! Thursday 15 February at 12:00 GMT Dr Fernando Camargo from Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Norte will share details of his exchange visit to University of Bradford. Full details here.

WTUN Members ONLY:

• We are building a programme of events coinciding with UNESCO’s World Engineering Day. A call for speakers is now live. We invite you to contact us if you are an academic at one of our member institutions and would like to speak at either of our proposed sessions, or suggest a session of your own. Our current sessions include:
  • A knowledge sharing session focused on projects, initiatives, and work to increase participation in STEM from underrepresented groups. Read more here.
  • A session on Latest Developments in Energy Storage and Conversion, led by Dr Christina Toigo, from University of Applied Sciences Upper Austria Read more here.
• To suggest your own session, please email wtun@bradford.ac.uk.

Member Institution News:

Asia:

National Taiwan University of Science and Technology, Taiwan

• Taiwan Tech publishes their newsletter showcasing their latest news and updates. This issue’s stories include the launch of a Master’s Program in Cybersecurity in collaboration with industry partners and their Centre of General Education’s progress in shaping curriculum aligned with the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals. Read more here.

Shibaura Institute of Technology, Japan

• Back in December 2023, the ‘IRCGE Green Energy Workshop’ was held at SIT. The workshop, organised by Mele lab and endorsed by the International Research Centre for Green Electronics (IRCGE), was attended by eminent scientists from Japan and overseas to present research on advanced materials and the sustainable energy solutions they enable. Read more here.

Suranaree University of Technology, Thailand

• In collaboration with the Southeast Asian Ministers of Education Organization Regional Centre for Sufficiency Economy Philosophy for Sustainability (SEAMEO-SEPS), SUT held the opening session for the 2024 Southeast Asian Youth Camp on Sustainable Development Goals. 56 participants from 11 schools attended from a host of countries such as Cambodia, Singapore, Vietnam, and Laos. The camp employs a design thinking approach, emphasising empathy, creative problem-solving and collaboration to inspire learners to integrate Sufficiency Economy Philosophy into school routines. Read more here.

Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, Malaysia

• UTM publishes UTM ENGAGE Magazine, which highlights the success of their current academics and staff. Featured stories include work on river conservation, restoration and preservation within the region. Read more here.

Europe:

Atlantic Technological University, Ireland

• ATU launches its Biomass Heat Centre (BHC) and district heating network, showcasing its commitment to sustainability, renewable energy and carbon reduction. Read more here.
• ATU secures €19.6 million in funding through the TU Rise programme which aims to establish, equip and staff research and innovation offices to foster engagement with local and regional industry. Read more here.

Hamm-Lippstadt University of Applied Sciences, Germany

• Hamm-Lippstadt receive €1.5 million to generate solutions for sustainable industrial parks. The funding will allow academics to explore what modern industrial spaces should look like and how they should be planned to focus on space-saving and climate-resilient planning and construction in conjunction with climate-friendly energy supply.. Read more here.

University of Applied Sciences Upper Austria, Austria

• FHOO announce their International Summer Academy in Engineering for Women 2024 with a theme of Empowering Female Engineers. Female Engineering students between 18-25 are invited to apply to the Academy, taking place 9-24 July 2024. Successful applicants will be given the opportunity to broaden their technical and scientific knowledge, explore the impact of technology on future societies and network and connect with peers across the world. Read more here.

University of Bradford, United Kingdom

• UoB’s School of Management takes on a key role in testing the viability of a 6G network as part of a €13 million EU-funded trial. The university will analyse the use of 6G in test cases across themes of health, smart cities, farming, and education to consider the efficacy and the socio-economic impacts of 6G use, Read more here.

Australia:

University of Newcastle, Australia

• UoN’s Hunter Cleantech Accelerator has been awarded $438,000 AUD to support the programme in offering opportunity to tech-enabled entrepreneurs across the sectors of clean energy, clean water, recycling and waste, supply chain, built environment, air quality, and transportation. The programme provides them with the opportunity to bring products to market and foster local innovators. Read more here.

To discuss joining the Network please contact the WTUN Development Manager
Denise Whitehead
Email: wtun@bradford.ac.uk

Welcome to this month’s roundup of the stories, updates and events happening across the World Technology Universities Network.

WTUN News:

• We hosted two webinars in January:

  WTUN Exchange Programme: Speaker Series – Dr. Ammar Al-Balushi, Head of Faculty of Business Management, Majan University College Oman (MUC visits SUT)

  The WTUN celebrates International Day of Clean Energy – Featuring Hindustan Institute of Technology and Science, King Mongkut’s University of Technology, Suranaree University of Technology,  University of Applied Science Upper Austria and Universiti Teknologi Malaysia

  Recordings of all WTUN online events can be found at the WTUN’s YouTube Channel

• Join us for the next in our Exchange Speaker Series! Thursday 15 February at 12:00 GMT Dr Fernando Camargo from Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Norte will share details of his exchange visit to University of Bradford. Full details here.

Member Institution News:

Asia:

Hindustan Institute of Technology and Science, India

• HITS is hosting the ‘International Conference on Integration and Transformation with SDGs (ICITS-2024)’ on 23-24 February 2024. Read more here.

King Mongkut’s University of Technology Thonburi, Thailand

• Back in December 2023, KMUTT held a meeting at their Joint Graduate School of Energy and Environment to discuss fostering collaboration in sustainable biomass utilizaton and decarbonization. The meeting was attended by representatives from VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland, the Embassy of Finland, SCG Packaging and SCG Cement. Read more here.

Majan University College, Oman

• MUC students share their experiences and highlights from their time at fellow WTUN member Suranaree University of Technology’s Global Entrepreneurship Camp. Watch the highlights here. The visit took place following on from Dr Ammar AlBalushi’s exchange visit to SUT. You can watch the recording of the webinar with Dr AlBalushi where he revisited his experience as a recipient of the WTUN Exchange Programme 2022-23  here.

National Taiwan University of Science and Technology, Taiwan

• Taiwan Tech hosts their second annual Infinity Festival aimed at promoting sustainable development to create a low-carbon campus. Read more here.

Suranaree University of Technology, Thailand

• SUT is shortlisted for two THE Awards Asia 2024: ‘Outstanding Contribution to Environmental Leadership’ for their Klong Plakang Tral Project which address environmental, human-animal conflict and community economic issues, funded by the Canadian Embassy & ‘Research Project of the Year: Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences’ for their silk innovation community model in Korat. Read more here.

Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, Malaysia

• UTM partners with Cisco to pioneer an initiative that will shape the future of Education with Smart Classrooms for Hybrid Learning. Read more here.

South America:

Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Norte, Brazil

• UFRN profiles MEG: Girls in Engineering community outreach project which acts to narrow the gender gap in young adults and teenagers in STEM subjects. The project carries out visits to girls from public secondary schools in Natal with a team of undergraduate students who give lectures, short courses and lead on dynamic activities to engage young female children to pursue engineering. Read more here.

Europe:

Atlantic Technological University, Ireland

• ATU hosts The WP8 EU Green Workshop where nine universities come together to foster sustainable and healthy campus initiatives. The workshop took place at ATU Donegal and ATU Sligo campuses. Read more here.
• The 2nd ATU Modelling and Computation for Health and Society (MOCHAS) Symposium takes place at their Sligo campus with focusses on how ATU’s research addresses the UN’s SDGs through a variety of technologies. Read more here.

Hamm-Lippstadt University of Applied Sciences, Germany

• HSHL has received €6 million euros of funding for the ‘Workbench Sector Coupling’ project, which is intended to support market players in the concrete implementation of climate-friendly measures in the field of energy supply through a mutual transfer of knowledge and technology. Read more here.

Technische Universität Ilmenau, Germany

• TU Ilmenau opens the doors for the first time to children and young people through the Children’s and Youth University. Featuring lectures on science, technology and media, all with a focus on sustainability, the programme is designed to give young people a taste of university life, tailored for their knowledge levels. Read more here.
• TU Ilmenau secures a €6.4 million for their Digital Mobility Research Initiative centre to focus on digital methods within its environmentally friendly, resource-saving, low-emission engineering work. Read the post here.

University of Bradford, United Kingdom

• UoB’s Centre for Digital Innovations in Health and Social Care wins £4.86 million from Research England’s Expanding Excellence in England Fund to support two flagship research programmes aimed at creating novel technologies to disrupt current practices and improve decision-making and develop and evaluate technologies that reduce the carbon footprint whilst improving patient care within health and care systems. Read more here.
• UoB launches The Bradford-Renduchintala Enterprise Ecosystem (BREE) to provide financial and mentoring support from business leaders to young entrepreneurs. The project has been partly funded by a donation made by University of Bradford alum, Dr Murthy Renduchintala and will be open to staff, students and the local community. Read more here.

Australia:

University of Newcastle, Australia

• UoN’s research project with LAVO, a clean energy company, showcases hydrogen storage and technology that supports storing surplus energy. Read more here.
• UoN social work researchers publish findings that the community-based response to the 2022 Norther Rivers’ flooding. predominantly led by women, was hugely sophisticated and successful, where authorities failed. Read more here.
• National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) Ideas Grants have been awarded to a number of UoN researchers to support projects looking into preterm birth, treatments for severe asthma and COPD, and how environmental signals from fathers are passed onto their offspring via sperm. Read more here.

To discuss joining the Network please contact the WTUN Development Manager
Denise Whitehead
Email: wtun@bradford.ac.uk

We’re delighted to share a roundup of the stories, updates and events happening at the World Technology Universities Network and at our member institutions.

WTUN News:

• First look at our World Technology Universities Congress 2024, hosted by Univeristi Teknologi Malaysia from 10-12 September 2024. Read more here.
• 2022-23 WTUN Exchange Programme Speaker Webinar with Dr Ammar AlBalushi from Majan University College discussing his visit to Suranaree University of Technology to learn more about implementing entrepreneurship and innovation in curricula: Wednesday 24 January 2024, 12:00-13:00 GMT. Join us here.

Member Institution News:

Asia:

Hindustan Institute of Technology and Science, India

• HITS are accepting research papers for their IEEE International Conference on Advances in Data Engineering and Intelligent Computing Systems (ADICS 2024) which will be held on 28-29 March 2024. The deadline for paper submissions is 10 February 2024. Read more here.

Majan University College, Oman

• MUC launches a new programme DipHE/BSc (Hons) Business Analytics with Artificial Intelligence, joining the world of business data and AI innovation. Read more here.
• Continuing connections made during the WTUN 2022-23 Exchange Programme by Dr Ammar AlBalushi, MUC students participate in a Entrepreneurship Development Camp at Suranaree University of Technology. Read more here.

Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, Malaysia

• A student start-up product launches! Students at UTM have created their own start-up technology company, Uninet Technology, and launched an innovative product called PrinTEX. The product is based on the Internet of Things which is connected with a mobile application for automatic and on-demand document printing services. Read more here.
• UTM signs partnership MoU with Forest Fine Foods to develop research and commercialisation agendas in line with UTM’s Research & Innovation Blueprint 2024 to support sustainable agriculture and economic growth in Malaysia. Read more here.

South America:

Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Norte, Brazil

• UFRN offers the first doctorate (PhD programme) in the interior of the state of Rio Grande do Norte. The course is part of the Postgraduate Program in Physiotherapy and 20 vacancies are expected to open from the first half of 2024. Read more here.

Europe:

Atlantic Technological University, Ireland

• ATU Researchers win funding of  €210,000 (EUR) under EU GREEN to foster collaborative research to further the sustainable development of the regions. EU GREEN is a European university alliance for sustainability, responsible growth, inclusive education and environment. Read more here.

Technische Universität Ilmenau, Germany

• TU Ilmenau announces their Research Theme for 2024: Environment and Health. The theme focusses on the key livelihoods we rely on (pure air, clean drinking water and intact nature) for a healthy life which are threatened by the effects of climate change. Read more about the theme here and their current research projects on the Environment and Health here.
• A new project begins to build a 5G mobile network on campus to enable the university to conduct research and teaching in fields like autonomous driving, medical technology, and automated production. Read more here. 

University of Applied Sciences Upper Austria, Austria

• A summary on Dr Mandy Keck’s visit to University of Newcastle, Australia through the WTUN 2022-23 Exchange Programme. Read more here.

University of Bradford, United Kingdom

• Two students celebrate their successes in the WTUN Hackathon 2023. Read more here.
• A Bradford PhD student makes a breakthrough with his development of a new treatment for breast cancer. The new treatment awaits clinical trials but aims to produce fewer side effects in patients. Read more here.

Australia:

University of Newcastle, Australia

• UoN Researches receive a $2.3 million (AUD) grant to reduce methane emissions, a common emission in Australia’s coal and gas sectors. Read more here.
• Researchers at the Centre for Ironmaking Materials Research complete a development program designed to promote breaking down barriers that prevent women in the engineering and mining sectors from entering into leadership roles. Read more here.

To discuss joining the Network please contact the WTUN Development Manager
Denise Whitehead
Email: wtun@bradford.ac.uk

WTUN Hackathon for Climate Action 2023

Open to all undergraduate and postgraduate students from WTUN member institutions the WTUN Hackathon for Climate Action took place in November 2023.

The Hackathon challenged students to collaborate with peers across the world to tackle and issue of their choosing related to Climate Action. In the spirit of the WTUN’s commitment to the ethos of global citizenship, students from different WTUN member institutions, subject disciplines, countries and time zones  were divided into teams to work together to address the UN Sustainability Development Goals: #13 Climate Action and #17 Partnerships for the goals. Teams collaborated to conceive new ideas and solutions, practicing innovation and entrepreneurship with real-life applications.

Watch: the Pre-Event, featuring Professor Shirley Congdon, Chair WTUN and Vice-Chancellor, University of Bradford, Dr David Harding, Suranaree University of Technology and Dr Suzanne Smit, University of Bradford, can be watched back here

Expert advice and guidance

The WTUN Hackathon for Climate Action 2023 took place online and over an intense and continuous 48 hour period. During this time we had a team of experts and mentors, volunteers from WTUN member institutions, delivering focussed masterclasses, and providing 24/7 mentoring and guidance. With this support, teams learned how to develop an initial idea through to the development of a final product or service.

Seven expert speakers delivered live masterclasses covering topics related to identification of a problem and initial idea, design thinking and ideation, value proposition, stakeholder engagement, impact assessment, business model development, potential funding opportunities and pitch preparation and presentation skills.

A big thank you to:

• Professor Paul Thorning, University of Bradford
• Mr Padraic Lynch, Atlantic Technological University
• Mr Lars Andersson, Suranaree University of Technology
• Mr Paul McCusker, Atlantic Technological University
• Dr Mullika Sungsanit, Suranaree University of Technology
• Dr Isobel Cunningham, Atlantic Technological University
• Una Quinn, Atlantic Technological University

and to the following for taking the time to pre-record a masterclass for the event:

• Dr Patipan Saelim, King Mongkut’s University of Technology Thonburi 
• Dr Martin Schoch, King Mongkut’s University of Technology Thonburi
• Dr Gerald Weisz, University of Applied Sciences Upper Austria

The masterclasses can be viewed here- Resources

The Judging

In the final 2 hours of the Hackathon, teams were brought together one last time, for a live Pitch Event, where each team had just 5 minutes to present their idea, followed by 5 minutes of questions from the panel of judges.

Thank you to this year’s judges:

• Dr Mullika Sungsanit, Vice Rector of Innovation and Entrepreneurship at Suranaree University of Technology and WTUN Operational Board Chair.
• Dr David Spicer, Professor of Small Business Development and Organisational Studies and Director of Business and Community Engagement at University of Bradford. 
• Dr Klaus Zeppenfeld, Professor at the University of Applied Sciences and Art Dortmund and WTUN Lifetime Fellow.

6 teams pitched their product or service and the judges were thoroughly impressed with the quality, ingenuity, innovation and creativity on display. We have summarised the final pitches below: 

Hacks/products/services were developed by 6 brilliant and dedicated teams addressing;

• Climate Action
• Food Waste
• Air Quality and ‘agro-preneurial’ intervention
• Disaster management and AI imaging
• Marine Pollution
• Circular Economy
• Energy consumption

The Winners!

The winning teams produced innovative solutions to accessing clean air, reducing food waste and recycling clothing towards a circular economy. The winners of the WTUN Hackathon for Climate Action 2023 are:

First prize of £2,000 is awarded to;

Team 12, ‘Green Titans‘

• Stefanie Kölbl, University of Applied Sciences Upper Austria
• Shaik Althaf, Hindustan Institute of Technology and Science
• R.S. Bhumishaa Ratheesh, Hindustan Institute of Technology and Science
• Emmanuel Kamoru Umoru, University of Bradford

Green Titans pitched an app which would support and incentivise the general public to track, reduce, and improve their household consumption. 

Click the below image to view the winning deck:

Second Prize of £1,000 is awarded to;

Team 10, ‘The Cracker‘

• Khush Agarwal, King Mongkut’s University of Technology Thonburi
• Ruby Jain, University of Applied Sciences Upper Austria 
• Charles Ogun, University of Bradford
• Ebrahim Aliyou Wudu, Hindustan Institute of Technology and Science

The Cracker pitched a service which would support key industry partners, such as restaurants, to sustainably manage organic waste, promoting a circular economy. 

Third Prize of £750 is awarded to;

Team 29, ‘Greeneriee‘

• Siddhant Deshpande, University of Applied Sciences Upper Austria 
• Roghan G, Hindustan Institute of Technology and Science
• K. Thaniyasubhalaxmi Kanthasami, Hindustan Institute of Technology and Science
• Kanrawee Sisandsaup, King Mongkut’s University of Technology Thonburi

Click the below image to view the winning deck:

Greeneriee pitched a product providing local fishermen with access to vital data and insights to adjust feeding schedules through a product of sensors installed within the aquaculture of their surroundings. 

Congratulations to our winning teams! 

Thank you to all of the people who made this event possible.

If you have enjoyed this experience and are looking for other opportunities to participate in WTUN activities don’t forget;

the WTUN Student Competition 2023/24 is currently OPEN!

Learn more and apply