A Study Week, a Topic, Many Brilliant Minds: Tackling Sustainability
Pre-university study week 2020 with the Gymnasium Thun © 2020 EPFL
In collaboration with the Gymnasium Thun, EPFL’s Education Outreach Department, together with members of the School’s faculties, designed and conducted early October 2020 a pre-university week on sustainable development. It allowed interested high-school students to address this burning topic and get an overview of the various disciplines involved. Inspiring inputs by scientists, workshops led by motivated EPFL students and various lab visits made this week “a highlight in our high-school program” as a participant said.
“I really enjoyed learning about sustainability. All the speakers were well prepared and excited to explain us their research field. I loved hearing about science!”
The aim of this EPFL study week was to give the attendees the opportunity to understand how science and technology can address sustainability questions, and to show how EPFL specifically tackles these. Through this week, they also gained insight into study, research and application areas that all are concerned by and find solutions for sustainability challenges. For instance, topics such as Architecture and City Planning, Climate, Energy or Mobility were discussed; all areas that EPFL’s study and research programs in basic sciences, engineering or architecture address. The week also taught the students that particularly in this field, interdisciplinarity is important.
EPFL as an incubator for innovative technologies?
“It is great to be on the EPFL Campus and experience at first-hand how new technologies are being developed.”
To show the many ways of how sustainable development can be addressed through science and technology, and especially so at EPFL, the organizers put together a program that was as diverse as the topics discussed. It included lectures by leading topic experts, discussions with EPFL student associations committed to working on in these areas, visits and workshops. What better way to make high school students aware of sustainability issues than having young speakers lead the workshops and visits, quasi from same generation to same generation, complemented by passionate faculty experts talking about their work?
Every day, a different of the above topics was explored. For instance, they learned about the scientific basics of climate as well as had participative activities to break the ice, such as workshops on the Climate Collage Game and so familiarized with one of EPFL’s own climate related association "Zero Emission Group". They discussed several renewable energy options, experimented with energy measurements and visited the Swiss Plasma Center as well as EPFL’s photovoltaic solar panel infrastructure on the Campus. Another block was dedicated to mobility, architecture and urban planning with a more societal examination of sustainability.
“I liked […] that we had the possibility to gain insight into [these] topics and how we can contribute to a more sustainable world.”
Whilst the students appreciated the theoretical lectures to gain a deeper knowledge of specific topics, they also valued to see the full spectrum of how science and technology can tackle sustainability questions: Hearing about research projects and trends from EPFL researchers in this field or visiting installations that show how technology serves sustainability. Last but not least: learning about the EPFL study curriculum – and how they could make an impact on tomorrow’s future by choosing a path at our school.
The Education Outreach Department, together with all contributing partners and the Gymnasium Thun is proud to hear that the week was a success and that it sparked the interest and motivation of as many young women as men to continue thinking about and working on these topics.
