Global Issues students win Act for Change LAB award
The students created posters that addressed a complex climate or energy issue and examined potential solutions. © Desjardin/Martin/Guegan/Riff/Zilm
Four teams of students in last year’s edition of the Global Issues course, offered by the College of Humanities (CDH) Social and Human Sciences (SHS) program, have received the Act for Change LAB award, given by EPFL Sustainability.
The Act for Change LAB is a project development platform that gives the EPFL community the opportunity to design, develop, and realize sustainable ideas and initiatives on campus. Since its creation in 2018, the platform has enabled the implementation of 10 sustainable projects at EPFL.
In December, four groups of students in the CDH Global Issues program were selected to receive the Act for Change LAB award.
“The Act for Change LAB award is the first small step towards enabling students to become ‘Actors for Change’, who are concretely involved in EPFL sustainability challenges,” says Act for Change LAB coordinator Gianluca Paglia.
Energy and climate challenges (and solutions)
Each of the winning student groups created a poster as part of their interdisciplinary semester project in the Global Issues course, which is divided into six thematic tracks (energy, climate, mobility, health, communication, and food). Each thematic track is co-taught by two lecturers: one from a scientific/engineering background, and one from the humanities and social sciences.
All of the posters addressed a complex issue from the energy and climate tracks, describing a contemporary problem in the field and examining the pros and cons of potential solutions. The solutions each had the potential to be created by students and tested on campus using a prototype.
The winning teams and their posters
Vegetation in the City : A Solution to Heat Islands? By Laura Ciak, Lise Courtin, Mathilde Forster, Michael Linder, and Anna Schwab (Global Issues Climate B).
Campus: alternatives énergétiques? Analyse d’alternatives innovantes de production d’énergie implémentables sur le campus (Campus: Energy alternatives ? Analysis of innovative energy production alternatives on the campus). By Vassiliy Cheremetiev, Alain Schöbi, Alex Zanetta, Tim Flückiger, and Elisa Küenzi (Global Issues Energy A)
L’urbanisation des data-centers (the urbanization of data centers). By Tanguey Desjardin, Emeric Martin, Louis Guegan, Constantin Riff, and Arthur Zilm (Global Issues Energy B, track 1).
Microalgues: Biofixation optimale du CO2 en milieux urbains ? (Microalgae : Optimal biofixation of CO2 in urban environments?) By Juliette Parchet, Simon Dorthe, Vincente Galdini, Vincent Magnin, and Jakub Skaloud (Global Issues Energy B, track 2).
