Green light for new English-language master’s around energy

Producing energy as sustainably as possible, converting it efficiently and storing and managing it optimally. These are the central topics within the new one-year English-language Master of Science in Energy Engineering Technology, the first English-language programme offered within the joint Industrial Engineering programme at UHasselt and KU Leuven. The programme gets the green light from the Flemish government and will be available at the Diepenbeek campus from next academic year.

Global challenges

The challenges around energy are enormous. There is the ever-increasing demand for electricity, for instance, due to the rise of electric cars, heat pumps and other applications. This master therefore focuses on creating a sustainable energy system in which, in addition to renewable energy (solar, wind, etc.) and its storage (batteries), the question of how we can use energy more efficiently is also extensively discussed. “As a future engineer, you must be ready to make important contributions to sustainable energy solutions worldwide. Due to the international nature of the programme, this new master’s prepares students for that,” say Ronald Thoelen and Bert Lauwers, deans of the Faculty of Industrial Engineering at UHasselt and KU Leuven.

“With this international master’s, we are taking our baseline Engineer in Limburg to Engineer in Europe because we are targeting new international students as well as our own students in the current undergraduate programmes. The CEAD summer schools around sustainable energy, which we have already organised with our faculty for international students over the past three years, already shows that there is a lot of interest in this research discipline.”

EnergyVille

Within the master’s programme, students gain a lot of technical knowledge about machine learning, energy management systems and materials, but will also get to work in a very practical way. “To do this, we make grateful use of the state-of-the-art infrastructure we have in our labs at EnergyVille on the Genk campus,” says Prof Dr Bart Vermang. “Here we introduce students to our research on new generations of solar cells, batteries and green hydrogen production. Research that we carry out in close cooperation with the business world, which we bring students into contact with as much as possible during the programme. Like in the case of solar energy with companies like Soltech and EnFoil at the Thor Park.”

Sustainability at the heart of the programme

At the same time, this new Master of Science in Engineering Technology is also a nice reinforcement of the training offer within EURECA-PRO, the European network of universities around sustainable production and consumption of which UHasselt is part. “Within this network, the partner universities work together around research and education on sustainability. This new master’s programme is a great added value in this respect. With this, we are taking a big step towards being able to educate students even more broadly in this field.”