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Northwestern Undergraduates Study Sustainability Innovation in Germany as Part of Global Engineering Trek
Lucia Whalen | November 19, 2019
Story by Lucia Whalen, a graduate student at Northwestern's Medill School of Journalism, Media, Integrated Marketing Communications and embedded reporter on the Global Engineering Trek in Sustainability.
September 20, 2019 marked an auspicious day for sustainable progress in Germany.
Youth in cities across the country took to the streets for the Global Climate Strike, the German government unveiled a $60 million climate package, and seven Northwestern University undergraduates reflected on their experiences during the Global Engineering Trek (GET) as they flew back to the United States from their travels in the cities of Hamburg and Heidelberg.
The Trek, now in its third year, occurred at a critical point in the global youth-led sustainability movement, as young leaders such as Greta Thunberg of Sweden have made headlines worldwide for pressuring world leaders to take urgent action and drastically reduce carbon dioxide emissions in order to curb the climate crisis.
The GET offers an opportunity for students to consider sustainability as a part of their future career objectives. And while some students had little background in sustainability prior to the trip, all understood it as a necessary path forward for the future. The focus on sustainable innovation was one of the main attractions of the trip for Molly Pribble, a computer science student and sophomore.
“Sustainability matters to me because it’s really our entire future, especially now because we’re at such a turning point where the next couple of years could decide whether global warming increases more….it can really dictate how we live in the future,” Pribble said.
Each year, the Institute for Sustainability and Energy at Northwestern (ISEN) and McCormick School of Engineering Global Initiatives Office sends a select number of students from a variety of a disciplines to visit German universities, laboratories, and businesses committed to research in the field of energy and sustainability.
Students from multidisciplinary backgrounds in engineering, computer science, political science, environmental studies, and communications came together to spend 11 intensive days travelling in the cities of Hamburg and Heidelberg to meet with leaders working on sustainable innovations.
After landing in Hamburg on September 11th, the group visited the German Climate Computing Center (DKRZ), located on the University of Hamburg Campus. The Center, the largest climate computing hub in Europe and one of the largest in the world, is used to create climate models for scientists. Critical climate models to come out of the Computing Center can show communities how to mitigate for intense wind, rain and other weather extremes. The models have been used in landmark reports including the 2014 Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change that gives us 12 years to cap CO2 emissions and halt temperature rise below a critical tipping point.
“I was looking forward to seeing the applications of engineering in sustainability [on the trip] because I like computer science a lot, but I think I don’t want to do pure computer science as a career,” said Pribble, who hopes to apply her skills in the area of sustainability. “I want to apply it either to the biomedical field or to sustainability or something I’m passionate about. It’s been cool to see what other opportunities there are for someone in computer science to go on and use their degree in the real world,” Pribble said.
According to Mike McMahon, ISEN Senior Communications Manager, the main purpose of the trip is to expose young scientists and engineers at Northwestern to the fields of clean technology and sustainability.
“A big part of ISEN’s mission is related to education for Northwestern students on topics of energy and sustainability. You can certainly learn a lot about energy and sustainability in the classroom, but a great complement to classroom learning is hands-on experience and interaction with people who are doing this important work in the real world. And there’s no better case than Germany when it comes to these sorts of issues,” McMahon said.
Germany is recognized as being a global leader in sustainability, which is one of the main reasons that ISEN and the McCormick School of Engineering Global Initiatives Office have chosen it for the third year as a destination for GET.
Above: Masters students in the CEN program at the University of Hamburg share their work and experience with Northwestern students Alexandra Wilt and Mark Donelan. (Lucia Whalen)
“We chose Germany because it is a global leader when it comes to clean technology and sustainability, and that touches everything from public policy and business practices to the culture at large and the way average citizens interact with one another,” McMahon said.
Students visited with scientists, business owners and innovators in a variety of disciplines. At the University of Hamburg, students met with scientists at the Center for Earth System Research and Sustainability (CEN), where interdisciplinary research is conducted in both earth systems and social dynamics. Northwestern students met with graduate students at CEN and shared experiences to compare the sustainability work being done in both countries.
Outside the site visits, the German culture as a whole was highly influential for many of the students. Students spent ample time on buses and trains, and Andy Moran, a computer science student with interests in sustainability, was particularly interested in the German transportation system and the way in which the culture seemed to revolve more around public transportation, bikes, and walking than cars.
“[The German] transportation system is really interesting. It doesn’t make sense to implement a city-to-city system in the US, but here in Europe it’s cool to move across the country with the train so seamlessly,” Moran said.
On their last day in Hamburg, students visited the Greenpeace Energy headquarters, an electric utility cooperative focused on providing renewable energy to the German electric grid. Director of Politics and Communication for Greenpeace Energy Michael Friedrich presented the work being done by Greenpeace to develop the renewable energy Windgas and spoke of the urgency of shifting to renewables.
The visit to Greenpeace engaged students in the political challenges standing in the way of shifting to renewable energy, and specifically inspired students with backgrounds in communications and social science.
While the trip primarily focused on research and businesses in the engineering field, Alexandra Anderson, a sophomore studying political science, said visits to sites such as Greenpeace solidified her decision to study politics.
“I was kind of worried about [the STEM focus] at first, and I was like ‘Oh, what if it has nothing to do with what I’m interested in? But pretty quickly I realized that they bring up policy overtly almost everywhere we go because it’s the missing link in a lot of this stuff. I’ve asked questions almost everywhere because I always find something where I can wonder how I would apply it in my field.
This whole trip has reaffirmed that policy is one of the most important parts of sustainability and also that I’m doing something meaningful with my life, and that’s when I’m happy,” Anderson said.
Once in Heidelberg, students toured the John Deere factory based in Manneheim, where one new tractor is completed every three minutes. Fabienne Seibold shared the company’s sustainability plan to decrease emissions by up to 50%, use 50% less water and recycle 85% of its waste in the production process by 2022.
The group also returned for a second year to visit the lubricant manufacturer FUCHS, where students were given the opportunity to engage company executives on ways in which the oil-dependent company could integrate more sustainable practices.
On another return trip, the group toured juwi, a solar and wind energy project development company, which boasts a profile of 1,000 wind turbines and 1,700 solar photovoltaic plants generating 4,800 megawatts of power at locations around the world. Highlights of the visit included a visit to juwi’s on-site solar farm and a step inside one of the company’s massive wind turbines, which supplies power to the juwi offices.
Above: The view from the ground of one of juwi’s on-site wind farms. Juwi has 1000 wind turbine plants established worldwide. (Lucia Whalen)
On the last leg of the Trek, the group visited the Karlsruhe Institute for Technology (KIT) Institute of Computer Engineering and KIT Battery Technical Center, where research is being conducted to move beyond lithium ion batteries for energy storage, as lithium ion is not a sustainable material. The topic seemed to be an appropriate culmination to the trip, as effective batteries are necessary for the success of a renewable energy economy.
For many students, the GET trip was their first time traveling outside of the United States and provided an opportunity for students to consider the possibility of further study abroad.
Above: Northwestern students touring the KIT Battery Technical Center. (Janka Pieper)
While in Hamburg, the students had the unique opportunity to visit with the newest Consul General, Darion Atkins, at the US Consulate in Hamburg. Atkins sat down with the group for a discussion about their interests and encouraged the students to take every opportunity to travel abroad and become a global citizen.
Janka Pieper, Director of Communications with the Office of International Relations, who accompanied the students on the Trek, echoed the Consul’s words on the importance of study abroad.
“I want study and research abroad to be an integral part of every student's curriculum. While some students may think their rigorous schedules don’t allow for abroad experiences, this is simply not true — particularly for engineers. There are ample opportunities at Northwestern, and the GET program is an incredible opportunity for students to get a first glimpse into another country’s way of life. But also—especially in this case, when it comes to advances in renewable energy, sustainability, and climate change—one with different approaches in terms of business practices, policy making, and everyday life that can widen their view and understanding of how countries' priorities and practices differ vastly. After this first glimpse, there are many resources and opportunities at Northwestern for a full quarter of study or research abroad,” Pieper said.
Above: The students met with Darion Atkins, the US Consul at the US Consulate on their first day in Hamburg. Hamburg and Chicago are sister cities, and a Chicago flag stands next to the flag of Hamburg inside the Consulate.
While the students were inspired by the innovative projects being worked on in Germany, the seven trekkers returned to Northwestern’s campus energized and inspired by the overall attitude of environmental stewardship they witnessed throughout the trip.
“More than anything, I think the trip was just so eye-opening for me. What made it so invaluable was experiencing the German culture for the first time, learning more about myself and my own educational pursuits, and being presented so many examples of the work people are doing to create a more sustainable world,” Alexandra Wilt, a sophomore studying communications and environmental science, said.
ISEN currently offers three trips focused on different aspects of sustainability. Students interested in water management issues can apply for the Israel Trek, and those interested in energy technology and policy can apply to travel with ISEN to China.