Training engineers for sustainability at the University of Bremen

Technical innovation is necessary but should not be overestimated on the way towards sustainability. Asking ourselves what kind of knowledge and skills engineers need for a more sustainable design of technologies, processes and products, we came to at least three answers: 1) Knowledge about targets and impacts: scientific knowledge about possible impacts on health, safety and the environment and on 'carrying capacities' of socio-ecological systems (sources and sinks); 2) Knowledge about technologies and interventions: methods to analyse and evaluate technologies, processes and products and to design more sustainable and robust solutions; 3) Knowledge about innovation processes, about the complexity of socio-economic systems (e.g. innovation systems) and knowledge about the options for engineers to influence processes within these systems, as well as skills that lend the ability to make optimal use of these options. The curriculum development in the Division of Technological Design and Development at the University of Bremen's Production Engineering Department can thus be summarized by the terms 'impacts', 'methods' and 'innovation processes', with a scope that is influenced strongly by the emerging field of industrial ecology. One of the strengths of our research and course programme is the full integration with the rest of the engineering department making both very practice orientated. We attach special importance to the taught knowledge being relevant in everyday engineering practice and implement this, among other things, by complementing our lectures and seminars with field trips, guest speakers from academia and industry, and interdisciplinary student projects in co-operation with other divisions and industry partners.