Professional Course D "Energy and Environmental"
The scientific of the Professional Course Energy and Environmental features interdisciplinary cooperation between the natural, engineering and environmental sciences, in addition to close networking with large and medium sized companies.
On the basis of an innovative research approach in the dield of power station technologies that aims to reduce or even eliminate CO2, the BTU Cottbus is instituting an excellence cluster to promote energetic use of biomass and its related added-value potential, to establish novel land use systems through processing/refining and material exploitation of biomass resources.
Through initiating its internationally-oriented Professional Cource D, the BTU is laying the foundation for a transnational strategy to promote excellence in teaching and to ensure quality continuing education for our young people. This comprehensive academic and research concept addressing renewable and fossil natural resources is a distinguishing characteristic of the BTU Cottbus - the only university in Germany to offer a programme of this kind. Our explicit goal is to further deepen students' fundamental knowledge in these subjects on the basis of strong, partical experience.
Participating Chairs:
- Chair Soil Protection and Recultivation, PD Dr. Freese (spokesperson)
- Chair Power Plant Technology, Prof. Krautz
- Chair Power Distribution and High-Voltage Engineering, Prof. Schwarz
- Chair Energy Economics, Prof. Fichtner
1. Preamble
In research, the BTU Cottbus has successfully established the most relevant and promising topical fields, which fearures an interdisciplinarity and cooperation with external partners from science and industry. External funding revenues in these areas are relatively good, insofar as the treated sunjects are application-oriented. However, we don't have enough doctoral students for the profile areas, no only because of insufficient national and international awareness, but also due to the difficulty in attracting talented graduates because of tough competition with other universities. This is reflected in the insufficient number and quality of existing doctoral degrees; we must thus expand awareness of our university's strengths in research and post graduate training. To achieve this goal, we absolutely need to selectively promote talented young scientists and reinforce our doctoral training efforts. An indispensable key to success is the establishment and purposefully support for an International Graduate School at the BTU Cottbus. By strengthening our interdisciplinarity we will make our university research programmes more attractive to talented young people, many of whom might otherwise be tempted to go elsewhere. To ensure that our internationally-oriented academics and research are properly networked with industry, we need to define the most suitable areas of focus and we need to promote interdisciplinary cooperation. The aim of the BTU's International Graduate Scholl is to offer research-oriented training to gifted university graduates, allowing them to obtain a doctorate in three years. This is to be achieved through interdisciplinary graduate courses that can attract a higher number of international students.
The BTU an Brandenburg's Ministry of Science, Research and Culture (MWFK) have agreed on the following common goal for the 2007-2009 period:
- Renewing our efforts to promote a new generation of scientists in our main focus areas by establishing an International Graduate School that offers five graduate programmes.
Accordingly, funds issuing from the agreement between the MWFK and the BTU will be expended and coordinated.
Beyond our established and successful PhD progamme Environmental and Resource Management (Faculty 4) and postgraduate degree programmes arranged individually between doctoral candidates and their professors, in the framework of the graduate school we need to broaden the scope of dissertation topics conderned, while giving our doctoral candidates the opportunity to conduct research in both general and more specific of research, as well as facilitating cross-topic discourse.
2. Areas of Research Focus
The Graduate School programme applied for here pertains to the BTU research focus Energy and Environment. It aims to promote ongoing development in this focus area and to strengthen interdisciplinary and cross-faculty cooperation in academics and research. The Graduate School (Professional Course D) is to be developed on the basis of international networking in academics and research. Our goal is to make the best possible use of existing BTU expertise, as well as to secure long-term scientific excellence in our research focus areas by expanding our international presence in the following fields: manufacturing and transforming of renewable natural resources, land use and landscape design and power engineering. A number of research approaches are currently being derived from overriding goals, which need to be further developed on a permanent basis:
Environment and Land Use - Agroforestry Systems:
Analysis and assessment of biotic factors related to the planting of fast-growing tree species, influence of agroforestry systems on carbon, nutrients and water balance of ecosystems and landscapes, modelling and simulation
Provisioning and Processing of Biomass:
Holistic examination of the 'biomass value chain' with respect to investments and costs, transport logistics analyses, competitor analyses, sensitivity analyses
Power Plant Technology:
Modern power station concepts and recultivation methods, dynamic power station models, maintenance planning optimisation, problems with combustion in O2/CO2-atmospheres
Electrical Power Engineering:
Modelling, optimisation and further developing og high-voltage engineering utilities with special emphasis on demand in the areas of ultra-high voltage circuit breakers, burdens on high-voltage line switching systems, investigating generator-related short circuits, and the exploration of alternative materials for closing resistors.