Symposia

Career symposium of 2019        "Moving Forward"        07/05/2019

This year's symposium was focussed on the sustainable mobility transition, both on a local and international scale. The partaking companies had prepared interactive workshops. After this, they were followed up by an interactive panel discussion with the company representatives led by Joost Vervoort.

ProRail

ProRail first gave a short introduction to the company followed by a game. The goal of the game was to make weight decisions about possible improvements for the train station of Amsterdam Duivendrecht. It showed the different paths that can be taken when having to consider, the surrounding area, the attractiveness of the station and its ecological footprint. In the end, the group that managed to score the highest overall on the points mentioned above won.

Pondera Consult

Pondera Consult organised a workshop about the placement of wind turbines and solar panels in parts of the Netherlands that want to be more self-sufficient. Participants had to look into the regulations and potency of areas in these parts. It turned out that it is more difficult than you would initially expect to place windmills. Solar panels were not as difficult but required more space for a viable output. The synergy between the maximum available space en the potential outcome seemed to be the answer.

OverMorgen

OverMorgen's workshop taught us some information about the company and their concept of the "bicycle path of the future". Afterwards, they provided a framework within which the participants were able to design the "walking path of the future". The company representative guided the students through the design process while still leaving room for their creativity.

Tauw

After the workshops, we had an interactive panel discussion led by Joost Vervoort, an assistant professor at University Utrecht. We talked about the vision of the company with regards to the mobility transition, both domestic and within Europe. Together with the audience's input, we were able to come to a better understanding of what it will take to move towards a more sustainable state of mobility and transport.

We ended the symposium with a raffle and drinks to discuss the subjects that were mentioned throughout the day.

We would like to thank all partaking companies for joining this year's symposium!

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Career symposium of 2018        “Green Growth in Concrete Jungles"        08/05/2018

The presentations and workshops were mainly focused on the transition and growth that cities are experiencing right now. The companies present were free to fill in the workshop the way they liked, which resulted in very diverse workshops.

We started out the day with two speakers, that gave a presentation about the link between their companies businesses and the theme of the symposium.

GRI

Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) is a company that delivers sustainability reports. In their presentation, they explained how their organisation approaches the evaluation of a policy and the steps they take to come up with a useful sustainability report so that the company that they are consulting can take better decisions in the future.

Cepezed

Cepezed is an architecture company that is focused on sustainable and circular construction. In their presentation, they explained what comes along with designing a new building. An example they gave was the “The Green House”, a completely circular building they designed and built in the train station area of Utrecht.


The following companies named below were attending the symposium. In every piece of text, next to the content of the workshop, the nature of the organisation will be described shortly.

Arcadis

Arcadis gave a workshop with a challenge to think of a sustainable development in the city of Utrecht. We had to think of an idea and then work it out in a plan, which we then presented to the rest of the group. The people from Arcadis gave feedback on each individual presentation and choose one winner. With this workshop, they tried to give us a look in their practices as design and consultancy company.

SIM-CI

SIM-CI provides simulations for possible future scenarios. They have a department specially focus on urban planning. With climate change, designing new areas with extra focus on resilience is becoming more and more important. During the workshop, they let the students get in touch with the social side and the technical side of designing the future scenarios.

ARN

They gave a talk about their company and what kind of challenges they face on a day to day basis. They also brought examples of what kind of materials they are left with after stripping a car and explained what they normally do with it. They then challenged us to think of a more efficient and productive way to use the waste products, so it would become more valuable again.

Witteveen & Bos

During this workshop, we looked at the built environment and how smart technology could help in climate adaptation and sustainable building options. As an engineering and consultancy firm, Witteveen & Bos work to find solutions for changes in the environment in combination with the growing pressure on cities.


After all these interactive workshops, the students and company representatives had the possibility to talk to each other during the networking drinks the committee provided. It was a very warm day, so the cool beverages were more than welcome.

We ended the day with a raffle, in which the students could win many cool sustainable items, sponsored by local enterprises, that of course all received a shout-out!