MSc

The programme aims at educating engineers with a broad background in electrical and mechanical energy systems and who are able to participate in current design and production activities of advanced systems, in designing, construction and using energy conversion machines on the one hand and in energy supply in general (technical possibilities and limitations, environmental consequences, economical aspects), on the other hand.
Additionally this programme implements the educational goals of the European Institute of Innovation and Technology (EIT) in the Knowledge and Innovation Communities (KIC) education concept which is designed to stimulate high-level education programmes in the field of energy in Europe to stimulate the entrepreneurial spirit of professors and students, mobility and industry involvement. This programme takes part in the EIT-KIC InnoEnergy (http://www.kic-innoenergy.com/).
In this master programme, the focus lies on ...
A number of general aspects can be found in the initial master programme, which are based on the engineer's academic competences:

• a. The academically trained engineer's role is to apply science creatively and in an innovative way with the objective to develop useful products and services or to guide those activities.
  He/She considers social, economical as well as energetic-ecological preconditions. In addition, the engineer's active knowledge of the fundamentals in basic sciences will make him/her able to:
  
  - move beyond the current technological limitations;
  - find new solutions;
  - put those solutions into practice.
  
• b. Because of the complexity and globality of today's modern technology and its societal context this will most of the time only be possible through interdisciplinary and interprofessional collaboration. It necessarily asks for social and communicative skills.
• c. Design and production require in the first place the ability to solve multidisciplinary problems with an open end, which evoke a large solution space and of which the solution is far from unique. Two main aspects are the ability to synthesize and to think heuristically.
• d. Technological knowledge ages fast. The student has to be empowered to deal with its dynamics with the aid of (self-guided) tutorials.

The graduated engineer will have acquired a general understanding which allows him/her to participate in state-of-the art design, controlling and production activities as they appear in energy (conversion) systems.
In the first place the student will have gathered active knowledge of all basic aspects and methods concerning energy conversion and rational energy usage. He/She will be able to apply this knowledge in a creative way, as well as to broaden and reformulate it for efficient reuse.
Secondly, the graduate will dispose of the necessary skills and techniques to further qualify in this field over his/her entire life.
Moreover, the graduate will master a number of skills outside the pure technical field: he will have to be able to present his/her ideas in a structured way and transfer them to others orally or in writing, even in the case of a non-technical audience.
A key requirement is the student's ability to function in a group (teamwork).The student has to carry out the delegated tasks with the expected efficiency and sense of responsibility. He/she also has developed basic attitudes such as the ability to weigh the positive features of a problem against the negative in order to come to a realistic solution. He/she will deal with problems systematically and is able to put them in perspective.
Finally, the graduate can put these problems and tasks in a wider social context, which is of great importance as energy is a keystone in our society.
At the end of the programme, the student will possess:

• thorough knowledge of all basic aspects and methods of information or electrical energy processing on the one hand, and mechanical technology and applied thermodynamics on the other;
• skill in the use of electrical and mechanical energy systems;
• skill in proposing fast approaching solutions;
  
• an open analytical, synthetical problem-solving mind;
• sufficient scientific education to participate in scientific research;
• executive and controlling capacities caused by his/her skills in knowledge transition (entrepreneurial skills), his/her social capacities and insight in the ethical, social and economical frame;
• the skill to independently gather new insights, methodologies and results within the discipline and to apply these in research or in a professional context;
• the skill to critically follow the social role of the engineer.