
The doctoral students made short presentations of their projects, using objects that represent their research. Three of the doctoral students were Myrna Carolina Cortés Morales, Stephanie Rusch Fehrmann and Mushfiq Hasan. Photo: Staffan Westerlund
6 October 2023
Doctoral students exchanged experiences on sustainability research
Creaternity is an interdisciplinary future area at Luleå University of Technology which aims at utilising the latest technology to contribute to an ecologically, socially and economically sustainable circular economy. On September 21 – 22, the researchers who are connected to Creaternity met to exchange experiences with each other.
The two days were led by Thomas de Ming, process manager, work designer and innovation coach with over 30 years of experience in contributing to the creation of favorable environments for innovation. He has also trained researchers in making their research available to target groups outside their own research area.
Day 1 began with the doctoral students being given a task in group dynamics from the US Coast Guard, which consisted of ranking various items according to how valuable they are in an emergency situation at sea.
Filmed themselves
Later in the day, the doctoral students made a one-minute film with a mobile camera in which they talked about themselves and their research project. Then they had to present their project to the whole group using an object that could be linked to the research. As the next item on the first day, the relationship between supervisors and doctoral students was discussed. The day ended with group discussions within Creaternity's seven theme areas.
Day 2 was hosted by Victoria van Camp, adjunct professor of machine elements at Luleå University of Technology. She is a member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Engineering Sciences (IVA) and has several board assignments in business. Victoria van Camp was awarded IVA's gold medal in 2022 for her work to get Swedish industry to take a leading role in the green transition. Among other things, she has dedicated herself to developing sustainable business models at the Swedish rolling bearing giant SKF, where she was CTO.
Victoria van Camp's talk emphasised that products must be designed in a way that minimises their carbon footprint over their entire life cycle. This means, she believes, that the products must be designed for the “unknown unknowns” because no one knows what kind of recycling systems we will have in 30-40 years.
The entire product life cycle
The ambition of Creaternity is that the research gathered in the future area should cover sustainability aspects of a product's entire life cycle. The two days were therefore rounded off with the participants trying to identify relevant research areas that are not represented in Creaternity. Two areas that the participants felt were lacking were research in logistics and marketing.
Mohamed Elnourani is a PhD student in product innovation. He is very satisfied with the Creaternity days in Piteå.
“It has become clear to me that there are a lot of opportunities when it comes to collaboration between doctoral students in Creaternity. The colloquium deepened my understanding what Creaternity is about, namely raising awareness about our consumption behaviour as a community.”
Roland Larsson is one of Creaternity's scientific leaders. So much is done within the framework of Creaternity that it can be difficult to get an overview, even for those who have a leading role in the venture. The two days in Piteå also gave him a better insight into the activities.
“It was very rewarding to take part in the 18 doctoral students' presentations. The breadth and scope is impressive. By meeting in this way, we create opportunities for a deeper collaboration between the various research topics and projects.”
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