Visit from Utrecht

On Monday, March 10, 2025, 25 vocational students and university students from Utrecht visited the central campus of Bochum University of Applied Sciences to explore the Energy Hub. The background of this visit is a collaboration that emerged as part of the SEED project. SEED stands for "Sustainable Energy Education" and is an Erasmus+-funded research project that promotes innovative vocational education in the field of renewable energies. A total of five European regions are participating in this project, including Utrecht.

The Sustainable Technologies Laboratory presented the Energy Hub as a best practice for hands-on teaching to the partner regions. This concept was developed through the BObby project study and was built by students at Bochum University of Applied Sciences. The project partners from Utrecht University of Applied Sciences and the vocational school ROC Midden Nederland saw great potential in the idea for their own teaching and decided to adopt the concept as part of the SEED project in Utrecht.

The Energy Hub is an off-grid photovoltaic charging station for Light Electric Vehicles (LEVs). With this off-grid station, batteries of e-bikes, e-mopeds, and e-cargo bikes can be charged with renewable energy. In addition to being used as a teaching project, the Energy Hub is also utilized for research purposes in funded projects focused on sustainable urban mobility.

To learn more about the Energy Hub, three lecturers, as well as students from the fields of electrical engineering, civil engineering, and mechanical engineering, along with vocational students specializing in mechatronics, traveled to Bochum. The two educational institutions in Utrecht already collaborate closely: university students and vocational students work together on projects for an entire semester. This concept not only fosters interdisciplinary exchange but also provides vocational students with insight into university studies. In fact, this collaboration has led to an increasing number of vocational students pursuing higher education after completing their training. This is a significant development in the Netherlands, where many graduates tend to enter the workforce directly due to attractive salary prospects, while more university graduates are desired.

The visit to Bochum aimed to equip participants with the necessary knowledge to implement the Energy Hub concept in a modified form, with a focus on e-bikes, in Utrecht. The guests were first welcomed by Prof. Dr.-Ing. Semih Severengiz. Following this, Noman Hanifa, a research associate at the laboratory, presented the Energy Hub and its structure. In the upcoming semester, he will take over the BObby project study in Bochum, which will once again focus more on the Energy Hub than in previous semesters.

During the in-depth tour, visitors had the opportunity to ask questions that will assist them in implementing the project in the coming semester. To conclude the visit in an engaging way, the participants played a short quiz that tested their knowledge of the Energy Hub’s components.

We are pleased to have welcomed our guests from Utrecht to Bochum University of Applied Sciences. We hope they gained valuable insights for their further education and that this visit will lead to further collaborations in education and research in the future.