IGCS serves as a platform for research and academic exchange for Masters students, Doctoral candidates, and Scientists. Since its inception in 2010, we have been facilitating exchange of more than 1000 scholars from German and Indian academic institutions who are dedicated in contributing towards climate science.
The Experience Report Series celebrates our alumni and their success under IGCS. Today we share the experience report of Namitha D’souza who had their exchange period between 28. January 2024 until 28. July 2024 at Walter Schottky Instiute, Technical University of Munich, #Germany under Prof. Ian Sharp. Their home institution is the Department of Physics, Indian Institute of Technology, Madras, #India and their home supervisor is Prof. Jatin K Rath.
Namitha believes this exchange was a unique chance to gain hands-on experience with cutting-edge ALD techniques, deepening her expertise in solar cell technology.
Beyond the lab, this experience broadened her horizons on multiple levels. Living independently in #Munich allowed her to fully embrace the local culture, from exploring the Bavarian Alps to enjoying Germany’s food and festival traditions. Namitha shares that the time abroad not only expanded her research capabilities but also shaped her personal and professional growth, equipping her with both technical skills and a global perspective on sustainability research.
IGCS Research Associate Dr. Christoph Woiwode shares the updates from IGCS Focus Area- Land Use in September. He states:
“Three incredibly fabulous weeks of scholarly exchange and engagement ended with the departure of Dr. Keya Chakraborty and Lalit Kishor Bhati on 28.09.2024. During this time, IGCS’ had the opportunity to contribute to the #DAADGlobalEnvironmentCentres Conference in Berlin and the #IOERConference in Dresden with a workshop, meet and network with fantastic people, and made the most of it by exploring common research interests.
Adding to the activities were talks given by Keya and Lalit at the IOER, UNU- FLORES, and the Sri Aurobindo Centre Berlin. This stay provides a fruitful foundation to continue our collaboration on various levels in the near future!
Regenerative Urban Futures – Integrated Spatial Planning for Resilience
Date: 19. February – 01. March, 2024
Venue: IIT Madras, Chennai, India
Interdisciplinary Collaboration during Winter School 2020Excursion and Intercultural Exchange at Chennai, IndiaGroup Work Presentation and Feedback Session
Overall Objectives
The IGCS schools in the year 2024 are taking place under the umbrella theme “Regenerative Urban Futures”.
In current debates, regeneration is often viewed as going a step further than sustainability, for rather than sustaining particular conditions, regeneration stresses the capacity and ability to recover and even evolve beyond the existing state of affairs. By urban, we mean a wide array of situations and conditions that refer to a broad view of spatial configurations. These include not only clearly identifiable cities and towns but equally the phenomenon of planetary urbanization as part of the Anthropocene, i.e. rapidly urbanizing rural areas, large metropolitan agglomerations, urban fringes, and periurban areas that lie far outside the urban hubs.
By virtue of this overall framing, the topic of the Winter School takes up a persistent and prominent challenge for decision-makers, namely the interface of adequate planning instruments with resilience as one pivotal goal of regenerative urban futures. Simply put, what are we doing today, and what can we do tomorrow to ensure sustainable, resilient, adaptive, and regenerative urban development? Integrated spatial planning is likely to be a key solution. Here, two aspects are important: first, how can we design the morphology (patterns, demographics) of human settlements to ensure spatial integration of land use functions, and secondly, how can we best administer and manage the planning and governance process? Both these dimensions are aimed at overcoming compartmentalisation, silos, fragmentation, and opaqueness – a quality that characterizes many urban settlements across the world. For that matter, integration has been for long a challenge and a contentious issue, and yet, as a goal, it has become even more relevant nowadays as we are faced with complex, wicked global problems with consequences and repercussions in specific local contexts such as climate change and disaster risks, environmental degradation, social inequalities and disparities, or the globalization of markets and trade. For these reasons, a systems perspective is essential, in particular, taking into consideration eco-social and socio-technical systems and their transformation.
The objectives of the Winter School are:
To build collective awareness of the challenges we face as urban populations rise and face issues related to resource depletion, climate change, job security, and so on.
To understand socio-technical solutions that are available today and are being used to address these challenges.
To theorize on strategies that we can take to ensure a sustainable, regenerative future for urban areas.
This Winter School will cover topics such as
Climate and disaster risk adaptation and management
Interface of the built environment with ecosystems and ecosystem services and a systems perspective to analyze these linkages.
Planning tools, instruments, and processes that are required to foster integrated spatial planning and enhance resilience.
Administration and governance approaches
Nature Based Solutions, Technological Solutions, and Social Solutions to Urban Challenges
The role of entrepreneurs, markets, and policy in solving these challenges
If you are interested in sustainable urbanization, then the school might be appropriate for you. You are likely to meet like-minded people with whom you may forge a lasting relationship and listen to experts from several countries who will discuss the challenges, solutions, and pathways that urban agglomerations can take to become more sustainable.
Schedule
This Winter School will run for twelve days from February 19th until March 1st, 2024, and will have two major work streams. The mornings and afternoons will be reserved for lectures and talks given by Indian and German academics and practitioners. The second workstream is dedicated to project work (see below).
Format
The School will consist of lectures, group work, panel discussions, excursions, and intercultural exchanges.
The Summer School will be a physical event in Chennai, India.
Participants
The course is open to German* and Indian Master’s and PhD. Students. Knowledge of sustainability topics is of advantage. The number of participants is limited to 30 (15 from German Institutions /15 from Indian Institutions).
Selected participants from German universities will receive a mobility scholarship of up to 1.050 €.
Selected participants from Indian universities will be reimbursed for their travel by train (Second class seats).
Selected participants will receive a scholarship to cover living expenses during their stay.
IGCS is covering the costs of stay for all participants in the campus guesthouse (shared rooms) as well as breakfast, lunch, and dinner at the Guesthouse/the venue.
*Non-German students and university graduates can apply if they are enrolled in the course of study at a German university to obtain a degree at a German university. For more information, check the DAAD website: Bewerbungen um ein Stipendium (at the moment only available in the German Language).
Application
Interested students may apply through the Winter School Application Form. The application deadline is 01. December 2023. Applications received after this date will not be considered.
The link is open from 16.10.2023 – 01.12.2023, 7 PM CET/11:30 PM IST. You will need to register first before you enter the actual form. You can switch between German and English. Please read the instructions carefully, including the help notes attached to many entry boxes.
Please prepare the following documents to be uploaded through the form:
CV
Transcript of records of last completed semester/graduation certificate
Letter of recommendation from an academic supervisor. It should state your academic and personal qualifications for participation in the School.
Enrolment certificate
Passport Copy
Motivation Letter
Positive results will be announced at the beginning of December. We kindly ask you to refrain from inquiries about the application status in the meantime. Your data will be deleted if you are not accepted.
The option to receive credit points for participation in the IGCS Winter School needs to be discussed with study advisors.
IGCS Area Coordinators for Land Use, Prof. Dr. Ashwin Mahalingam (Indian Institute of Technology Madras), Prof. Dr. Martina Fromhold-Eisebith (RWTH Aachen University) and Dr. Christoph Woiwode (Indian Institute of Technology Madras.
The Energy Consortium – IIT Madras is organizing the Energy Consortium’s annual flagship energy summit from Dec 6-7, 2023. The summit this year will be the biggest yet, providing an excellent opportunity to hear from and interact with global thought leaders and experts from industry, academia, policy makers, and government agencies working towards accelerating the development of technologies to enable energy transition towards a low-carbon future.
On behalf of the summit organizing committee, we forward you their open invitation to submit abstracts under one of the following themes: – Energy Storage, Electrolyzer technology and Green Hydrogen – Carbon Markets, Energy Economics and Climate Finance – Energy Efficiency, Energy Management and Modeling, Sustainable Buildings – Microgrids, Power conversion systems and Power electronics
The link to submit abstracts for the conference is here:
Colleagues with selected papers will be invited to present at the summit on Dec 6/7, 2023. This year’s summit will be held entirely in person at IIT Madras.
The extended deadline for submissions is 15 October 2023.
IGCS Area Coordinator for the focus area Land Use / Rural and Urban Development Development at IIT Madras, Dr. Ashwin Mahalingam, and former IIT Madras student Pokhraj Nayak, affiliated with the Building Technology & Construction Management (BTCM) Group, Department of Civil Engineering at IIT Madras have published their policy brief titled “How Green will Chennai be? Understanding and Reducing the Carbon Footprint due to Residential and Commercial Construction over the next two decades.” As India urbanizes rapidly, buildings account for significant energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions. The construction industry, particularly in cities like Chennai, contributes a quarter of CO2 emissions. Without mitigation efforts, these emissions will escalate, but recycling materials, choosing energy-efficient alternatives, and employing available technologies can help reduce carbon emissions and address the environmental impact of urbanization.
You can read more in the published policy brief, which you can also download below:
Are you interested in research on sustainability issues? The Indo-German Centre for Sustainability (IGCS) awards scholarships to students and researchers whose projects on sustainability issues benefit from a research exchange to India or Germany. Our research fellows receive a one-time travel fund in addition to a monthly scholarship. The scholarship provides travel and living expenses according to DAAD funding rates, as a rule. The Indo-German Centre for Sustainability (IGCS) offers scholarships to help you achieve your academic and professional goals.
We welcome Leibniz Universität Hannover as our new partner university at the Indo-German Centre for Sustainability (IGCS). We are excited to have PD Dr.-Ing. habil Dirk Weichgrebe from the department of Sanitary Engineering and Waste Management, who is joining our team as the new IGCS Area Coordinator for the Focus Area of Waste Management. We look forward to the valuable contributions and collaborations our new members will bring to the IGCS family. Let’s work together to achieve meaningful and sustainable outcomes.
The IGCS team in Germany had the opportunity to visit IIT Madras in Chennai last month where they were engaged in research and exchange teaching programs. Dr. Daniel Rosado, IGCS post-doc in the area of Sustainable Water Management and from Christian-Albrechts-Universität zu Kiel shares the premise of his work in Chennai:
“Unplanned urbanization can have negative effects on the environment. At the IGCS we investigate how the lakes of Chennai, India, are affected by this uncontrolled urbanization and we look for ways to improve this situation.”
Do you want to conduct your research with IGCS and our focus areas? We offer research grants to students interested in the field of sustainability. Visit our Grants page for more information.
Microgrid — A Key Contribution Towards Carbon Neutral Society
Date: 20 February to 03 March 2023
Venue: IIT Madras, Chennai, India
Objective
Energy transition, clean energy, sustainability, carbon neutrality, defossilization as well as energy security have become primary targets and concerns worldwide.
Access to affordable, reliable, and sustainable energy is not only the key to the attainment of these targets but also the main promoter in achieving other sustainable development goals SDGs such as quality education, health, clean water, and sanitation in addition to different social services.
Based on the three main trends shaping the current and future global energy landscape – defossilization, decentralization, and digitalization – the promotion of renewable energy systems, mainly through microgrids is becoming one of the potential approaches and an innovative and viable solution toward a clean energy future, especially in areas not served by centralized electrical infrastructure.
Arising from the idea that energy security, economic benefits, and clean energy integration are the main drivers of microgrid development and deployment worldwide, this winter school aims at demonstrating microgrids as reliable and resilient power systems from different perspectives.
It brings together Indian and German students who will jointly and interactively develop their skills with the following learning outcomes:
Recognizing the concept of microgrid, its components, operation, modeling, and optimization.
Identifying the main challenges and outstanding issues in the ubiquitous/ widespread application of microgrids from economic, environmental, and social perspectives.
Proposing innovative solutions and strategies to implement microgrids as a sustainable energy system.
Schedule
This Winter School will run for twelve days from February 20th until March 3rd, 2023, and will have two major work streams. The mornings and afternoons will be reserved for lectures and talks given by Indian and German academics and practitioners. The second workstream is dedicated to project work (see below).
Format
The School will consist of lectures, group work, panel discussions, excursions, and intercultural exchanges.
The Winter School 2023 will be a physical event in Chennai, India.
Participants
The course is open to German* and Indian Masters and Ph.D. Students. Knowledge of energy topics is required. The number of participants is limited to 30 (15 German /15 Indian).
Selected participants from German universities will receive a mobility scholarship of up to 1050 EUR as well as a scholarship of 325 EUR to cover living expenses during the School.
Selected participants from Indian universities will be reimbursed for their travels by train.
IGCS is covering the cost of the stay.
*Non-German students and university graduates can apply if they are enrolled in the course of study at a German university to obtain a degree at a German university. For more information check the DAAD-Website: Bewerbungen um ein Stipendium (German only).
Application
Interested students may apply through the 2023 Application Form. The application deadline is 15 December 2022. Please note that the applications received after this date will not be considered.
The link is open from 05.10.2022 – 15.12.2022, 7 PM CET/11:30 PM IST. You will need to register first before you enter the actual form. You can switch between German and English. Please read the instructions carefully, including the help notes attached to many entry boxes.
Please prepare the following documents to be uploaded through the form:
CV
Transcript of records of last completed semester/graduation certificate
Letter of recommendation from an academic supervisor. It should state your academic and personal qualifications for participation in the School.
University study program enrolment certificate
Passport Copy
Positive results will be announced by the end of December 2022. We kindly ask you to refrain from inquiries about the application status in the meantime. Your data will be deleted if you are not accepted.
IGCS Area Coordinators for Energy, Prof. Dr. Krishna Vasudevan (Indian Institute of Technology Madras), Prof. Dr. Frank Behrendt (Technical University Berlin), and Dr. Khulud Alsouleman (Technical University Berlin).
This advertisement is based on the condition of funding through the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) for the funding period 2023 – 2024.
As a result of our research in the Peri-Cene project and the Indo-German Dialogues on Green Urban Practices, we conducted a Workshop on “Agroecology: Exploring Food System Transformation in the Chennai Region” on Friday 26th August.
The event, funded by IGCS, was organized in collaboration with the Chennai Resilience Centre, Care Earth Trust, and the Adrienne Arsht-Rockefeller Foundation Resilience Centre. More than 40 delegates gathered to exchange and share their views on periurban agriculture, urban gardening, and farming with the objective to identify options for how to create a network coalition for the metro-region of Chennai. Besides expert talks and interactive World Cafe sessions, we co-created a Nature Mandala and enjoyed folk music from Tamil Nadu related to farming.
The Amrita Center for Wireless Networks & Applications, Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham UNESCO Chairs and Esri India are jointly hosting a Virtual International Symposium titled ‘Tsunami Risk Reduction & Community Resilience’ on December 26, 2020 from 3 p.m. – 8 p.m. (IST). The symposium aims to reflect on the imprints of the 2004 Indian Ocean Tsunami, the subsequent impact on the global society, and advances in science and technology to build sustainable and resilient communities.
The symposium will provide a platform to policy makers, technological innovators, the oceanography industry and researchers to come together and share their insights, as well as throw light on some of the key technological advancements and strategies that help to develop resilient communities across the world. It will address the following key areas, through two main themes.
Theme 1: Tsunami – Responses & Lessons Learnt
Theme 2: Tsunami – Are we ready for the Future?
Key presentation areas:
Case Studies addressing the response of the international fraternity
Response, Governance, & Community Resilience Presentation
Technological Innovations – Monitoring, Detection and Early Warning Systems
The event will bring forth a detailed report that will summarize the current preparedness that has been developed for Tsunami, and will give an insight into the strategic planning framework that needs to be developed for improving the resilience for the coastal communities across the globe.
We welcome you to join this endeavour. It would be great if you could pass this information to interested students and other colleagues as well.