The reorganisation of the departments addresses the challenges associated with the green transition.
In addition to thinking about materials, durability, design and construction processes, the structural engineers of the future will also look at resource consumption, recirculation/recycling, environmental impact, and climate footprint. Structural engineers from DTU will generally see future construction processes in a much broader sustainability perspective.
Need for radical innovation
New times call for new approaches, and with the enormous challenges facing our society – and the world as a whole – new innovative approaches to the future of construction are needed. We simply need to think in new ways. This applies to individual building projects as well as to the overall building stock and the materials, resources, energy, and CO2 emissions associated with buildings’ lifespan and reuse. This requires radical innovation (not just five percent improvement of the existing processes, but completely new thinking), and this is exactly what you can expect from a research institution like DTU. It also requires engineers who understand the interaction between disciplines and who can break with habitual thinking and take completely new paths in the effort to develop solutions to the challenges facing the world.
No one left behind
DTU’s degree programmes are not linked to the individual departments, but to the university. In this way, we ensure coherence and coordination in the degree programmes, and that they provide what the outside world demands. In the short term, the programmes will continue unaffected with the same supervisors and lecturers. A structural engineer from DTU will therefore still be a structural engineer from DTU, with all the skills and competences this entails. As we achieve synergy effects from research environments that link different disciplines, the latest research from these areas will also be included in DTU’s research-based teaching.
DTU has an ambition to offer Europe’s best engineering education. One element of this is that our students learn to relate to and work with sustainable technologies for the benefit of people and society.
Young people who want to work with construction also focus on digitalisation and sustainability. These are two of DTU’s strategic benchmarks, which permeate everything we do – just as they do in today’s and tomorrow’s construction.
Continuing close cooperation with the industry
DTU will continue to produce highly qualified structural engineering graduates. Structural engineers who, in addition to having insight into the latest research, understand management of construction and construction processes - and are able to put the construction process in a sustainable context.
DTU has a tradition of being in close dialogue with authorities and industry, with advisory boards that reflect the departments’ research areas. We will carry on this tradition. DTU and the construction industry have a common interest in ensuring excellent research and education at DTU. With the reorganization of the departments and a strengthened research environment, we ensure that the industry gets the latest production technology, design, etc. and the newest sustainability solutions - this is what DTU can provide in the future. No one else in Denmark can do that.
