Second GreeNexUS Week in Trondheim!
Second GreeNexUS Training Week, 20-24 January 2025, Trondheim (Norway), organized by NTNU
The ten GreeNexUS Doctoral Candidates and many of their supervisors and co-supervisors attended the 2nd training week hosted in Trondheim by NTNU.
As all the project training weeks, the event was aiming at forging the researchers, promoting the exchange of knowledge, sharing opinions and imparting multidisciplinary lectures, including transferable skills.
The week was planned from Monday afternoon to Friday morning, and included a Workshop, a Hackathon, a site visit, several lectures and the project internal meetings.
On Monday 27/01/25, experts from the local municipality and road authority, talked about accessible urban pavements, materials and maintenance solutions in all weather conditions, in the 2nd GreeNexUS public Workshop. The aim of the workshop, organized and chaired by NTNU in collaboration with the PhD program in “Civil and Transport Engineering”, was to update the doctoral candidates of GreeNexUS, as well as their supervisors, and the professional community on recent research results relevant for urban accessibility, focusing on the peculiarities of the winter conditions. Participants have been welcomed by Einar Aassved Hansen (NTNU), Head of Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering and the week was officially opened by the Project Coordinator Cesare Sangiorgi (UNIBO) and Eirin Ryeng and Alex Klein-Paste (NTNU), local hosts and organizers.
The Workshop included the following lectures:
- Richard Liodden Sanders, Trondheim Municipality o local accessibility challenges.
- Lisa Maria Marcussen, Multiconsult, presented results from her master thesis at NTNU on accessibility for individuals with balance disorders.
- Mathis Dahl Fenre, Brav Norway, with a lecture on winter cycling.
- Magne Fossum, Asplanviak, on winter walking.
- Viveca Wallqvist, RISE Research Institutes of Sweden, concluded the workshop with a lecture on “Pedestrian accident costs versus road maintenance”.
The 2nd GreeNexUS training week courses actually started on the second day, Tuesday 21/01/25 with lectures open also to in person and online external participants. The attendees followed the following courses:
Course 1.3 by Daniele Torreggiani (UNIBO) on “Monitoring, modelling and simulations for sustainable built environments Crowd sensing geospatial database PRIN Eye Land Project”;
Course 2.4 on “Specific assessment of urban accessibility through the design of curb pathways” by Viveca Wallqvist (RISE);
Course 4.4 on “Sustainable active mobility facilitated by improved shoe pavement grip” by Richard Parent (Hultafors Group);
Course 1.4 “Studying and modelling climate conditions and GHG emissions in urban spaces” by Dafni Avgoustaki (AUA).
Courses continued on the third day, Wednesday 22/01/25:
Course 3.3 “Snow and ice as an urban issue in cold climates how to handle them and when?” followed by a site visit/demonstration by Kjetil Haarberg
Course 4.3 on “Road dust and health challenges in cold climates management of paved surfaces” by Brynhild Snilsberg
Course 2.3 by Joakim Hjertum on “Accessibility in cities key challenges and best practices in winter maintenance”;
Course 3.4 “Participatory planning approaches for urban regeneration in climate change scenarios” by Daniele Torreggiani (UNIBO).
On day four, Thursday 23/01/25, the participants attended the following courses:
Course TS4 “Job hunting with a PhD how to make your knowledge count” by Alex Klein Paste (NTNU) and Viveca Wallqvist (RISE);
Course TS3 “How to make a successful job interview?” by Viveca Wallqvist (RISE) and Eirin Ryeng (NTNU).
In the afternoon of the same day, the Hackathon entitled “Urban sweet mobility for work and leisure the safety of all users in all weather conditions” saw the participants taking part in a task related to design of a nearby pedestrian/cyclist bridge and its surroundings (organized by Trondheim Municipality). Also in this case, the challenge and the invitation to participate were opened to all interested doctoral students.
On Friday, the GreeNexUS participants met in the various internal project meeting, which included the Doctoral Candidates’ Assembly, the Executive Board meeting, the Training Committee meeting and the Supervisory Board meeting.