ITS har snakket med studenter som i disse dager avlegger avsluttende eksamen om studieinnhold, forløp og fremtidsutsikter for jobb. Førstemann ut er Steven Sergij.
Why did you choose the study program Renewable Energy Systems at UiO?
- Motivated by the climate crisis issue, I’m personally interested in the energy transitions topic and always wonder why this is a difficult challenge for our society to solve. The program at UiO offers a unique balance between technical, economic and social aspects of renewable energy technology and energy transitions. From this program, I expect to learn the strengths and weaknesses of various renewable technology and at the same time offer the flexibility to pursue any particular technology or subject that I feel is interesting.
Has the program fulfilled your expectations? What has worked out fine,and what could in your opinion be improved in the future?
-This program exceeds my expectations. The collaboration with renewable energy industries works really well. Resulting in amazing collaboration and obscuring the distance between industry and university. Outside the lectures, I always had interesting discussions with professors or people from industries regarding current issues or exciting technologies development in the renewable energy sector.
This program offers too many good things (courses), thus leaving the choices in the hand of students. It will become problematic for students that don’t know the study direction. I would recommend providing the students with proper guidance instead of letting the students explore the course’s information. It doesn’t need to be strict, just enough to give the students the insight into the core of the study direction. For example, a list of courses for students who want to involve more in solar technology, compared to those who want to study energy policy modelling.
How did you find being a student at UiO "Campus Kjeller"?
-The negative side of the UiO Kjeller campus, is that it is far from the Blindern campus, where UiO’s main facilities are located. There are also not so many options for transport and lunch around Kjeller area.
The good news is that UiO Kjeller has a student kitchen, gym, saunas, table tennis, and a free coffee machine! I believe this negates all the negative aspects, and has pushed me to come to UiO Kjeller. Moreover, the situation of UiO Kjeller creates a close relationship between students, professors and employees, which I really enjoy.
In what way has the program provided you with a foundation for developing the use of renewable energy systems in society?
- 73.2% of our CO2 emissions come from energy sectors. Creating a zero-emission energy sector in the future will be very helpful for our society to solve the climate crisis issue. Which is very relevant to this program and various discussions/research that is happening at UiO Kjeller.
Future thoughts?
-Currently I work for the Nederlandse Organisatie voor Toegepast Natuurwetenschappelijk Onderzoek (TNO) (in English: the Netherlands Organisation for Applied Scientific Research). Specifically, I joined the energy transition studies department where I mainly worked on developing long-term energy system modelling tools for Europe and its fringe countries. The expectation from this work is to provide support to our decision-makers at the Europe level. Therefore, we can set the discourse of energy transition in a good direction by providing science-based policy insight. However, I really like it here in Norway. And I might come back for work here some day.
We wish Steven all the best! Is has been a pleasure having him as a student at UiO.