8th International ONLINE DHC+ Summer School

PROGRAMME | SUPPORTERS | LECTURERS | ATTENDEES

The 8th edition of the International DHC+ Summer School was to take place in Karlshamn, Sweden at the end of August.  However, due to the COVID-19 situation and the uncertainty surrounding international travel, we have decided to change the format and organise the 1st ever ONLINE summer school on DHC!

Creating a Sustainable Ecosystem in District Heating and Cooling, using Artificial Intelligence

After months of preparations, the 8th edition of the International DHC+ Summer School took place ONLINE from 23 to 29 August. 25 participants from all over the world (incl. Iceland and Australia) took part in this “roller coaster of activities and experiences”.

They had the chance to attend excellent lectures, an interesting workshop on data analytics, networking activities as well as speed dating with DHC+ members. And, last but not least, they worked hard on the Challenge of this year on “Value distribution using digitalisation”.

The results of the group work were presented to the high-level jury composed of Alessandro Provaggi (DHC+), Anton Koller (Danfoss), Bertrand Guillemot (Dalkia), Lina Enskog Broman (Swedenergy), Samuel Henningsson (NetPort Science Park) and Wolfgang Birk (Luleå University of Technology). They have unanimously chosen the project “Starget” as the winner of this year’s Challenge.

Congratulations, again, to the winning team:

• Costanza Saletti (University of Parma)
• Fan Zhang (Dalarna University)
• Jerome Ferrari (EDF R&D)
• Nicholas Fry (Reykjavik University; Iceland School of Energy)
• Thanh Huynh (Siemens AG)

Read more about the winners and discover the winning concept in this article.

More than a usual DHC+ Summer School!

Participants received access to a highly professional online learning platform, with the opportunity to watch the pre-recorded lectures in advance and review the content of the Summer School for one month after the event. Networking activities were also redesigned to adapt to the virtual format and included speed dating with companies and universities offering career opportunities in DHC, online yoga class, cocktail/mocktail creation, quiz and other surprises!!

They also received a package which included the DHC Textbook by Svend Frederiksen and Sven Werner, and a special #DHCitizen facemask, so they could promote district energy around the world.

Where do we go next?

We would like to thank the co-organisers of the online summer school – NetPort Science Park, NODA Intelligent Systems, Halmstad University and Danfoss – for their support on the programme and constant engagement throughout the week, as well as this year’s sponsors – Karlshamn Energi and AAK!

Next year’s summer school will, hopefully, take place in Karlshamn and will be hosted by NetPort Science Park, as it was planned at the beginning. We look forward to August 2021 when we can discover beautiful Sweden, visit technical sites and enjoy the freedom of networking!