On Thursday 16 March, the UMONS Sustainable Development Council presented its award for the 2021 and 2022 editions. The jury chose to honour two young graduates who wrote their Masters’ theses on the clothing of the future for one and on the training of environmental engineers for the other. Each received an 800-euro money prize
Two young researchers from the University of Mons (Belgium) were granted an award by this university’s Sustainable Development Council. Alice De Corte and François Pirson received an 800-euro prize for their Masters’ theses. Both prizes were awarded at the same time, but they correspond to different editions, as the 2021 prize could not be awarded in person due to the health crisis. De Corte received the 2021 award and Pirson, the 2022 one.
Entitled “Janus” yarns and composite fibres for personal temperature regulation”, the thesis of Alice De Corte (holder of a Master’s degree in Physical Sciences from the Faculty of Science) focuses on the clothing of the future and, more specifically, on those that allow individuals to cool and warm up in an indoor environment. This new generation of textiles could thus contribute to reducing the energy requirements for heating or cooling buildings, thus helping to reduce the greenhouse gas emissions responsible for global warming.
The work of François Pirson, a graduate from the Faculty of Engineering, concerns the increased integration of sustainable development issues in the training of engineers. His thesis was part of the master’s degree in civil mechanical engineering, with a focus on Energy Engineering. On this occasion, François Pirson carried out a literature review, which made it possible to collect results on the subject and to draw up an analysis grid making it possible to evaluate the relevance of integration tools, to model these objects from the angle of complex systems, an original angle of approach also used for the presentation of the results in the report.
The heads of the Sustainable Development Council and the Rector congratulated the two winners, who are currently pursuing their studies at the University of Mons for a doctoral degree, as well as their sponsors.
The award
For the past ten years, the UMONS Sustainable Development Council has been working to make our campuses more sustainable, in particular by encouraging the exploration and development of this theme in final year papers and dissertations. To this end, a Sustainable Development Council – UMONS prize is awarded each year for the best Master’s thesis on this issue. The winning work must have investigated and contributed to providing sustainable answers to one or more of the fundamental issues of sustainable development.
