This year's Environmental Protection and Energy Conference was attended by 375 registered participants from a total of 37 nationalities. There were 98 presentations, which were divided into 3 sessions held simultaneously in 7 rooms. Presentations were held both in English and Polish. Some sessions were opened by invited guests. In addition, this year a debate was organized under the title "EU ban on gas engine cars by 2035. Is it the solution?", during which the panellists discussed the topic and answered questions from the audience. The 9th edition of the EPAE conference turned out to be record-breaking in all aspects compared to all previous editions.

 

The conference was held on December 10 this year and for the first time was organized in hybrid mode, so it was possible to participate both in person and remotely. The new format of the conference was a huge technical challenge, however, it made it easier for people from very distant places to participate in the event from abroad, as well as people living in distant places in our country without additional costs. The solution also proved to be environmentally friendly by reducing the Conference's environmental footprint and CO2 emissions.

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The conference is organized for young academics and graduate students. Participants have the opportunity to present their research, learn about current topics related to the energy and environmental sector, improve their presentation skills and expand their network.

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An additional advantage of the Conference is that it is organized entirely by students of Power Engineering, Department of Environmental Engineering and Power Engineering, Silesian University of Technology within the Project Management course, which is conducted in the "learning by doing" convention and using the methodology of Challenge driven education and Project Based Learning by Magdalena Bogacka, PhD and Krzysztof Pikoń, Prof.

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The students organizing this event worked according to project-based work standards. The group of students was divided into smaller teams, in which each had specific tasks assigned. The project was led by Agnieszka Bezuszko, who managed the project using the Waterfall methodology with Agile elements, with which the students had become familiar earlier during the theoretical part of the Project Management course. It is worth noting that the work was done at an express speed. All the preparations took only 2 months.

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Hosting an event like the International Conference is an excellent experience that taught students how to manage a large project, but also allowed them to gain soft skills and business skills that add value to the student's professional profile.

 

December 10, 2021 was a special day for us and for all this success we want to thank every participant and sponsors, which are the companies Proen Gliwice, RCGW and PreZero as well as patrons of the event, among which are: National Centre for Research and Development, Polish Chamber of Chemical Industry, Rector of the Silesian University of Technology, Mayor of the City of Gliwice who helped to make the EPAE 2021 conference a reality! We wish you all the best and hope that the next edition will be even better! - said at the end of the Conference, Magdalena Bogacka, PhD - Chairman of the Organizing Committee.

Abstract

 

Additionally, during the conference, a European project with the acronym of SMARTEnvi was presented. This is underway to tackle issues related to risks associated with MSW open dumps. SMARTEnvi project, the topic of this paper, seeks to develop, pilot, and test innovative digital tools, training methods, and materials for reducing hazards to the environment and water resources by rehabilitating open dumps. The intellectual outputs of the project, namely smart decision tool for rehabilitation of open dumps, competence tool, multilingual e-learning-platform, learning modules, and smart guidance manual, will help develop competencies in various sustainability-relevant sectors so that target groups will be able to deal effectively with the rehabilitation of open dumps. 

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The partnership in this project consists of universities, private organizations, and municipalities with high reputations in their respective fields which got together according to the requirements of the project and experience of the partners.

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You can find more information on the project website: Project website

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