Catharsis
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Catharsis: Realistic Solutions for Climate Change Mitigation is a Think Tank of students from all university courses of Padua figuring out how to reduce the impact of our action on the climate.
We do research, discuss new ideas, evaluate which and how much our activities can improve the sustainability of our life and our world. We share our works through Instagram posts and detailed reports on our archive website.
sustain your world; 🌱
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Concept
Catharsis is a Greek word, "κάθαρσις" which means purification. This is our philosophy, our efforts to clean the world from our negative impacts. We thrive to find new ways to reduce carbon emissions, to make the development really sustainable, to optimize existing behaviors, activities and technologies toward less impactful effects on the climate and environment.
Sustainability involves Society, Environment and Economy. It's a triptych that can't be divided. Thus we adopt a comprehensive perspective accounting all these dimensions and that's why we need students from all the courses and all the world.
People care if they know. Our goal is to let them know, educating and spreading awareness about sustainable patterns on all fields, especially in the most emitting and consuming sector, the energy. For a complete transition any sector must be assessed, every effort toward sustainability is appreciated.
Organization
As sustainability is made of three dimensions, our group is composed of different Units that help us see all our perceptions of the ideas we generate. Each Unit has a leader that leads the discussions and organizes the work.
Research, discussion and developing concepts will be guided by leaders and will follow the Theme of the Year, chosen by senior member the previous year. The TOTY represents a wide-ranging theme that can be deconstructed and declined as desired, inspiring individual creativity in the pursuit of sustainability.
Each unit works on creating articles, Instagram posts, and essays on the research and ideas developed for mitigating and adapting to climate change. Each work has to include real and feasible alternatives or improvements for a more sustainable solution proven by data, experiments or literature. The work done will be presented at Plenaries, held once each semester. At the end of the year a Report and a Presentation resume all the activities carried out by the Unit in the project, so the Open Badge can be submitted.
During the year various activities will be carried out: competitions, conferences and workshops, even hosting our own! -
We are seeking individuals with innovative ideas for sustainable living or strategies to minimize climate impact. If you are passionate about making a difference, join us.
You can fill the form below to apply and enter in the Catharsis team. Please read the Choose your Dimension section before.
The project is held in English, international student are welcome.
We expect a predisposition to develop and acquire these skills:
- Sustainability awareness and education
- English Level B2
- Teamwork
- Leadership
- Basic multimedia editing
- Scientific articles composition
- Communication and relational skills
- Problem Solving and Critical Thinking
- Planning and Time Management
- Public Speaking
The activities have as their common interest a continuous interdisciplinary contamination of hard and soft skills, proposing a viable alternative for a more concrete and inclusive university training, educating the professionals of the future sustainable society.
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Take a look at each Sustainability dimension and apply for one of them! We recommend choosing one near your study course you're majoring in or your background, but feel free to challenge yourself and choose something out of your comfort zone.
Environment
The member who chooses Environment as its dimension will explore and identify new environmentally friendly, sustainable methods to minimize the ecological footprint of human activities, products, processes, and services. Members of this dimension verify the environmental sustainability of adopted solutions, improve them, or seek alternatives to further safeguard the environment, including land, air, and water, from Climate Change.
Most related degree courses* or background:
- Earth and Climate Dynamics
- Environmental and land planning engineering
- Environmental sciences and technology
- Biology and Biotechnology
- Natural science
- Materials science
- Chemistry, Chemical and materials engineering
- Civil engineering
- Building engineering and architecture
- Digital technologies for building and land
- Energy engineering
Society
The member who chooses this dimension will explore and identify new sustainable methods to mitigate the impact of human activities, products, and services on society. Members of this dimension evaluate the social acceptability of innovative, sustainable solutions for the future, enhance them, or seek alternatives to safeguard vulnerable populations, support the ecological transition, and increase awareness about sustainability.
Most related degree courses* or background:
- Communication
- Humanities
- Philosophy
- Sociological sciences
- Political science
- Psychology
- Environmental sustainability and education
- Information Engineering
- Internet, Multimedia and Telecommunications Engineering
Economy
The member who chooses this dimension will explore and identify new feasible, sustainable, and cost-effective methods to mitigate the impact of human activities, products, processes, and services on the climate. Members of this dimension evaluate the economic aspects of the sustainable solutions already implemented, verify and improve them, and research the most cost-effective methods to transition to a low-carbon emission society. They also quantify the costs of sustainable alternatives in comparison to current activities, thereby establishing a new sustainable economic model.
Most related degree courses* or background:
- Economics
- Mathematics
- Statistics
- Data science
- Law
* the lists are not complete. -
Every member of the project has the opportunity to receive an Open Badge after showcasing the activities carried out during the year in a Final Report evaluated by the supervisors.
Open Badge description
The holder of this Badge participated in the project “Catharsis - A students' project for realistic solutions to mitigate climate change” proposing actions to combat climate change. This student project aims to collect and process scientific material related to combating climate change, especially in the energy sector. The aim is to gather concrete and sustainable proposals for reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Those who participate in the project also have the opportunity to develop their own computational models for the analysis and optimization of energy systems aimed at furthering the decarbonization process. These models will be integrated into an open source optimization platform aimed at proposing strategies and plans for decarbonization of any energy systems.
The project considers not only technological and engineering aspects, but proposes a multidisciplinary approach that also evaluates the environmental, economic and sociopolitical aspects involved in the energy transition, which must be sustainable. The project is organized according to working groups on macro-issues such as technological aspects, resource availability, energy consumption, system modeling and optimization, environmental impact, legislative aspects, and sociopolitical aspects. This subdivision promotes team working within each group and collaboration among the groups with respect to the final goal.
Skills
The holder(s) of this Badge is able to:
- demonstrate a broad view on the issue of climate change, particularly in the energy sector, being aware of the different aspects involved;
- critically evaluate current plans and proposals for greenhouse gas emission reduction and energy transition;
- research and identify relevant scientific publications;
- conceive, elaborate and propose ideas, critically motivating them, on the topic of climate change and energy transition;
- identify possible actions to combat climate change and promote a sustainable energy transition;
- work in groups, collaborating with others in order to achieve a common goal;
- plan their work and meet deadlines;
- write a comprehensive report in English on the activities carried out, clearly reporting objectives, methods and results of the work done;
- present clearly and concisely, in English, the activity carried out and the results obtained.
Criteria
The Badge is awarded to students of the University of Padua who have actively participated in the student project “Catharsis - A students' project for realistic solutions to mitigate climate change.”
Conditions
- Participation in the project for at least one academic year
- Submission of a report on the activity carried out written in English
- Public presentation in English of the activity carried out
Dimensions assessed- Aptitude for teamwork
- Completeness, clarity and scientific quality of the report on the activity carried out
- Clarity of exposition with respect to the presentation of the activity performed
- Ability to process ideas and concepts critically
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Mail of the Project: catharsis.unipd@gmail.com