ENRGISED project made presentations during the third edition of the faculty of Industrial Design Engineering (IDE), Delft University of Technology Master Research Day (MRD). The online meeting took place Tuesday, February 9, 2021.
On this day, we had the opportunity to present IDE design research aimed at fast-tracking social influence in networks, conducted in collaboration with the University of Utrecht to Master students. This was also an ideal opportunity to engage students with our planned and current research projects, and a good occasion where we advertised possible elective, and graduation projects.
Before and after the meeting we conducted brief zoom calls, first to know our participants better and know their expectations regarding the meeting. The last poll helped us to improve on project interventions, by asking them to choose the most critical perspective, methods, and tools that we should consider or integrate into the project.
To introduce the ENRGISED project, Abby had developed a short video (below) by the use of Doodly.Â
During the meeting, the two postdoctoral researchers: Abby Muricho Onencan and Jiamin Ou explained the project objective and actions. The main introduction explained how The Netherlands’ commitment to discontinue natural gas use (to the all-electric heat pump, district heating, hydrogen, etc.), by 2050 requires the cooperation of 7 million households. However, many homeowners do not know what energy option to choose, how much it will cost, or when to switch, and are waiting for others to take the first steps. For the social housing tenants, they are not sure whether the new proposed district heat will be cheaper and warm enough for cooking and for heating their homes and water. Then Abby and Jiamin explained how the project seeks to address the challenge through the social contagion theory.
In the end, we had a small interactive workshop activity, in which students were asked to propose possible mini-projects to make energy transition in the Netherlands contagious!