Integrated Project with Focus on Energy Transition and Circular Economy for Developing Engineering Students' Soft Skills

The present work reports the experience of an integrated project developed at the University of Liege for master students in chemical engineering. The goals are to promote the acquisition of soft skills and to consolidate technical knowledge by integrating and linking chemical engineering disciplines usually taught separately. A case study was selected to address some of the challenges related to energy transition: students had to design the energy system of a remote island and make it as energy independent and CO2-neutral as possible by 2030. The course of action during the academic year, the assessment of soft skills, and the tools offered to ease the mentoring and encourage the acquisition of soft skills are described. Not all implemented techniques performed equally well, and this project finally appeared to be a challenge for the teaching team as well.