Living Labs

These are scientific theses (e.g. Bachelor's or Master's theses) in which the Living Lab approach is applied. Students work in a real-life setting and develop solutions with the involvement of actual users or stakeholders.

• Participation and collaboration: Students, lecturers, researchers and other stakeholders work together on practical solutions.
• Realism: The projects take place in a real or simulated environment in order to test the applicability and impact of the solutions.
• Innovation and creativity: Living Labs promote the development of new ideas and technologies through interdisciplinary exchange.
• Sustainability: The aim is to develop long-term, economically, ecologically and socially sustainable solutions.
• Evaluation and adaptation: Through regular evaluations, the Living Lab is continuously improved and adapted to new challenges.

The Sustainability Office mediates between the various stakeholders and advises interested parties on Living Lab final projects and projects.

• As the SA, we are the central point of contact and provide the framework conditions through structure, coordination and initial advice.
• We provide a contact person in the administration and advertise topics for theses from the administration for students. It is important that academic supervision is provided by a chair.
• In a joint kick-off meeting with all stakeholders, we discuss and concretize the research question.
• Students are provided with information and data by the administration. Interim meetings take place if necessary.
• The final thesis will be made available to the NHB if there is mutual interest and agreement. The results can be presented or submitted in the form of a lecture.
• The results of the project or final thesis can be used directly by the administration as a basis for action to initiate concrete measures to improve sustainability on campus. Helpful project results could be integrated into the university's long-term strategy for sustainable development.

There are various topics that lend themselves to Living Lab work at RUB. You can find an overview here. Do you have your own ideas or suggestions? Then please do not hesitate to contact us.

Thematic focus: The Living Lab focuses on various areas of sustainable development, e.g. energy efficiency, waste management, sustainable mobility, nutrition or education for sustainable development.

Energy:

• Renewable energies
• Energy procurement
• Energy efficiency
• Heat potentials from RUB wastewater

Construction management:

• Sustainable building
• Spaces of the future
• Building Information Modeling (BIM)

Mobility:

• Bicycle-friendly university / bicycle mobility
• On-campus mobility
• Parking space management

Quality of stay on campus:

• Green spaces
• Biodiversity
• Seating, learning and meeting areas

The university administration's Living Lab topic calls can be found here. Data is already available for these calls and there is a specific contact person.

• Wastewater heat RUB
• Wastewater heat Kemmnader See

(If you are an employee of the university administration, please contact us with suggestions for topics)

Here you will find an overview of exciting, already completed theses that were co-supervised by the Sustainability Office (NHB).

• Area potentials and yields for the use of solar energy on the RUB campus (Faculty of Civil and Environmental Engineering)
• Climate-neutral heat supply strategies for the Ruhr-Universität Bochum (Faculty of Mechanical Engineering)
• Integration of data from facility management for use case-oriented BIM as-built modeling (Computer Science in Civil Engineering)
• Development of a geodatabase to record land use at the Ruhr University Bochum (Faculty of Civil and Environmental Engineering)
  Environmental Engineering)
• Potentials for the sustainable redesign of
  Buildings at the Ruhr-Universität Bochum (Institute of Geography)
• The campus blooms and hums - development potential for green spaces on the grounds of the Ruhr-Universität Bochum (Institute of Geography)