Students Ainhoa Genua and María Díaz, awarded for the socio-environmental impact of their projects

Engineering students Ainhoa Genua and María Díaz have been recognized for the socio-environmental impact of their projects. TecnunAinhoa Genua and María Díaz have been recognized for the socio-environmental impact of their projects. Specifically, they have received the first award of the second edition of the contest Tecnun Campus Sustainable, whose goal is to reward works of end of Degree and masters that contribute to sustainable development , as well as to promote a culture of sustainability among the student body, as explained by the professor and coordinator of the initiative, Carmen Jaca.

In this second edition, the engineers Eduardo Bilbao, Jorge Izaguirre, Guillermo Griñán and Javier Troyano also received runners-up prizes.  

"The platform I developed at MIT City Science will have an impact on the cities of the future."

Ainhoa Genua (Mechanical Engineering '20) was studying the Master in Industrial Engineering at Tecnun when she got a place at MIT City Science to carry out her Master's Thesis project . The young engineer is sample very grateful for the recognition of a project that, with the help of MIT City Science and supervised by the professor of Tecnun Leire Labaka, analyzes the autonomous micromobility.

Notably, the MIT City Science research group has developed autonomous micromobility services as a potential solution to mobility challenges in today's fast-paced urbanization paradigm, and Ainhoa Genua's work has focused on analyzing the fleet-level performance as well as the environmental impacts of this new form of mobility for food delivery. "The growth of the global population, mainly concentrated in urban areas, as well as the increasing popularity of on-demand services, such as home food delivery, are generating a series of challenges in the area of transportation," narrates the student. "Thanks to the ultralight design and autonomous driving technology, these vehicles are much more efficient and environmentally friendly than cars for urban commuting," Genua emphasizes.

Likewise, and after a year of work in the prestigious Boston laboratory, Ainhoa Genua developed an interactive platform that facilitates decision-making based on the results obtained, which could have an impact on the cities of the future. It is worth mentioning that this project is on display at MIT City Science.

 "There's more to it than recycling. The social impact tends to be forgotten."

The Industrial Technologies Engineering student María Díaz developed her final project Degree at the department of Industrial Organization of Tecnun, motivated by her interest in the Economics Circular. Directed by Professor Carmen Jaca, the student has created a tool that analyzes products at the micro level, with the goal to give use to the different components or materials of a product and, therefore, prolong its life cycle. "I have developed an intuitive and flexible tool to give the possibility to evaluate totally different products," says Diaz.

As he explains, after analyzing "many of the existing tools, I noticed that there is no universal tool , but that there are many and with different results, mainly due to the lack of consensus on the term Economics Circular". He also recognizes the importance of the social impact since "the Economics Circular has a triple aspect (economic, social, environmental) and there is much more to it than just recycling".