KNOWLEDGE
The postgraduate programme titled "Renewable energy systems: Design, development and optimization" of the Department of Mechanical Engineers of Technological Education provides a wide, analytical, and integrated scientific knowledge with regard to renewable energy sources and the systems for managing and using them, with specialisation on the mechanical design, the development - construction, and the improvement of the modules capturing and making use of the energy coming from environmentally-friendly sources, with the purpose of protecting the environment and the safety - to the extent possible - of energy supplies.
The design of the entire programme aims to allow the students, initially, acquire the core (but of advanced level) principles of the Science of Engineering, while later specialising the applications of these principles for the systems using renewable energy sources. In this way, the postgraduate students of our Department acquire a deep knowledge and understanding of the nature and specifications of these systems, of the method by which they are structured and operate, as well as of the surrounding area within which it is possible to develop and improve them.
Then, postgraduate students acquire a specialised knowledge on issues related to specific forms of renewable energy sources. The thematic fields covered by this postgraduate programme, apart from the purely mechanical core knowledge, such as, mechanical design and improvement, heat transmission, systems for energy conversion, etc., regarding the systems used for the exploitation of wind, solar, and geothermic energy, as well as energy coming from biomass, while there is an extensive review of the hydrogen technology, etc.
SKILLS:
Within the context of the above, postgraduate students develop and learn to use the following skills:
CRITICAL THINKING, ANALYSIS, AND SYNTHESIS: The students of the above postgraduate programme develop critical thinking, the ability to specify theoretical standards (models), evaluate and argue about the impact and the consequences of these models, while also acquiring the ability to analyse and synthesise the existing data in order to draw conclusions.
-- QUANTITATIVE SKILLS: Our postgraduate students can use quantitative models and arithmetic methods that are suitable for the improvement of the systems using renewable energy sources, analyse the existing data, and interpret results.
REFLECTION SKILL: Students are able to understand the role and the mission of the Mechanical Researcher, along with the role and their responsibility as future executives in companies engaged in renewable energy sources.
STRATEGIC THINKING: Our postgraduate students understand the importance and procedure of strategy in research, with regard to the selection of realistic objectives for the design and improvement of systems using renewable energy sources, the scheduling for their implementation and the monitoring of their implementation course.
PROFESSIONALISM: Students understand the need of acting academically, with consistency, respect, honesty, and based on moral standards.
COMPETENCES:
Within the context of the above, the students of the postgraduate programme titled "Design, development, and improvement of systems using renewable energy sources", of the Department of Mechanical Engineers of Technological Education develop and learn to use the following competences:
KNOWLEDGE APPLICATIONS: Our postgraduate students learn to put the knowledge they have acquired in practice, mainly through practice exercises, such as the arithmetic resolution of specific models.
RESOLUTION OF PROBLEMS AND TAKING OF DECISIONS: Students develop the competence of understanding, examining, specifying, formulating, and resolving mechanical problems related to renewable energy sources, and develop and evaluate alternative actions / choices.
COMMUNICATION: Postgraduate students develop a successful communication ability with regard to the oral, written and electronic speech (presentations of works - lectures).
USE OF INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGY: Students show abilities of using this technology in arithmetic applications for the resolution of mechanical problems, with the use of specialised software (computational engineering, computational fluid dynamics, mechanical design and improvement, etc.).
TEAM WORK: Postgraduate students show the skill of effective work as members of a team.
ABILITY TO CONDUCT RESEARCH: Our students are capable of conducting research, autonomously or as members of a team.
In other words, the vision of this postgraduate programme is to provide students with solid foundations of knowledge and principles, which shall enable them to continuously learn and personally improve within a constantly changing work environment. It is estimated that this is the only method for closing the gap between the continuously increasing demands of domestic (and foreign) industry for specialisation and excellence on issues regarding renewable energy sources and the skills currently available in the labour market.