Norwegian University of Life Sciences (NMBU)
University of Applied Sciences and Arts (TH OWL),
Istanbul Technical University (ITU)
Sumaqua
Katholieke Universiteit Leuven (KU LEUVEN
DOSCON
University of Cyprus (UCY)
SmarTech Automation SRL (SmarTech)
MEMSIS Environmental Technologies R&D A.S. (MEMSIS)
I.A.CO. Environmental & Water Consultants (IACO)
Stadtentwässerungsbetrieb Paderborn (STEB)
European Water Association (EWA)
Reach Us
Monday – Friday: 8:00 – 18:00 Hrs
Digitalisation OF WATER INDUSTRY BY INNOVATIVE GRADUATE WATER EDUCATION THROUGH THE FOLLOWING THREE ACTIONS:
Latest activities
Color Line Ferry 23-25.Nov
The first physical meeting of the project was held in Norway, November 2021. A total of 16 project participants attended the meeting.
Key concepts
Work package structures in “Digitalisation of water industry by innovative graduate water education”,
developed by DIGIWATER
digiwater work packages:
digiwater activities:
0
Innovation Camps
0
Project Partners
0
Years
Project partners
|
Research team members: |
|---|
| Zakhar Maletskyi, Associate Professor, NMBU Works on strengthening the research area of membrane processes and assist in coordination of international projects, is involved in teaching and supervision of MSc and PhD programs in engineering and technology |
| Lars Hem, Adjunct Professor, NMBU Conducts research on biological treatment of municipal and industrial wastewaters, drinking water treatment with regard to humic removal and corrosion control, and corrosion and drinking water quality in distribution systems |
| Vegard Nilsen, Postdoctoral fellow, NMBU Interested in all aspects of modelling and computationally oriented problems related to water resources engineering and environmental engineering, is involved in teaching various undergraduate and graduate courses/topics on microbial risk assessment, fluid mechanics and water engineering |
| Goitom Weldehawaryat, Postdoctoral fellow, NMBU Works on strengthening the research area of digital tools in the water sector and contribute to the implementation of international projects of the WESH group. Research interests include IoT, Machine learning, and Cybersecurity |
| Susann Andersen, Project administrator, NMBU Works with management tools and logistics |
|
Research team members: |
|---|
| Martin Oldenburg, Professor, TH OWL Lecturer and researcher with focus on wastewater reuse, simulation of wastewater treatment plants and resource orientated sanitation |
| Stefan Wolf, Professor, TH OWL Lecturer and researcher with focus on computer applications in the environmental sciences and in digital learning |
| Volker Pick, Environmental Engineer, TH OWL Involved in different teaching activities: land survey, GIS, air pollution control. Involved in different research projects and also in Erasmus Water Harmony |
| Claudia Steiner, Food Science Engineer, TH OWL involved in different teaching activities: biotechnology, wastewater treatment, industrial wastewater treatment. Involved in different research projects and also in Erasmus Water Harmony |
|
Research team members: |
|---|
| Mustafa Evren Ersahin, Associate professor, ITU Co-director of MEMTEK. Works on anaerobic membrane bioreactor, membrane processes, dynamic membranes etc. |
| Caner Unlu, Assistant professor, ITU Principle investigator in MEMTEK since 2018. Works on nanotechnology, chemical modifications of membranes, etc. |
| Reyhan Sengur Tasdemir, Researcher, ITU Works on nanotechnology, membrane fabrication, biomimetic modifications, water treatment, water channel proteins etc. |
| Mehmet Emin Pasaoglu, PhD researcher, ITU Works on energy recovery from membranes, electrospinning membrane fabrication, membrane module development, electrospinning, etc. |
| Sevde Korkut, PhD researcher, ITU Works on membrane characterization, flat sheet membrane fabrication, wastewater reuse etc. |
|
Research team members: |
|---|
| Victor Ntegeka, Postdoctoral engineer, Sumaqua Expert in flood modelling, GIS, climate change and Big Data. Worked two years for the Joint Research Center of the European Commission in Ispra (Italy), focusing on high resolution gridded dataset development, flood risk management at continental scales, large scale hydrological model improvement and global operational flood forecasting prototype development |
| Pieter Meert, Researcher, Sumaqua Works on modelling and analyzing of river systems, including hydrology, rivers and floodplains. Specialized in applications concerning model identification and calibration, statistical analyses, sensitivity and uncertainty analyses and optimization problems |
| Tim Franken, Project manager, Sumaqua Expert developer of machine learning techniques, data management and visualisation, optimization algorithms and modelling. 9-year work experiance as Advisor at the engineering company International Marine Dredging Consultants, executed a large number of projects in Belgium and abroad (Australia, Austria, Malawi, UK and Colombia). |
|
Research team members: |
|---|
| Hossein Tabari, Postdoctoral researcher, KU LEUVEN Contributor to the H2020 projects BRIGAID and Climate-fit.city. Expertise on hydrological extremes and climate, and research interests include past and future climate change impacts on hydrological extremes, atmospheric driving forces of decadal natural variability of hydrological extremes and uncertainty quantification in climate change results |
| Sotirios Moustakas, PhD researcher, KU LEUVEN Works on the development of a tool for integrated river basin management and optimization |
| Parissa Hosseinzadehtalaei, PhD researcher, KU LEUVEN< Focuses on Impact of Climate Change on Precipitation Extremes and Urban Drainage Systems in Europe. Research interests include Climate change impact assessment, Statistical and stochastic analyses of hydrological extremes e.g., urban flooding and drought, Uncertainty analysis, and Hydrological modelling and forecasting /td> |
| Daan Bertels, PhD researcher, KU LEUVEN Focuses on the development of Decision Support Systems for Water Management. Research interests include the development of novel modelling techniques, statistical time series analyses of drought and flood conditions, optimization and strategic vision development |
| Anita Vermunicht, Management assistant, KU LEUVEN Responsible for the planning of the Bachelor and Master educational program of Civil Engineering, and in charge of the full administration of the Hydraulics Section. Experienced in handling the administration of large EU projects, including H2020 projects |
| Jimmy Van Criekingen, Technician, KU LEUVEN Responsible for the development, installation and monitoring of both remote test sites and experimental setups in the Hydraulics Lab of KU Leuven. Experienced in applying state-of-the-art measurement equipment and sensors, data transmission and storage |
|
Research team members: |
|---|
| Xiaodong Wang, Coordinator, DOSCON Coordinates DOSCON’s activities in China. Expertise in water and environmental engineering |
| Abhilash Nair, Project manager, DOSCON Focuses on enhancing the removal and recovery of nutrients from wastewater through process monitoring, control, and automation. Research area includes the development of a comprehensive online monitoring system (through a network of physical and soft-sensors) and implementation of optimal control strategies targeted towards improving resource recovery and achieving energy-positive operation. Expertise includes designing optimal control strategies, assembling commercial data-acquisition hardware and software development at DOSCON |
| Aleksander Hykkerud, Consultant, DOSCON Focuses on modelling water quality parameters in sewer networks. Expertise in water modelling, data management and acquisition, information technology and software development |
|
Research team members: |
|---|
| Georgia M. Kapitsaki, Assistant Professor, UCY Has been involved in European research projects (e.g. PaaSage,CyberSafety) and in the organisation and program committees of many international conferences. Research interests include Open source software reuse, Privacy Enhancing Technologies and Service-Oriented Computing and Context-aware services. |
| Alexandros Yeratziotis, Postdoctoral Researcher, UCY Co-founder of a startup that offers accessible communication and educational mobile applications for users who are deaf. Research interests are: Human-Computer Interaction (HCI), user experience (UX), accessible computing, user-centered design and usability inspection methods. |
| Christos Mettouris, Postdoctoral Researcher, UCY Was involved in a number of projects (CVN-AAL, Asterics-FP7, idSpace-FP7, B3Regions, InnoFun, Prosperity4All-FP7, SCIChallenge-H2020, V-ALERT LLP, VeLoCiTy Erasmus+, World-of-Physics Erasmus+, INFORM and more) and was also involved in the organization of a number of conferences in Cyprus. Research interests include Recommender Systems, Ubiquitous Computing, Model-Driven Development and Context-Aware Computing |
| Evangelina Vanezi, PhD Researcher, UCY Works in numerous EU funded projects. Research interests and expertise include Web-based Software Engineering, User Management Systems Development, Privacy in Software Systems, Data Protection in Software Systems, Privacy verification in Software Systems, Formal Methods in Software Engineering Methodologies and Privacy by Design in Software Development. |
| Thomas Fotiadis, Postdoctoral Researcher, UCY He is participating in an amount of EU funded projects. Research interests are: Human-computer Interaction (HCI), User Experience (UX), Digital Media, Media Literacy, Human emotional behavior and Online Branding. |
| Helen Kakos , Research administration and support, UCY Responsible for administration and support in the Department of Computer Science. Also involved in project management activities. |
|
Universitatea “Dunarea de jos” din galati (UGAL), Romania Research team members: |
|---|
| George Adrian Ifrim, Associate Professor, UGAL Research interest includes the modeling and control of biotechnological processes with a focus on of photoautotrophic growth of microalgae and wastewater treatment. |
| Marian Cracium, Lecturer, UGAL Participated in EFSA (European Food Safety Authority) project grants for collecting and management of data, at regional and national level, according to the EFSA standards; one of them is building of the first Romanian data repository and transmission of data on chemical contaminants occurrence in food and feed; another is a database on food consumption, based on a national dietary survey, as the first Romanian contribution to the Comprehensive European Food Consumption Database |
| Dorian Bold, Project administrator, UGAL Representant of the Research, Development and Innovation Office from “Dunarea de Jos” University of Galati. Responsible for the administrative duties related to this project. |
| Larisa Condrachi, PhD Student, UGAL Works on the modelling and control of wastewater treatment processes. Expertise on applying modern techniques for process control |
| Bogdan Roşu, PhD Student, UGAL Works on the modelling and control of wastewater treatment processes. Expertise on modelling and data processing for environmental processes |
|
Research team members: |
|---|
| Laurentiu Luca, Software manager, SmarTech Expertise on automation and process control (more than 20 years), considering both hardware and software implementation. The main author of the article „Control Strategies of a Wastewater Treatment Plant”, 12th IFAC Symposium on Dynamics and Control of Process Systems, including Biosystems, April 23 – 26, 2019, Florianopolis, Brazil. |
| Zanet Mitrita, Automation engineer, SmarTech Automation engineer with responsibilities in the design of industrial automation systems, implementation and commissioning of automation projects, with experience in developing projects for wastewater treatment plants |
| Marinescu George, Automation engineer, SmarTech Automation engineer with responsibilities in software development for PLCs, operating interfaces and SCADA systems, with experience in project development of wastewater treatment plants |
|
Research team members: |
|---|
| Recep Kaya, Project engineer, MEMSIS Project engineer at MEMSIS since 2018. Works on Environmental Engineering, membrane bioreactors (MBR), membrane fouling, 3D design of treatment processes and CFD simulations of membrane modules |
| Serkan Guclu, Research engineer, MEMSIS Research engineer at MEMSIS since 2018. Works on Environmental Engineering, flat-sheet membrane fabrication, electrospinning membranes, nanocomposite membrane fabrication, process development |
| Ozgun Yilmaz, Environmental engineer, MEMSIS Environmental engineer at MEMSIS since 2017. Works on Environmental Engineering, environmental biotechnology, ceramic membranes, hollow fiber membrane fabrication |
| Gokay Simsir, Environmental engineer, MEMSIS Environmental engineer at MEMSIS since 2017. Works on Environmental Engineering, water and wastewater treatment, membrane processes, project design |
|
Research team members: |
|---|
| Marios Mouskoundis, Geologist, Environmental Hydrologist, IACO Significant working experience in the preparation of hydrological and hydraulic studies for various developments, as well as in flood risk analysis and prevention schemes. An expert in the use and various applications of Geographical Information Systems (ArcGIS), in conjunction with the application of hydrological, hydraulic and hydrogeological modelling (ArcHydro, HEC-GeoRAS, HEC-RAS, HEC-HMS, MODFLOW, etc.). A specialist in water resources management and participated as key expert in several related projects such as Horizon 2020 project named Bringing INnovation to onGOing water management (BINGO, 2015-2019) |
| Elena Nikolaou, Rural & Surveyor Engineer, IACO Specialist in Water Resources Management, Geographical Information Systems, Geography and Regional Planning and Coastal Zone Management. Has extensive working experience in the preparation of hydrological and hydraulic studies for various developments, as well as in flood risk analysis and prevention schemes. An expert in the use of Geographical Information Systems (ArcGIS), in conjunction with the application of hydrological, hydraulic and hydrogeological modelling (ArcHydro, HEC-GeoRAS, HEC-RAS, HEC-HMS). Participated in several related projects such as Horizon 2020 project named Bringing INnovation to onGOing water management (BINGO, 2015-2019) |
| Athina Papatheoudoulou, Biologist, Water & Environmental Management, IACO Biologist, Environmental Consultant of more than 12 years of experience in the organization and carrying out of environmental and water management consulting projects – studies. Has extensive experience and expertise in ecohydrological and hydromorphological assessments of surface waters through participating in extensive monitoring campaigns involving sampling of Biological Quality Elements in rivers, and analysing them in the Lab to reach to the classification status of the surface waters |
|
Research team members: |
|---|
| Barbara Westermann, Chemical Engineer, STEB Leader of the laboratory at STEB Paderborn. Extensive experience in water quality management |
| Daniel Plath, Environmental Engineer, STEB Senior Design Engineer at STEB Paderborn. Experience in European Project Management |
| Klaus Arnold, IT Expert, STEB IT expert for programming and integration of software tools into the project |
|
Research team members: |
|---|
| Johannes Lohaus, Secretary General, EWA Responsible for the implementation of the strategic goals for the association, the financial stability of EWA and the representation of the association and contact with the medias (PR) |
| Dr. Noama Shareef, Water policy Officer at the EWA Secretariat, EWA Responsible for the implementation of the Strategic goals for the association, development of the EWA activities Conferences, Events, and she lead the support of the DIGIWATER Activities from the EWA Secretariat |
| Carolyne Herten, EWA Responsible of the communications at the EWA Secretariat, development of the EWA activities, contact with the EWA members and with the Medias |
Project Deliverables
|
WP3 – Digital Water Living Lab |
|---|
| R3.1 Concepts document |
|
WP4 – Internal Quality Assurance |
|---|
| R4.1 Quality assurance plan |
|
WP5 – External Evaluation |
|---|
|
WP6 – Dissemination and Exploitation of Results |
|---|
| R6.1 Dissemination & Exploitation Plan |
|
|
|---|
Innovation Camp in Leuven, Belgium
| After the Digital Water Curriculum Design workshop, we organized an innovation camp for the first demo in Leuven, Belgium between 4-7 October. After registration and meeting on the first day of the camp, Prof. Patrick Willems, Full professor in Urban and River Hydrology and Hydraulics KU Leuven, gave the keynote lecture “Water challenges in Flanders and Europe”. Then Postdoctoral Engineer and General Manager of Sumaqua Dr. ir. Vincent Wolfs created a vision for the digitalization of the water sector for students with his presentation titled “Drought forecasting with AI models”. In the brainstorming session, all participants were divided into three groups. We tried to produce innovative approaches to this crucial question: “How can digital technology tackle floods, water scarcity and poor water quality?”
|
| The second day of the camp, which was very active, started at 9:00 with a presentation titled “Introduction and demonstration of a virtual tour” by Katharina Pilar von Pilchau, M. Engineer in Department of Environmental Engineering and Applied Science, THOWL. Followed by 4 short courses, two online and two in-person, were held as an introduction to IoT, Big Data and Cyber Security. Daan Buekenhout, Research Associate in KUL and Prof. Harsha Ratnaweera, our project coordinator and Professor in Water and Wastewater Technology at the Faculty of Sciences and Technology NMBU, made in-person presentations. Both presentations were made online. The students were divided into 6 groups of 2-3 people. They started using the innovation canvas model for group work. We closed the day with an excursion to a brewery. Participating students: Bahriye Eryıldız and Oğuz Orhun Teber from ITU, Turkey Laurens Breugelmans and Danitza Salazar Cortez from KU Leuven, Belgium Charlotte Marie Trovaag and Rasmus Falkeid Hagland from NMBU, Norway Alexandra Schäfer and Marvin Meyer from THOWL, Germany Podaru Mihai and Lăbuș Andrei-Petrișor from UGAL, Romania Andrea Naziri and Theoni Mina from UCY, Cyprus  |
| On the third day of the camp, Prof. Marian Barbu, Automatic Control in UGAL, gave a course on “Test Platform WWTP”. Then the students continued a group work. After delicious lunch sandwiches, we had an inter-group consultation. At this meeting, students received feedback from the coordinators about their presentations. Then we had a staff meeting and reviewed all work packages. The date of the second innovation camp to be held in Istanbul, Turkey has been clarified. After the program, we had a very enjoyable dinner with the staff and students under the sponsorship of SumAqua.
|
| On the last day of the camp, students presented their innovative approaches. Experts from our project and KU Leuven took part in the jury. Jury members rated the presentations. At the end of the scoring, two teams were selected as the best presentation. Daan Buekenhout and Kato Schoeters presented a small gift to these successful two teams. We congratulate all participating students for their outstanding efforts. This camp was organized by Daan Buekenhout and Prof. Patrick Willems from KU Leuven and Dr. Ir. Vincent Wolfs and Kato Schoeters from SumAqua. Thank you for this fruitful organization.
|
Our Specialists
Project ORGANISATION
|
Norwegian University of Life Sciences (NMBU), Norway Research team members: |
|---|
| Zakhar Maletskyi, Associate Professor, NMBU Works on strengthening the research area of membrane processes and assist in coordination of international projects, is involved in teaching and supervision of MSc and PhD programs in engineering and technology |
| Lars Hem, Adjunct Professor, NMBU Conducts research on biological treatment of municipal and industrial wastewaters, drinking water treatment with regard to humic removal and corrosion control, and corrosion and drinking water quality in distribution systems |
| Vegard Nilsen, Postdoctoral fellow, NMBU Interested in all aspects of modelling and computationally oriented problems related to water resources engineering and environmental engineering, is involved in teaching various undergraduate and graduate courses/topics on microbial risk assessment, fluid mechanics and water engineering |
| Goitom Weldehawaryat, Postdoctoral fellow, NMBU Works on strengthening the research area of digital tools in the water sector and contribute to the implementation of international projects of the WESH group. Research interests include IoT, Machine learning, and Cybersecurity |
| Susann Andersen, Project administrator, NMBU Works with management tools and logistics |
# |
Partner |
Full partner name |
Contact person |
|
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | NMBU (NOR) | Norwegian University of Life Sciences | Harsha Ratnaweera | harsha.ratnaweera@nmbu.no |
| 2 | TH OWL (GER) | University of Applied Sciences and Arts | Martin Oldenburg | martin.oldenburg@th-owl.de |
| 3 | ITU (TUR) | Istanbul Technical University | Ismail Koyuncu | sheepcu@itu.edu.tr |
| 4 | Sumaqua (BEL) | Sumaqua | Vincent Wolfs | vincent.wolfs@sumaqua.be |
| 5 | KU LEUVEN (BEL) | KU LEUVEN | Patrick Willems | patrick.willems@kuleuven.be |
| 6 | DOSCON (NOR) | DOSCON AS | Nataly Sivchenko | nataly@doscon.no |
| 7 | UCY (CYP) | University of Cyprus | George A. Papadopoulos | george@cs.ucy.ac.cy |
| 8 | UGAL (ROM) | “Dunarea de Jos” University of Galati | Marian Barbu | Marian.Barbu@ugal.ro |
| 9 | Smartech (ROM) | Smartech Automation | Nicu Roman | nicu.roman@smartech-a.ro |
| 10 | MEMSIS (TUR) | “MEMSIS Environmental Technologies R&D A.S. | Recep Kaya | |
| 11 | IACO (CYP) | I.A:CO Ltd | Ayis Iacovides | a.iacovides@iaco.com.cy |
| 12 | STEB (GER) | Stadtentwässerungsbetrieb Paderborn | Alexander Bansemer | a.bansemer@paderborn.de |
| 13 | EWA | The European Water Association | Bjørn Kaare Jensen | bkj@geus.dk |
# |
Partner |
Full partner name |
Contact person |
|
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | EWA | European Water Association | Bjørn Kaare Jenssen | bkj@geus.dk |
| 2 | UCY (CYP) | University of Cyprus | Alexandros Yeratziotis | alexis.yeratziotis@gmail.com |
| 3 | Sumaqua (BEL) | Sumaqua | Vincent Wolfs | Vincent.wolfs@sumaqua.be |
Contact Us
We highly encourage further cross-boundary participation and collaboration, and invite you to get in touch without hesitation – your curiosity and interest is appreciated irrespective of whether you are a student, researcher, executive or a leader in academia, government and an organisation. For more info, please contact any of our coordinators representing a partner or a topic, or the project secretariat.
The European Commission’s support for the production of this publication does not constitute an endorsement of the contents, which reflect the views only of the authors, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein.