Conference Agenda

Navigating the evolving landscape of energy systems demands a multifaceted approach that combines engineering expertise with a holistic understanding of societal, economic, and environmental considerations. Early career researchers (ECRs) play a crucial role in bridging these disciplines, fostering innovation, and driving sustainable energy transitions. This paper delves into the unique intersection where an ECR in the engineering field transcends traditional technical boundaries, venturing into the realm of social sciences to foster energy communities. By employing a transdisciplinary approach, ECRs are not only contributing to the technical advancements in energy systems but are also actively engaging in community leadership and development, as tenets of energy communities. The role of engineers in this context is redefined – from mere providers of technological solutions to facilitators and catalysts of community-driven change. However, cultivating these initiatives is not without its challenges. The paper investigates the various forms of uncertainty that pose significant barriers to the development of bottom-up energy initiatives. These include regulatory ambiguities, market fluctuations, evolving technological landscapes, and financial constraints. Central to this paper is a case study from North Macedonia – the first energy community in the country, which provides concrete insights into the practical aspects of building and sustaining energy communities in a transitioning energy landscape. This case study not only illuminates the challenges faced but also showcases the strategies and approaches employed to overcome them. It serves as a microcosm of the broader global challenge in transitioning to more resilient, community-driven, and sustainable energy systems.

Technology is a relevant actor in the globalisation process. For instance, blockchain offers society many uses beyond the well-known possibilities of permanent record registration, expanding monetary possibilities through cryptocurrencies, or providing clarity in transactions. This connection underscores blockchain technology's transdisciplinary engineering nature and potential to bridge various domains, fostering a constructive dialogue that transcends conventional boundaries. Indeed, blockchain may start trends and provide endless solutions through social media platforms based on its distinctive technology development. Research has showcased the value of online platforms by encouraging money-minded dialogues or cause-based movements, resulting in the financial empowerment of individuals committed to sharing, teaching, and learning state-of-the-art technologies applied to finance. Nevertheless, it still needs to be explained how platforms built on blockchain technology could drive social transformation and promote social change, encouraging digital activism and propelling community involvement. Therefore, this investigation targets one of the most notorious social media blockchain-based platforms, Steemit, to demonstrate its positive impact on engaged individuals, helping them to promote a conscious use of finance and taking their mainstream users to a higher degree of expertise when using sophisticated blockchain tools. The contribution of this article provides evidence of a blockchain platform's influence on a broader understanding of financial knowledge and technology societal roles. Such advancement expands a constructive dialogue to other areas, as far apart from traditional finance as transdisciplinary engineering.

E-participation platforms have emerged as novel digital tools that facilitate citizen engagement through online deliberation, voting and oversight processes. This online-based enhancement of participatory democracy (Carole Pateman) can be found on platforms that have been evolved in Europe, North America and Asia. Within the Asian context, the rollout of iVoting and the JOIN platform in Taiwan has significantly captured the attention of Western media outlets. However, there is little literature on the exact content that was debated and agreed on these platforms up to this point. Using recent advances in NLP, we shed light on the contents of these discussions. In this transdisciplinary work, we combine new approaches of text mining with political analysis on Taiwan’s e-participation platforms. The dataset with 14,118 proposals (from 2015-2022) has resulted in a distinct topic model that has been made to each platform. With the help of our method, we were able to cluster the proposals thematically and show which concerns were articulated and with how much approval. Based on a random sampling of 110 proposals, we were able to determine that our method assigns 81.82% of the proposals to the corresponding cluster. Our research shows that this can also significantly overcome language barriers, as we employed a translation pipeline within the text-mining process from Chinese into English. Consequently, our method is adaptable to e-participation platforms in various languages, providing decision-makers with a more comprehensive understanding of citizens' needs and enabling the formulation of more informed and effective policies.

COVID was unprecedented requiring an extreme global response to stem the rate of infection. There was a drastic change in product demand with many nations requesting Personal Protection Equipment (PPE) and Lateral Flow Devices (LFDs). The change in demand coupled with lockdown measures exposed the fragility and unresponsiveness of global supply chains resulting in nations competing with one another for supply. Supply was often delayed and/or of insufficient quantity. Accounts say it took nearly six months for supply to stabilise.

In contrast, Additive Manufacturing (AM) and the ‘Maker’ community thrived in designing and producing products to support their communities through the pandemic. Through a reflective study analysing LFD COVID test data, this paper shows that the UK's distributed AM capacity (an estimated 168,000 AM machines distributed across homes, educational settings, offices, and industrial facilities) could have provided the nation with the devices it needed. Government funds would have supported UK AM, reduced the carbon footprint of shipping LFD tests from other nations, manufactured only what was required (25% of PPE was not used) and prevented an estimated 25 swimming pools worth of single use plastic waste. The paper discusses the Social Change and platform required to realise distributed AM as a global supply chain that can support nations in being more resilient, responsive, and sustainable.