Page 31 - bon-dia-aruba-20200706

locAl Monday 6 July 2020
A31

University of Aruba offers unique program together with University of Leuven, Belgium:

“SISSTEM is a solution based program for sustainability issues in

small island states”

ORANJESTAD — Eric Mijts is that confronts you with
the developer of SISSTEM challenges you did not see
which means Sustainable or were blind to. “It is quite
Island Solutions through a right indeed. But our stu-
Science, Technology, Engi- dents are full dedicated.
neering and Mathematics, We did a project of an en-
a new program at the Uni- ergy audit with the Dutch
versity of Aruba. “Students marine barracks and the
will on the basis of deep evaluations of the students
understanding of funda- were an eye-opener. You
mental sciences, chemis- see they are understanding
try, physics, biology, GO what role they could play in
sciences, mathematics society and what actually
and data sciences devel- global footprint is and how
op skills in problem solv- to relate this to money, to
ing for sustainability issues people and to technologic
in small island states. It is innovation.” The program
really solution based, not shows the value of engag-
problem focused.” Think of ing with stake holders and
jobs like sustainability offi- also to work as a group.
cers, data scientists, ana- They bring their knowledge Why this program? gineering. One of the big the development of our is-
lysts for central banks or into practice and involve Mijts: “We noticed a lack issues we are facing is that land.
governments, sustainabil- into the Aruban community of scientific higher educa- we miss a lot of expertise in
ity managers in the build- which is very important. tion of technology and en- implementing solutions for Continued on Page 32
ing sector and monument
care and positions within
WEB, Elmar, renewable en-
ergy installations and in the
field of electric cars.

“You fit this program if you
really see the energy and
bio- environmental chal-
lenges that we are facing
but also the science chal-
lenges where we make
transitions to a new digital
world without having our
own data sciences net-
work yet. Creating that
expertise is what we stand
for,” Mijts explains. “We look
for people with an enor-
mous broad background
so whether you are into
environmental protection
or looking for a balance
between human and envi-
ronment or you love data
sciences solutions and
data minding/network or
even building environment
and solutions.” The current
students find it a challeng-
ing program because it
is an academic program