Advanced multimedia engineering education in energy, process integration and optimisation Jir ˇí Jaromír Klemeš a , Zdravko Kravanja b,⇑ , Petar Sabev Varbanov a , Hon Loong Lam c a Centre for Process Integration and Intensification – CPI 2 , Research Institute of Chemical and Process Engineering, Faculty of Information Technology, University of Pannonia, 8200 Veszprém, Hungary b Laboratory for Process Systems Engineering and Sustainable Development, Faculty of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, University of Maribor, Smetanova ulica 17, 2000 Maribor, Slovenia c Department of Chemical and Environmental Engineering, University of Nottingham Malaysia, Jalan Broga, 43500 Semenyth, Selangor, Malaysia article info Article history: Received 13 December 2011 Received in revised form 7 January 2012 Accepted 14 January 2012 Available online 10 February 2012 Keywords: Multimedia education Process integration Optimisation Energy engineering education abstract In the new education and technology era, there are many challenges for Engineering education in the field of energy especially to enhance the effectiveness of teaching and learning process via structured multi- media. The universities across Europe are currently adopting the new Bologna three-cycle study system and most of engineering related departments have already developed new study programs accordingly. Several issues have to be addressed in order to provide high-quality education with improved efficiency and minimal cost. These are related to the foundation skills and knowledge for engineers. They should be supplemented by new engineer curricula empowering energy engineers to manage solving their prob- lems in a sustainable way. The current contribution is based on years of practical teaching and involve- ment in the formation of the policy for engineering education in Europe. It discusses how the application of the Bologna system, appropriate and wise use of multimedia, and innovative introduction of novel communication means into the education can help in achieving the above goals. The discussion includes the development of methods and tools, multimedia internet-based teaching and learning programs, and cyberinfrastrucure-based virtual libraries. Ó 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. 1. Introduction Over recent decades many important achievements have been accomplished in engineering disciplines in general, as well as sys- tem engineering, process integration, and optimisation in particu- lar, with regards to their applications for improved energy and other resources use in industry. The methods for system design, synthesis, and optimisation offer a number of concepts: intuition and engineering experience (heuristics), physical insight (thermo- dynamics) and/or mathematical programming. Using heuristics is becoming more and more redundant for problem modelling, but is still invaluable in forecasting economic and behavioural trends. Efficient optimisation techniques, solution algorithms, and strate- gies enable one to solve a wide range of problems arising within energy and system engineering, process integration and optimisa- tion. The capabilities of systems engineering methods and tools are becoming more and more sophisticated and the scope is now expanding to cover whole supply-chains – see e.g. [1,2] for energy and energy related chemical supply-chains. On the other hand, it is apparent that the scope of engineering disciplines has been wid- ened over recent decades and that the disciplines have been increasingly linked with other fields, especially with energy and environmental engineering and interlinked through system engineering. For example, process system engineering with process integra- tion and synthesis based on renewable resources is becoming a central part of advances in chemical engineering due to a very high consumption of energy in chemical and process industries where only separation processes alone represent about 15% [3,4] or even 25% [5] of total world energy consumption. The issues of energy efficiency and the corresponding environmental concern are becoming of the utmost importance for the fruitful development to provide sustainable engineering solutions. Computer aided engi- neering education, including structured multimedia, has an impor- tant role to equip new generations of engineers in the Bologna study system and professionals in Further Professional Develop- ment (FPD) with advanced systems concepts, methods and tools in order to upgrade their capabilities to shape the sustainable development. For ensuring sustainability and sufficient economic development through especially savings of energy and other re- sources, process and other engineers need to be trained to ever higher standards. This includes multidisciplinarity of the training and improved skills for interaction with industrial representatives 0306-2619/$ - see front matter Ó 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.apenergy.2012.01.039 ⇑ Corresponding author. Tel.: +386 2229 4481; fax: +386 2252 7774. E-mail address: zdravko.kravanja@uni-mb.si (Z. Kravanja). Applied Energy 101 (2013) 33–40 Contents lists available at SciVerse ScienceDirect Applied Energy journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/apenergy