North Texas Daily

Mollie Jamison / Staff Writer

The third annual Global Discovery Workshop, organized by UNT, took place in Tartu, Estonia, for the first time this year and focused on energy efficient-buildings and communities.

Amanda Bennett, UNT global engagement coordinator, said the first workshop on material science in 2012 was based on alternative and renewable energy sources. With the success of that event, this year’s attendees got a more detailed perspective on energy efficiency.

“The participants expressed interest in evaluating the issue, but in a more specific way,” Bennett said. “We were looking more at energy efficiency and how communities can work with researchers and industry to promote energy-efficient communities and buildings.”

From May 19 to 22, six UNT faculty members collaborated with researchers and government officials from all over the world at the University of Tartu.

Bennett said the objective of the workshop was to bring together professionals interested in similar topics to discuss their research. The expectation was that it would lead to future dialogue and collaboration between cities and academia.

Another expected outcome is increased interest in developing a metric system to measure how efficient communities are.

“We hope that the discussions will lead to a discussion on how to develop a type of metric that can be applied by cities to measure energy efficiency and to show some of the benefits and the cost savings of when they start to transition to more energy-efficient communities,” Bennett said.

The past two years the workshop was led by UNT, which partnered with different departments and colleges on campus. Bennett said this year’s workshop is different because it was organized by four different entities including UNT, the city of Denton, Universidade Estadual de Ponta Grossa and the University of Tartu.

“We’re trying to promote the internationalization of our research programs and that is one of the very important aspects we need as a national research university,” said Miguel Garcia-Rubio, associate dean for outreach and international relations in UNT’s College of Engineering. “That is what these global discovery workshops are intended for. First to promote research and research collaborations across international boundaries, and then to see what kind of joint partnerships come as a result of that.”

Denton Mayor Mark Burroughs will represent the city of Denton among a panel of other mayors and city officials from Brazil, Estonia and Germany to discuss their role in building energy-efficient communities.

“Hannover, Germany, is a leading city in Europe when it comes to building energy-efficient neighborhoods and communities,” Bennett said. “So we’ll also have the perspective coming from city leaders and city management about how they contribute.”

The city of Denton also contributed to the workshop by sponsoring the printing of programs and hosting a closing dinner for participants, Bennett said.

Denton is always committed to efforts aimed at creating green and sustainable practices, said Michelle Cunningham, business development officer for the city of Denton. The workshop is the opportunity for the city to do its part in “green” research.

“The Energy Efficient buildings and communities workshop offers participants a unique opportunity to engage in meaningful inter-disciplinary discussions,” Cunningham said.