Sustainability Collaboration with Academia – University of Aberdeen 

The University of Aberdeen’s Net Zero and Emissions Manager, Roederer Rose Lyne, recently completed an academic collaboration with final year BSc Computing Science student Ivan Ivanov to develop an enhancement for the student relocation calculator tool based on postcode data for Home and UK students. 

Read on for Rose's and Ivan's experience of the collaboration, a walkthrough of the project output and a copy of Ivan's dissertation for inspiration in student learning and research experiences advancing institutional sustainability action.

 
Staff Collaborator Perspective 

Through a partnership with EAUC Scotland, I developed the Student Relocation Emissions Calculator in 2023, based upon the work of a University of Aberdeen student intern. This spreadsheet-based tool used domicile data to calculate the travel emissions of students at the start and end of an academic year.  

However, I was conscious that the calculated emissions for Home and UK students may be incorrect as the tool assumes they all travel from country capital (i.e. Edinburgh, London, Cardiff, Belfast). 

I knew how to overcome this, by using postcode data to improve the accuracy of the distance and travel calculations, but I did not have the expertise to create the program required. 
 
Fortunately, the Sustainability Team has a long history of submitting thesis subject proposals and projects for both post and undergraduate degree programs for specialist subjects and projects. 

Through a Net Zero focused group within the University, I connected with an academic in the School of Natural and Computing Sciences who suggested that his cohort of final year computing science students may find this task appealing. 

We talked through the project idea and desired outcomes and aligned them with the course’s academic requirements with regards to the technical complexity and scope. A simple 2-page project description and outcomes document which was subsequently created and presented to the cohort. 
 
This project had minimal requirements with regards to investment from myself compared to previous projects and collaborations which have required the provision of office space, access to sites and University staff/academics, etc. 

The majority of my investment was my time and occurred before the project started. Through discussions with the academic supervisor, I developed a project description and output document to be made available to the student cohort, in addition to providing a brief presentation and Q&A opportunity. 

Once Ivan had confirmed he wished to take on my project for his final year thesis, the following administration activities were required before the project could begin: 

• Liaise with the University’s GDPR team to establish requirements, agreements, and procedures. 
• Setting up a Teams channel to store data, GDPR agreements, and the original tool. 
• Set up introduction and project initiation call with Ivan. 

Following project initiation, my responsibilities were ensuring I attended our scheduled catch ups, swiftly responding to Ivan’s email queries, and trial running the software during the testing phase. 
 
Following the three-month period, both myself and Ivan have reflected on the development of the program, his thesis, and our collaboration as a whole. From my perspective, there are a few areas that anyone wanting to undertake something similar should be aware of: 

• Be conscious of any legal requirements. Ensure you understand the restrictions and requirements placed upon yourself and your institution with regards to data through GDPR. Due to the nature of the data I provided Ivan, myself and the academic supervisor worked closely with our GDPR team to ensure sensitive materials were handled and stored safely. 
• Ensure that you set realistic expectations for the project. The project must meet set academic standards and has a limited timeline for completion so certain aspects of a project may not be feasible. Ensuring that a student has an exciting project that will ensure they graduate with the best possible grade is the highest priority. 
• Communication is key between yourself and the student. Establishing regular catch-up opportunities from the start of the project ensures any roadblocks are swiftly identified and dealt with. 
• Take into account the time required to write a thesis. The last few weeks of the student’s time will likely be solely dedicated to the writing of their thesis and will have limited availability to undertake any additional tasks or alterations. 
• Be flexible and embrace unexpected solutions. Sometimes roadblocks occur in the project that cannot be overcome within the timeline or academic restrictions. Be sure to encourage the student to investigate alternative workarounds and be prepared to compromise on the small things. 

 
A Student’s Perspective 

I am Ivan Ivanov, 22, from Bulgaria. I have just finished my bachelor’s degree in Computing Science at the University of Aberdeen and I am the developer of the StudentGreenTravel project.  

I chose this project for several reasons, but the most important ones were the opportunity to step into the shoes of a software engineer and make an impact at the University. When I was presented with this project, I felt it was the perfect way to fulfil both of my dreams. Additionally, I was going to assist in tackling the major global Higher Education Sector challenge of student travel emissions measurement and tracking. 

During the development of the project, I had support from both sides of the collaboration. Throughout the semester, Dr Kamaran constantly sent me links to important articles during the research stages, suggested different libraries, design methodologies, and testing approaches during the development stages, and even gave me tips on how to present the project better.  

Apart from Dr Kamaran, I had Rose as the client for the product, but she was more than just a client making requests and setting requirements for the tool. I consider her a second supervisor for the project. She introduced me to the previous tool the university had, gave me access to the data she was working with, and was always ready for a chat. She was very open to suggestions and considerate of the fact that this was a thesis project with a limited timeline. 
 
This collaboration has taught me the following valuable lessons:  

• Communication is a key. First and foremost, it showed me how immensely important communication with stakeholders is for the success of both small tasks and the whole project.  
• Engaging stakeholders is essential. Engaging the stakeholders in every step of the research, design and development process ensures that their needs and requirements are heard and addressed on time. 
• Clear scope and strict schedule are a must. Defining and managing clear project scope and strict schedule, when limited resources and time are in place, is crucial. 
• Documenting is helpful. Keeping clear and accessible to all stakeholders involved documentation turned out to be a great way to inform them about status and progress. Additionally, it prevented me from losing track of all the accumulated data and information while allowing me to switch seamlessly back and forth between software development and thesis writing. 

Again, I cannot stress enough that the collaboration and communication with my supervisor and Rose brought me to this point, and this is one of the parts I most enjoyed about this project – exchanging ideas, overcoming challenges, and seeing results together with the people I worked with. It has been an absolute pleasure and an honour. 

This collaboration introduced me to a completely new area in which the University of Aberdeen is actively involved and showed me the enthusiasm and willingness of staff to drive change in the world and the institution.  
 
Acknowledgements and Thanks 
I would like to express my deep gratitude to Dr Kamaran Fathulla for his unwavering support and help throughout this project. I could feel his support in every meeting, every Teams call, and every email. Without his support and patience, the project would not have reached its current level. Thank you! 

Link to Ivan's dissertation: Domestic Student Relocation Emissions Calculator.

Project walkthrough with Ivan and Rose: