From dreams to action! Stories from Sustainable Global Technologies Programme

For more than 15 years, students of Sustainable Global Technologies (SGT) Studio Course have been taking part in real-life challenges in collaboration with partners from academia, industries, governmental and civil society organizations, as well as communities in various parts of the world.

The course is part of the multidisciplinary SGT Programme, organised within the Water and Environmental Engineering Master's Programme, Aalto School of Engineering. The student cases touch upon various development themes, ranging from community-led sanitation solutions to humanitarian reconstruction after crises.

Experiences of working within multidisciplinary and multicultural environments, both in class and in the field, form a core part of the students’ learning journey. The exhibition From Dreams to Action! showcases the spirit of this journey over the years.

• Photography exhibition Showcases selected student photography from the different SGT project locations, mainly East Africa, South Asia and Latin America. The photography captures the many feelings, environments, experiences and people involved in the students' journeys.
• Dream Tree Invites visitors to anonymously write their hopes and fears on small notes at the exhibition site. Through participation, visitors get a glimpse into the types of conversations SGT students and project partners have when developing a project together to gain a deeper understanding of where we are each coming from.

Read more about the Sustainable Global Technologies (SGT) Programme

The exhibition is designed by Zhuoying Ren (M.A. Interior Architecture).

External partners include many academic institutions in East Africa, South Asia and Mexico, for example: Makerere University in Uganda, Royal University of Bhutan, National University of Mexico and Egerton University in Kenya.

Through real-life projects, students get the opportunity to experience the challenges and possibilities of working in multidisciplinary and multicultural settings to contribute to local and global sustainability. In SGT projects, students learn to recognize their own strengths in a multidisciplinary context and realize ways to integrate diverse knowledge from different disciplines to form a solid result that contributes to sustainability locally and globally.

Learn more about the SGT Programme and courses