Stefan Alscher
Germany

"I was struggling to understand how to correctly evaluate critical components during disassembly and I was glad to find the course at TU Delft."

While working at Effizienz-Agentur NRW as a project developer, Stefan Alscher participated in the online course Circular Product Design Assessment. Read about his experience.

What was your motivation for enrolling in the course?
As an engineer, I have always been interested in material flows and processes. I have been looking for quite some time for further education opportunities to help with designing mechatronic products, especially in the field of sustainable and circular product design. Having a better understanding of specific product design requirements in a circular economy leads to a clearer picture of both internal and external material flows. Therefore, it is important for product-related circular systems to know how the products can be dismantled at the end of their use.

How did/will this course impact your career or life?
On my own, I was struggling to understand how to correctly evaluate critical components during disassembly and I was glad to find the course at TU Delft. The reputation of the university as well as the content and the online offer fitted very well into my current job situation.

How was your experience learning online?
Both the course content and the lecturers were very structured and clear. I was able to get to the core of the content very easily. I especially liked the assignments, which were evaluated by video a few days after the online submission. This gave me an overview of the applications in cases of the other participants as well as direct feedback from the experts. I also very much appreciated insights from other participants and I am currently still in contact with some of them. I was able to understand the content and it was taught well, but now of course what I’ve learned has to be applied in a job context. The scope of the course was very challenging in terms of time, perhaps because the example I chose was more complex than I had previously thought.

What is your advice to someone who would like to take a similar online course?
I can well imagine that especially product managers and designers working towards circular design will benefit a lot from the course. For maximum value from the course I recommend taking as much time as possible for the assignments.