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Purpose: This paper aims to deal with the skills for sustainable development in engineering courses. The main objective is to identify which competences should be developed in these courses to contribute to the resolution of conflicts related to sustainability, as well as the means used by universities for their development. Design/methodology/approach: The research is divided into two strands: a theoretical and an empirical one. Concerning the theoretical part, the webibliomining method was adopted, to select the articles that were relevant to the theme, and 22 works were selected. Regarding the empirical study, structured questionnaires were applied to 30 specialists in the field, aiming at validating the competencies found in the literature. Findings: In the literature, eight main competencies required to the engineering professional, related to sustainability, were found. The empirical study showed that some competences are considered more relevant than others by the interviewees. Practical implications: The competencies verified in the present study and the relative relevance between them found in the empirical study can contribute to the engineering courses that wish to develop the sustainable behavior of the engineers in their professional or daily life. Originality/value: The originality of the work consists in presenting to engineering students and teachers as well as professionals of the market and the government the competencies that can contribute to the formation of an engineer capable of bringing adequate solutions to the conflicts of sustainability in the twenty-first century. This paper also presents learning teaching methodologies indicated for this purpose. No other works were found with these results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Thermal engineering is playing an important role in development of sustainable technologies especially in the scope of renewable energy, energy storage, and energy saving. The theme "Thermal Engineering" has been selected as an umbrella title for the conference series because of its encompassing meaning, and the wide range of research areas covered under this theme are of equally important in the developing and developed world. The ICTEA conference series was inspired to assist and provide opportunities for professional development among scientists and engineers working in the field of thermal engineering and its applications. [Extracted from the article]

This paper focuses on the need for sustainable energy engineering degrees and the problems found in establishing appropriate curricula contents. Proposals are made for developing adapted energy engineering degrees. Relevant contents are provided for these curricula, which should train engineers to deal with current and future problems. This need for updated curricula is established in view of the paradigm shift taking place in the energy sector, which includes a considerable increase in renewable energies and the need to radically address sustainability issues. A detailed description of potential contents is presented, which is supported by a critical review of the existing literature. Three parallel issues may lead to the identification of new contents. First, new contents may arise from the identification of changes in conventional energy engineering education. Such changes result from the increasing relevance of unconventional energy systems and of energy management issues. Second, new contents may arise from the need to include sustainability topics in engineering degrees. Third, new contents may become relevant when focusing on underserved regions and energy poverty niches, in view of the need for specific alternative technologies for those conditions. Once a detailed description of curricula contents is made, an analysis of a sample of current curricula in higher education institutions, based on the relative content weight of the main modules, is presented. The analysis shows a clear lack of consensus on the appropriate contents for energy engineering, an insufficiency of sustainability topics, and an absence, when dealing with underserved regions, of addressing the need for appropriate, affordable, and sustainable technologies. Certain proposals are made to address these problems. • Alternatives are discussed for coherent degrees on sustainable energy engineering. • Contents on fundamentals, renewables, management, and sustainability are discussed. • Content weights of a sample of current degrees are analyzed, showing poor coherence. • Current degrees lack contents on sustainability, management and even on renewables. • Affordable and sustainable solutions for energy poverty are seldom addressed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]