Mauro Gallo, current associate lector Biomimicry and academic visionary, is keen on establishing bridges between different disciplines. “That is the future”, Gallo explains, “to link academics and researchers from different areas of expertise together, and I can’t wait to start and inspire students to do the same.” Besides, Gallo has not been idle these past couple of months.

Last April, he gave his inaugural speech at Aeres Hogeschool in Wageningen. Moreover, he is currently initiating projects within Inholland’s vision of ‘Sustainable Solutions’: “I have several plans this year. And they’re all connected to bringing people and knowledge together.” How he plans to do that? “It’s just like moving house or planning a wedding. Just add it to my list of stressful, but exciting events.”

Challenge no.1: Developing a Masters in Sustainable Solutions
Mauro Gallo’s main ambition is fully based on a multidisciplinary approach. “We’re too pigeonholed at the moment, and it holds us back from doing proper research. For example, biologists have their own research. Physicists have their own research. So do economists, engineers, and mathematicians. So? We all live and work in our own separate bubbles. There’s a dramatic lack of communication. And we need to change this.”

Fortunately, a solution is on its way. Within Inholland’s Sustainable Solutions, Mauro Gallo is one of the professionals working on a new masters in sustainability. If all goes well, it should be available to students around September 2020. Its study programme is slowly taking shape: the first year covers the basics, such as terminology, (social) concepts, and a course in biomimicry. During their second year, students have the opportunity to specialise in one of Inholland’s Sustainable Solutions three leading programmes: Feeding & Greening Mega Cities, Living in an Urban Delta, and Gallo’s own domain: Nature Inspired Products & Services.

Students learn how to communicate with students and professionals with different areas of expertise, giving this programme a more holistic approach. Students not only design a product, they should also learn how the system works. As Gallo points out: “Imagine a student designing a state-of-the-art self-harvesting robot”, he continues, “that’s all very well, but if these robots aren’t made of sustainable materials themselves, we’d be wasting our time!”

Challenge no.2: Optimising current agricultural models
Gallo’s views are harsh but clear: “In my opinion, we’ve reached a paradox when it comes to agriculture. Human activity should be close to nature, but what happened? We’ve maximized the implementation of industrial models. It doesn’t make sense. Even worse, it creates a lot of problems.” Most agricultural models today are mainly based on monoculture, meaning that farmers cultivate only one species of plants. And this type of model is far from sustainable, simply because it requires the use of chemicals (pesticides), it leads to soil erosion, and it eventually reduces the quality of food. In short: lots of issues.

Three different universities that share their green DNA work together on this innovative project: Inholland University of Applied Sciences in Delft, Aeres Hogeschool in Wageningen and VHL University of Applied Sciences in Leeuwarden. How? The solution revolves around biodiversity. An ambitious plan, but not impossible: “One single piece of land should support different types of plants, instead of just one.” Unfortunately, that is easier said than done. A farmer, who has been cultivating apples – and only apples – for years, is having it significantly easier than his neighbour who decides to cultivate apples and pears, pumpkins, mushrooms and potatoes. Cultivating multiple species means an increase of costs, because most of the work has to be done manually. “My solution?” says Gallo, “is the use of bio-inspired robots.” It is a challenging project, currently in its infancy stage, but it definitely has the potential to radically change the future of agriculture.

Challenge no.3: Improving our Waterways
The sky is the limit. Or, rather its opposite: our groundwater is the limit. Gallo’s most recent project is focused on water management in the agrifood sector. “I’m interested in developing bio-inspired filtration systems in order to prevent leakages in waterways”, Gallo explains. “You see, only recently we started to notice what the effects are of our own waste. Compounds, such as medicines for example, are easily dumped in our waterways and they can be very harmful for us and the environment.” So, what can we do about it? Gallo has a bio-inspired solution: wetlands. Small bodies of water, such as ponds or marshes, could filter polluted water. Result? The plants absorb the nutrients. Gallo however, is keen on using biomimicry to take it one step further: “We could increase the capacity of the wetlands by combining this system with advanced bio-inspired filtration systems.”

Derdejaarsstudenten Creative Business: MEM en Creative Business: IMM organiseren op 31 mei hét Knowledge Experience evenement – The Future is Now bij Inholland Haarlem. Dit event gaat over de trends en ontwikkelingen binnen de snel veranderende evenementenbranche en de music business. Deze middag bieden we een afwisselend programma aan waarbij onze studenten de kennis uit de minor Events en Music overdragen. Alle studenten en docenten van Inholland mogen komen, ook alumni en werknemers uit de branche zijn van harte welkom.

Programma
We starten met twee inspirerende keynote sprekers, Maarten Schram, managing director van IDEA en Hessel van Oorschot, professionele entrepreneur, C-level coach en interim manager. Maarten Schram vertelt onder andere over hoe wij evenementen als live communicatiemiddel toekomstbestendig kunnen maken. Hessel van Oorschot kijkt met ons naar online businessmodellen en digitale media. Daarna geven onze studenten interactieve workshops over de laatste ontwikkelingen binnen de evenementenbranche en muziekindustrie.

Vervolgens vinden er tussen 14.00 en 17.00 uur maar liefst 17 workshops plaats. Iedereen mag zelf bepalen welke workshops hij/zij gaat volgen. Onderwerpen die aan bod komen zijn onder andere: Festivalisering en de invloed hiervan op het milieu, hoe kan bijvoorbeeld FOMO (Fear Of Missing Out) de overhand nemen, de mental health issues bij artiesten, #INSTAFAMOUS? Hoe gebruik je social media als artiest zijnde en hoe veilig zijn evenementen tegenwoordig in een onveilige tijd?

Na afloop van deze workshops is er ruimte om je netwerk te verbreden door onder het genot van een drankje en goede muziek in contact te komen met mensen uit wellicht jouw toekomstige branche. Je hoeft je niet van tevoren aan te melden. Volg wel ons Facebook-evenement, waar we de laatste updates delen.

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Visit on 31 May The Knowledge Experience – The Future is Now

Students of Creative Business: MEM and Creative Business: IMM organize on 31 May The Knowledge Experience event – The Future is Now at Inholland Haarlem. This event is about the trends and developments within the rapidly changing event industry and the music business. This afternoon we offer a varied program in which our students transfer the knowledge from the Events and Music minor. All students and teachers of Inholland may come, even alumni and employees from the sector are welcome.

Programme
We start off with two inspiring keynote speakers, Maarten Schram, managing director of IDEA, and Hessel van Oorshot, professional entrepreneur, C-level coach and interim manager. Maarten Schram will tell us, amongst other things, all about how we can use events as a source of live communication. Hessel van Oorschot has an eye for online business models and digital media and will share this with us. This is followed by interactive workshops from our students about the newest developments in the event and music industries.

Between 2 pm and 5 pm, no less than 17 workshops will take place. You are free to decide which ones you want to attend. Which one do you think is most interesting? Examples of the subjects that will be discussed are: "Festivalisation" and its impact on the environment, how FOMO (Fear Of Missing Out) can take the upper hand, the mental health issues artists cope with, #INSTAFAMOUS and how to use social media as an artist, and how safe are events in this unsafe time.

After these workshops we invite you to a networking gathering. Here you can enlarge your network with some cold beverages and good music and get in contact with people that work in your future line of business. You do not need to register in advance. Follow our Facebook event, where we share the latest updates.

While battling a disease, second year IMEM student David Comenencia passed away in hospital on the 24^th of February. Obviously, this news is an enormous blow to our IMEM community and on behalf of the IMEM programme and staff, we would like to extend our sincere condolences to David’s family and friends. We hope that they will find the strength to cope with this huge loss.

We remember David as a talented student with a positive and cheerful disposition, a wonderful sense of humor and a cheerful smile – he always had the ability to make other students laugh. Also, David had a big heart and was a socially committed student who planned on training refugees to work with social media.

We are proud to have had the chance to teach David and David will be greatly missed by both students and teachers alike.