Every other week, we follow a student from one of our Interdisciplinary Thesis Labs. This week: Tzu-Chieh Hsu, master student Global Business and Sustainability at Rotterdam School of Management from our Sustainable Horticulture Agadir lab, organised together with HortiTech and World Horti Center.
I am Tzu-Chieh Hsu, a Global Business and Sustainability master student at Rotterdam School of Management, Erasmus University. With a profound passion and interest for sustainable and resilient food system, I decided to apply and join the LDE Sustainable Horticulture Agadir Thesis Lab for my thesis research on Enhancing Food Loss and Waste Management from systemic perspective.
Joining an interdisciplinary thesis lab has been an enriching experience for me. It can sometimes be lonely and isolating to conduct research alone, but the LDE Thesis Lab adds the value of peer sharing. With a similar research target in the Lab, students with different backgrounds exchange domain knowledge and findings during the project, such as life cycle assessment framework, innovation cluster theory, governance, and justice, etc. Feedback and insights from different perspectives enable me to refine the research framework as well. I appreciate the valuable and inspiring opportunities to broaden my horizons and challenge my assumptions. Another valuable aspect of the Thesis Lab is the in-depth lectures given by speakers from various backgrounds. These lectures provided me with a deeper understanding of Moroccan local context, the horticulture industry, technology innovation, and other relevant topics that are beneficial in contextualizing my research. The lectures have also facilitated networking with industry experts.
The most exciting part of the Thesis Lab is field visits. At the beginning of the Thesis Lab project, we had an opportunity to visit World Horti Center in Naaldwijk, which is an ecosystem for all stakeholders to share, exchange, and inspire innovative technology development. It was impressive walking in the green house to witness different experiments in progress and to understand how different variables such as lighting, temperature, humidity, and irrigation can affect the growth and quality of the plants precisely. What struck me the most was how technologies were being used to reach 100% recycled water reuse and increasing circular waste management. Moreover, we will also have an excursion trip to Morocco in May to learn and interview local experts directly. I am very excited to the field trip which provide us with hands-on experiences and bring our research to life.
While making changes in the existing system, the transition must cover interdisciplinary perspectives. The LDE Thesis Lab offers an engaging platform to develop both academic and interpersonal skills. I am grateful for the opportunity to have participated in this lab and look forward to applying the skills and knowledge I have gained in my thesis and professional endeavors.
