Today we visited Titan Cement and the Athens Airport. Both visits were very informative and we met a lot of knowledgeable people. At Titan Cement we got a background of the cement making process as well as how the company is working to use more sustainable fuels in their process. Something that they noted during this visit which was particularly interesting is that the main part of the concrete making process that actually emits any CO2 is the process of making clinker, and the other parts of the process are negligible. The procurement manager also spoke to us about how they are digitalizing their processes to make their interactions with suppliers more streamlined. Then, we got to tour their facilities, and particularly the control room of the plant caught my attention. The amount of information on the screens of the engineers was wild, but I’m sure they have built up an intuition over years of working where they know everything like the back of their hand. Their R&D department was also impressive and getting to see where advancements in concrete are happening was nice for me as I wrote about a similar topic for my FYEC paper.

We then headed to the Athens Airport to get a tour of their facilities. We started out by going to their photovoltaic park where they are able to produce enough energy to be net zero. They use their solar panels to power the entire airport, from the terminal to charging their buses which we rode in to get to the “park”. Then we headed to their offices where they discussed about crisis management and how they operate in those extremely rare cases where it is necessary. We also got to see the airport operations center (not air traffic control) which I can imagine is a stressful job as they are managing a lot of security aspects of the airport.

These visits showed me the importance of the research part of engineering and how it impacts our world. Seeing the R&D department and learning about the changes in the technologies that Titan offers from our guides made this clear to me. This directly connects to one of our other visits to the Elinikon project. Titan made a custom concrete mix for the Elinikon project to fulfill some of its requirements as it is right next to the sea. This is a direct example of how engineering and new technological developments are encouraging growth in other sectors and it was inspiring to see. Only one more day is left in our trip, and I am both sad to see the trip closing up but also excited to be able to apply all that I have learned!