On April 16, 2021 Bernhard Becker held a guest lecture at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU). Originally planned to be held on-site, due to the new travel restrictions, the lecture was held through Blackboard lecture software. 16 international students of NTNU attended the presentation. The audience came from several continents: Europe, Asia, Africa, and had diverse backgrounds studies, such as civil, hydraulic and hydropower engineering, as well as hydropower development studies. Although most students did not have experience with optimization, their interest in the topic and good ideas stood up.

The lecture included presentation and exercises. Within the lecture the students learned basics about applying optimization techniques for water systems: the mathematical background, the added value of optimization for water system management and different methods for conflict resolution and about methods to handle non-linear equations within the optimization. In the exercise students learned how to find an optimal control scheme for a single reservoir example case with conflicting goals. The exercise has been sent beforehand to the attendees for installation on their own computer. Unfortunately it was not possible to give technical support on individual computers due to the remote set-up of the lecture and the participants could not help each other, so the exercises part was presented as a life demonstration. For Bernhard the guest lecture was an interesting experience: the interaction with course participants via a remote lecture software is different to the classical set up: Students raise their hands virtually or type question through the chat window.