Emna Abdessalem supports the Borderstep team as a student research assistant in the field of Digitisation & Green IT. She is currently pursuing a Bachelor’s degree in Sustainable Engineering of Products and Processes at the TU Braunschweig, focusing on sustainable industrial systems and holistic life cycle assessments.

Emna is particularly driven by research in international settings. She was selected as the only Bachelor’s student to participate in the Indo-German Challenge for Sustainable Production. This Master-level research programme is funded by DAAD and run jointly by TU Braunschweig and Manipal University Jaipur (India). In this project, she helped develop a techno-economic model for forecasting photovoltaic waste streams. She also took part in an Erasmus+-funded programme with ESTP Polytech Paris (France), investigating more sustainable cement formulas for 3D printing construction applications.

Before joining Borderstep, Emna Abdessalem gained professional experience in the startup ecosystem. She coordinated operations for an early-stage tech company during its Series A expansion across eight countries in the MENA region and Africa. Her interest in entrepreneurship also led her to the International Entrepreneurship Summer School at TU Braunschweig, where she helped develop business models for renewable energy solutions in production settings.

Driven by a passion for learning languages, Emna is a true polyglot. Arabic and French are her native languages. She is fluent both in German and English. Currently she is learning Spanish.

In her free time, she finds inspiration in art in all its forms, whether through cinema, food, or visiting galleries. She enjoys the quiet beauty of her surroundings, whether exploring the city, taking long hikes, or traveling.