Students create innovative solutions on Bornholm

In August, 56 innovative DTU students crossed the Baltic Sea to Bornholm as part of their mandatory master's courses ‘Innovation in Engineering’ and ‘Facilitating Innovation in Multidisciplinary Teams’. The course aims to expand the students' professional skills, teach them to work in interdisciplinary groups, think creatively, and transform challenges into potential. And the course will culminate in the groups developing a solution that benefits society.

DTU's Senior Vice President Carsten Orth Gaarn-Larsen explains:

“Collaboration with local industry strengthens engineering students’ innovative abilities as they try their hand at developing solutions to real-world problems in society. I am also delighted to see how the students are contributing to the development of Bornholm into a sustainable green island.”

The end goal is not only Bornholm

This year, Bornholm’s energy and utility company (BEOF) is DTU’s “challenge partner,” meaning that students must develop ideas for how the company can achieve its climate goals. The goals include reducing biomass consumption, expanding renewable energy production, and providing more efficient and sustainable utility services. But the educational program aims to give engineering students perspectives that extend far beyond Bornholm:

“It's not about how BEOF specifically can become more sustainable, but about how the utility sector in general can be developed in a more sustainable way,” says Toke Malm, Programme Manager at DTU Entrepreneurship, who has organized the course.

Other local partners are also contributing to the educational programme, including The Danish Society for Nature Conservation, which is providing students with valuable knowledge about biodiversity and nature conservation. The involvement of these partners gives the groups insight into how other companies are affected by the sustainable solutions that BEOF will continue to work on, as well as how the solutions can be realized in practice

DTU nationwide

It is no coincidence that the course is held on Bornholm. It is part of DTU's ambition to be present throughout all of Denmark—and thus broaden the students' horizons in terms of both where they can work and what they can work with.

"We want to show that the opportunities extend beyond the large, traditional Copenhagen-based companies. Sewage management may not be at the top of the students' wish list, but nitrous oxide for the pharmaceutical industry could be extracted from wastewater—so wastewater is actually a valuable resource. I hope that students will discover that exciting solutions are often found in the most unexpected places," says Toke Malm.

For several years, DTU has been collaborating with Baltic Energy Island and other local partners on Bornholm with the aim of making the island an international center for green energy technology. Among other things, this collaboration has resulted in the renovation of the old Rønne Power Station into a dissemination center and innovation hub where students, researchers, and the business community can meet, develop, and test the energy solutions of the future. In addition, DTU PowerLab already functions as a living energy laboratory where green technology is tested in practice on the island.