Better utilization of parking facilities in Ballerup can save the city centre from retail apocalypse. A method for converting hydrogen produced using Power-to-X back into power, so that the energy can be used here and now rather than being stored and saved up.
These were just a couple of the innovative projects in the international competition EuroTeQaThon, which had special focus on sustainability.
On 10-12 June 2023, 12 DTU students competed against students from DTU’s five partner universities in the European university partnership EuroTeQ Engineering University.
The competition was held at Czech Technical University (CTU) in Prague, where DTU had three teams, BioBlade, X-to-Power, and Gamechanger 2.0, competing in the competition.
The participants had to present the sustainability project they had developed in the spring as part of the EuroTeQ Collider innovation programme. The programme focused on meeting specific sustainable challenges posed by Danish companies under the theme ‘Leave no waste behind’.
At the competition, each team presented its innovative solutions before a jury responsible for selecting the three most innovative solutions out of a total of 18 competing solutions. The winners of the competition were students from the Technical University of Munich (TUM) and Eindhoven University of Technology (TU/e), whose teams won a cheque for EUR 750, equal to approximately DKK 5,500 kroner, for further development of their solution.
We asked three participants from DTU how they experienced their trip:
William Ludvigsen, team ‘Gamechanger 2.0’, aged 28, is studying for a Bachelor of Engineering (BEng) in Process and Innovation:
“I participated in EuroTeQaThon because I wanted to challenge my skills in innovation, pitching, and networking, and become more professional in communicating my project. The project was based on a challenge set by the Trade Association in Ballerup with the focus being on strengthening local commerce and improving parking facilities for shoppers.
Mikkel Drejer, team ‘X-to-Power’, aged 27, is studying for a Bachelor of Engineering (BEng) in Chemical and Bio Engineering:
“The trip lived up to my expectations in terms of talking to students from the other universities. Especially on the first day, there was much focus on this. However, I would have liked some more of it on the second day, where the focus was mostly on preparing your own presentation and not so much on cooperation.
I was going to present an X-to-Power challenge posed by Siemens. ‘Power-to-X’ and ‘X-to-Power’ are actually the same thing, just in opposite directions. Power-to-X focuses a lot on using excess energy to produce something (Power-to-X), but, with our idea, we also wanted to convert the X, which in our case was hydrogen, back into power (X-to-Power) when not as much energy is produced.”
Erik Paulli Sparholt, team ‘X-to-Power’, aged 25, is studying for a Bachelor of Engineering (BEng) in Electrical Engineering:
“The trip met my expectations. It was exciting to use the other students from the other universities as sounding boards. Primarily by presenting projects and giving feedback immediately afterwards.”
Academic courses
In addition to the innovation course, the European university partnership EuroTeQ offers students the opportunity to take academic courses at the six partner universities. The EuroTeQ course catalogue lists 137 courses for which DTU students can register. The deadline for registration is 1 August 2023.
