The DTU student conference Green Challenge was held on Friday 28 June. Once again, the conference was a cornucopia of great ideas for a sustainable world.
More than 300 students—including 29 from abroad—had submitted approximately 130 projects from many different technical disciplines to this year’s Green Challenge at DTU. The purpose of the conference is to ensure that the engineers of tomorrow know how to integrate aspects of sustainability, climate technology, and environment in their work.
The 2019 Green Challenge was kicked off with a welcome speech by Professor Kirsten Halsnæs, who has been working with climate and sustainability for many years, among other things as co-author of the UN Climate Reports, for which she received the Nobel Prize in 2007 along with the rest of the IPCC panel and former US Vice President Al Gore.
At the Green Challenge, students from DTU and other universities can submit projects in four categories, two for bachelor’s students and two for master’s students. To participate, the students must have developed a project as part of their studies at DTU based on the theme sustainability, climate technology, or the environment. The individual projects signal which of the 17 UN Sustainable Development Goals the they aim to solve.
And they are not lacking in creativity. The projects range from an alternative solution to plastic cups to digitization of the Kenyan recycling system to sustainable degradation of rubber tyres by means of bacteria.
The projects were assessed by 25 juries with more than 150 jurors from the business sector, politics, organizations, DTU, and a number of foreign universities.
A total of 12 prizes were awarded: First, second, and third place in each of the four categories. The four first place winners were:
Bachelor Final Assignment: “Eco-redesign of a snowboard by incorporation of recycled ‘ocean plastics’”.
Team: Anders Rousing, Christoffer Søholm Kristensen, Jia Jue Johannes Chen
Comment from the jury: Great potential, technically feasible project, a complete, green product ready for sale and use. Their passion for the project and the fun they have had with it really shines through.
Bachelor Level Course: “Optimizing hand-washing by the use of ultra light.”
Team: Christian Foss, Franela Holm, Jørgen Jensen, Niels Sauer, Peter Svendsen, William Taul Madsen.
Comment from the jury: Very innovative, significant potential effect. However, uncertainty about approval from authorities. Very innovative solution to a big problem. Easy to implement.
Master Course: “Lignin-based Second Generation Biofuel From Wheat Straw Agricultural Waste.”
Team: Mukesh Narendran and Nicklas Bilde.
Comment from the jury: Good pitch, good circular idea, strong social dimension. Innovative, feasible, focus on sustainability goals. Good business model. Significant and visionary project with great effect in relation to several sustainable development goals.
Master's Thesis: “Effect of land use on the water and CO2 exchanges between the land and atmosphere.”
Team: Bendik Nordstrøm.
Comment from the jury: Global perspective, huge potential for energy savings, strong contribution to sustainable development goals. Well-articulated project with interesting perspectives on improving the global efficiency of agricultural production. Useful and innovative.