During her more than two-hour visit to DTU, Ulla Tørnæs managed to become acquainted with both student start-ups at DTU Skylab, new research from DTU Nanotech, and modern teaching methods at DTU Compute.
Minister for Higher Education and Science Ulla Tørnæs covered a lot of ground during her visit to Lyngby Campus on Tuesday, 19 April, where she was shown examples of DTU’s core areas of innovation, research, and education.
On the tour, the minister met with DTU’s management; she heard about how DTU Nanotech is working on developing better chemotherapy which only affects cancer cells and not healthy tissue, and she was introduced to new forms of teaching such as e-learning and safeguarding of the teaching quality at DTU Compute.
The day started at DTU Skylab—a 1,500 m2 creative playground for student innovation and entrepreneurship. Here, students have access to offices, laboratories, IT and prototype workshops with advanced equipment such as 3D printer, 3D scanner, laser cutter, and a CNC milling machine.
Value for Danish society
“It’s been an exciting morning. I get the feeling that Skylab is housing a lot of activities which I hope will translate into value for Danish society. And I sense that this process is already well underway,” says Ulla Tørnæs.
One of those students who is well on the way with his dream project is Mads Kjer who studies Design and Innovation. He told the minister about his start-up-Billetfix which offers an online ticketing system for both amateurs and professionals. Billetfix is one of the 31 student start-ups that saw the light of day in 2015.
Harbouring ambitions
“I’m pleased to be one of the many faces here at Skylab. It means a lot to our start-ups to have the attention of the Minister for Higher Education and Science. And it’s great that Ulla Tørnæs shows interest in a student like me, who is harbouring a little dream of realizing a project.”
DTU President Anders Bjarklev was pleased to note that Ulla Tørnæs in some of her first statements as minister emphasizes innovation and entrepreneurship, which are core elements in DTU’s activities:
“We’re pleased to see that the minister is committed to innovation and entrepreneurship. Her visit thus allowed us to show that DTU not only provides education and training, but also high-quality programmes at an international level, which goes hand in hand with our corresponding high level of research. And we concluded the ministerial visit by showing the minister a glimpse of our teaching methods, where we use modern digital media in many new and exciting ways. This will go a long way in changing the image of how we teach at our University.”