From 9 to 13 September Solar Heat Innovation Week – an activity to learn about sustainability and solar heat, was arranged. 16 engineering students participated and developed ideas in two different topics. Najwa Yattou Belkhrouf, an Intelligent Automation student from the University of Skövde was awarded the prize “The Best Contribution in Innovation Within Solar Thermaltechnologies” for her idea about Industry 4.0.
Solar Heat Innovation Week is a five-day activity held every year, with the purpose of learning more about sustainability and solar heat. The activity was organized by the company Absolicon, which sells, and have a whole production line to produce, solar panels, and MG Sustainable.
16 engineering students from different universities participated in the activity, where they were divided into groups and made projects on the subject. The students had to propose an innovative idea in two topics; New renewable energy technology systems applied to industries, and Industry 4.0 and digitalization of production lines.
At the end of the week a winner, who had been more innovative during the task, was chosen. The winner was Najwa Yattou Belkhrouf, an Intelligent Automation student from the University of Skövde.
“My role in the group was taking care of the second topic, Industry 4.0 and digitalization of production lines, since the other group members had studied other types of engineering and I knew more about the subject.”
When the industry, in this case the company Absolicon, sells the production line for example to Zimbabwe in Africa, they need to also send people to educate workers in Zimbabwe how to use all the machines.
Najwa’s suggestion was to digitalise that training process by adding Augmented Reality. That way, they don’t need to send people, it is enough just sending a Hololens2 with all the instructions programed on it. Her group liked the idea and worked on it to see if it is really feasible. The teachers and the CEO were happy with that and they chose Najwa’s group as the best group during the week, and chose her as the most innovative person in the activity.
“It was a really good experience, because I think that an engineer needs to have a basic knowledge about everything he or she can. Even more so in my career where we can design a production line for different kind of products and you need to understand how they work to produce them. So this kind of activities are a good way of learning and gain experience.”
How did it feel to win?
“It was the first time I won something like this, so it was a surprise for me and of course I felt very proud of myself. I was happy to see that my ideas are really helpful.”
Congratulations Najwa!
