Young research talent among the guests
Students were not the only ones present at this year's Green Challenge. Among them was 20-year-old Tobias Bendix Nielsen, who won first place in Denmark's largest scientific talent competition, Unge Forskere, earlier this year. As part of his prize, he was invited to visit DTU, including attending the Green Challenge.
Although he did not participate with a project, he was able to gather inspiration to continue working on his own winning project: an AI model that can predict movements based on thoughts. The model synchronises brain signals, muscle activity, and movement data in an attempt to improve and stabilise movement in patients with conditions such as Parkinson's disease.
“I've gained a lot of new insights and inspiration from hearing about the students' projects. There was one project in particular that inspired me because it was similar to my own. It's about converting brain activity into text by predicting the words the person wants to say; mine is about helping people with Parkinson's disease by analysing brain activity,” says Tobias Bendix Nielsen.
Pitches, panel debate, and prizes
After the welcome speeches, the judges began evaluating the student projects. Hailing from politics, companies, organisations, DTU and other universities, the judges were divided into 20 judging panels. Each panel assessed several projects throughout the day to ensure that all projects were evaluated by multiple panels.
The student projects were also divided into four categories to create equal conditions and opportunities for participation, regardless of whether participants were bachelor or master students. Many participants also chose to collaborate in groups comprising different levels of education and specialisations.
Students from other universities also participated.
To celebrate the conference's 15th anniversary, there was a panel debate at the end of the day with former Green Challenge winners and participants. The panellists were entrepreneur, business leader and researcher Mads T. Bonde (winner of the first Green Challenge in 2020), Caroline T. Dragsdahl (product manager at Novo Nordisk and former PF president) and Johan C. S. Vangstrup (CTO of Paint'R, a company that produces sustainable paint buckets).
Together with science journalist, author and communications advisor Charlotte Koldbye, they discussed the influence of Green Challenge on their careers and values.
The day was wrapped up with the presentation of awards for first, second and third places in four categories. The four first-place winners received DKK 30,000 each.
