Students Solved Extreme Challenges
23.01.2013
Thermal chimneys were the winning solution when KONGSBERG and NTNU challenged the NTNU students to a knowledge contest. The assignment for the student competition "Your Extreme" was clear: define a future extreme challenge – and then solve it!
No fewer than 26 entries were submitted to the competition that was co-organised by NTNU and KONGSBERG. The purpose was to motivate students to complete their studies. Some engineering courses at NTNU have an attrition rate of 30 to 40 per cent. This poses a great challenge for the university – and for Norway’s engineering industry. This means it is also important for business and industry to take part and help shoulder the burden.
The winner was announced at an awards ceremony held in Trondheim on 17 January. The winner was “the Breakfast Club”, consisting of Marius Thoresen, Erik Wilthil, Eirik Lie Strandbråten, Asle Hammerdal and Kristian Breistøl, who made off with the first prize for their thermal chimney project. The solution involved taking advantage of the heat and minerals in these chimneys without harming any species. The team won a trip to Svalbard, where they will be visiting KONGSBERG's satellite ground stations, among other places.
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The team "the Breakfast Club" made off with the first prize for their thermal chimney project.
The team won a trip to Svalbard, where they will be visiting KONGSBERG's satellite ground
stations, among other places.
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On 17 January, KONGSBERG also organised a Career Day for students in close cooperation with NTNU. There, students gained a certain understanding of the variety of disciplines involved in one of KONGSBERG's important products, i.e. the autonomous underwater vehicle Hugin (AUV). Manuel Knight, formerly an elite soldier with the U.S. Army, delivered a lecture on teamwork in the real world, and Kim Holmén of the Norwegian Polar Institute talked about climate change.
As a sign that KONGSBERG takes the students seriously, the Group's annual executive management seminar, bringing together 140 top executives, was held in Trondheim. The senior managers each hosted a table during the awards ceremony in the evening.
KONGSBERG's four values are determined, innovative, collaborative and reliable. Through this competition, the students were urged to achieve precisely this – and they passed with flying colours.