Annual Report 2010-2011 by BEST Copenhagen

Annual Report 2010 : 2011

COPENHAGEN

Local BEST Group Copenhagen The Technical University of Denmark

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Contents 3

Word from the Presidents

Didn’t see it coming - A participants story

BEST Summer Course 2010

BEST spirit - that’s what it’s all about!

Guide: How to apply to a BEST course?!

Where to go: List of Summer Courses 2011

Who are we?

Local BEST Engineering Competition

nordBEC - The Nordic engineering competition

The presidents are meeting in Copenhagen

Word from The President The world today set high demands for young engineers getting out of the education system. We have to be experts in our field of study and at the same time master management as well as social skills. When politicians want to solve the future problems, they look in the direction of engineers to bring forth new innovative solutions. It is the vision of Barack Obama and other world leaders not to economize on the welfare to get out of the financial stagnation, but instead to grow out of the crisis through innovation and making the society more efficient. A very large part of the future burden is for sure put on the shoulders of the young engineering talents that are produced here at DTU and many other places. It is the vision of BEST to use the diversity between cultures to create even greater outcomes than one could achieve by his or her own. This is done through friendship and networking across huge distances. Friendships which are created on the many events that the large amount of volunteers of BEST arrange through the year. The friendships get you to understand new cultures and ways of thinking that will no doubt help you in the future globalized world. BEST is a platform for creativity and experimenting when it comes to management skills. We get hands-on experience on how to manage huge events, we have fun and get new friends across the whole of Europe while doing so. Also one of the main contents of BEST is to have extracurricular technical courses, where students are able to challenge themselves in fields they find interesting. Looking back on the year here in the BEST group Copenhagen we have had a very successful summer course with happy participants, where several of them are now considering to return to take a part of their studies at DTU. We have helped our friends and partner group in Aalborg to get back on their feet, which has resulted in a group, which we find to be one of the strongest in the Nordic Region of BEST. We have in corporation with Maersk, Studenterhuset in Copenhagen and Microsoft Development Center Copenhagen arranged a local engineering competition in November 2010, which succeeded with very satisfied companies and participants. We congratulate the winners and wish them good luck in the next round in Trondheim this spring. This year we are in Copenhagen ready to face two big challenges that we have put on our shoulders: First the CDIO conference in June, where we will organize an engineering competition for the participating students and professors and later the presidentâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s meeting in November, where we will gather the whole of BEST in the heart of DTU. We hope that these two events will bring us in an even closer relation with DTU. Finally we thank our sponsors and partners throughout the year and we hope that we can improve our co-operation even further in order to create an even stronger bond between BEST, the universities and the partners of BEST. Lasse Korff President, BEST Copenhagen

Word from the President of DTU In 2011, the Copenhagen branch of BEST celebrates 20 successful years of organizing major international events and connecting Danish students to a network of European engineers. Founded in 1989, BEST, Board of European Students of Technology consists of 89 local groups in 30 countries where dedicated students are involved in organizing case studies, competitions, excursions, exchange possibilities, and career opportunities in an ever-growing network of young and innovative students – an impressive achievement for a non-profit and non-political organization for students of science and technology Students, who participate in the hundreds of BEST events around Europe, learn to communicate across boundaries and establish cross-cultural networks of lasting personal and professional significance while promoting scientific progress and building up their technological skills and competences. This international dimension is of vital importance for DTU. As one of Europe’s top technical universities, DTU believes that internationalization is both a natural component of – and a precondition for – excellence in technical development. Through internationally acknowledged research, through student exchange with top universities worldwide, and through our participation in alliances with leading science centers and industry, DTU embodies the vision that crosscultural respect and understanding contributes to the use of technology for social benefit – a vision apparently shared by all BEST students. Lars Pallesen, President of DTU

Didn’t see it coming

”So how can this possibly be any special?” I thought to myself. I was thinking of my previous international experiences: Living a year abroad in France, having a bilingual diploma from secondary school and more than a handful of different camps – the latest one I had even organized 50 kids plus 20 leaders coming to Denmark for four weeks! Yep – I thought I knew it all and since I did not start to write the application until 50 minutes before the deadline I had not given the BEST Summer Course much consideration until I sat in the bus going to Tampere, Finland... ”How can these two weeks be any special?” Today, looking back, I have no problem answering that question. Actually it happened gradually. I showed up at the camp-site one day in advance, which gave me time to meet the organizers and get to know the BEST-atmosphere, and I started getting a feeling of what I had signed up for. We where all invited to go clubbing that night, but we were all tired after travelling and decided to stay in, which was not as calm as expected. Though no dancing we spent time talking and listening to music and among other songs we heard a full 25 minutes loop of “Amazing Horse” - truly amazing! And then the real action started! The next day, the rest of the participants arrived and with nothing planned until the evening we had to start mingling on our own. Therefore, when we finally started the name games I had already taken the first group picture during an improvised excursion to a nearby lake. We did not have to wait long for the parties either: I guess it is normal to have a (somewhat) calm first night but that was also my very last chance to get some proper sleep. The following day we started the schedule that was going to exhaust us of all our energy: Six hours of intensive and interesting lectures, a handful of hours with cultural events and then the energy draining pre-partying, partying and finally after-partying. A couple of hours to eat, shower and change clothes now and then but no time to slack off!

The bright summer here in Northern Europe is perfect for staying up late into the night and this made even the parties special: They ranged from the classical Red-Yellow-Green-relationship status theme to the very formal Sit-Sit. I greeted the early rising Finnish summer sun at a cottage in the middle of the woods, Friday 13th dressed as a werewolf and eating “Flødeboller” after the famous International Evening, where each country presented itself to the rest of the summer course. It was special all right, and I have even learned a thing or two meanwhile: I have learned to smile the Nordic way. I've learned to row a Viking boat, which helped build a team spirit and group feeling, which made me proud to be out of a Scandinavian heritage. I've learned (and told) many jokes about Swedes, which the Finns find just as funny as the Danes. And despite some difficulty I learned a few Finnish words like “hirvea krapula”, “perkele” and “kiitos”.

“

BEST is definitely something extraordinary and mainly because of the amazing people”

To be fair, it was not all fun and games and I must admit that I could bring something back from the lectures as well. The theme was “User Experience and Cross-cultural design” and neglecting the academic part of my Summer Course would not be doing BEST just. I am studying Design & Innovation so the “user experience” and “design” part was not all new to me and looking at my studies in an international perspective and to compare them to my home university was very interesting! It appears that DTU have a broader scope on the design engineering compared to the Finns strong passion for mobile phones – which is not so surprising considering the name of a village about 15 km outside of Tampere: “Nokia”... Furthermore, being on international environment was the perfect opportunity to actively reflect and research the second theme. The “Cross-cultural” aspect and to be able to put my non-formal experiences and training into an academic framework and reflect upon it in an university-setting was in hindsight alone enough reason to make the trip across our Nordic region. As you can gather I was proven wrong. The BEST summer course was surely a memorable thing. However, the biggest learning might have been the one about the organization itself. I have done school exchanges, participated at numerous camps, been introduced to a dozen international organization, spent many of my summers abroad and gotten to know many different people from different countries and cultures. BEST did without a doubt win a special place in my heart. To me BEST is a group of young and open-minded people with lots of energy, with an interest in your person and a desire to have fun, which at the same time provides a multi-cultural foundation giving you a new perspective on what you thought as trivial. BEST is definitely something extraordinary and mainly because of the amazing people: On my way home I spent a couple of days in Helsinki and went to the airport at 4 o'clock in the morning just to say goodbye to one of the other participants who was leaving. In the bus back to Helsinki I thought: “I was so wrong. This was very special”.

Kristian Ott Milbo DTU student, and now a BEST member

The Fast and the Furious - Goes Green

In the summer of 2010, after eight months of planning, BEST Copenhagen held the 14th edition of the annual summer course. For the third year in a row the course ranked among the top five courses measured in number of applications. In fact out of a total of 56 courses all over Europe, Copenhagen took second place! Following the trend of the political debate at the COP15 climate summit in Copenhagen 2009 and also the trend set by the group by focusing the 2009 summer course on wind energy, the topic of the course was chosen to be the future aspects of environmentally friendly transportation. Especially focus was put on electrical and hydrogen powered vehicles. The number of applications for the course that where received clearly indicated that the course topic was well chosen and the following evaluations did so as well. The academic schedule was arranged in co-operation with Esben Larsen from DTU Electro, and included lectures on the environmental impact of transportation, electrical energy systems, smart grid and fuel cells. It also included a lecture and discussion session by the president of the Danish committee of electrical vehicles Per Møller, and a company visit at Topsøe Fuel Cell where the production process of fuel cells could be closely studied. In every BEST course it is a goal that the academic schedule should be both varied, challenging and fun to be a part of for the students. To achieve that and to experience what an electrical car could also look like, a field trip to the showroom of Tesla Motors was a part of the schedule. Here the students could experience the world fastest electrical powered car – The Tesla Roadster. The concept of Tesla motors was presented by the Sales and Marketing Director of Tesla Denmark Esben Pedersen, and three lucky students was even taken for a drive in the sports car.

08 In line with the overall topic of the course, this year we introduced a new concept for transportation during the course - Bikes! The broad bike paths and the number of bikes always surprise foreigners in Denmark, especially in the Copenhagen area, and this year the participants could experience the biking culture themselves on trips around the surroundings of the university campus. A BEST summer course is not only academics, it also include social activities, sightseeing and a chance for the participants to get acquainted with both the Danish culture and the culture of the other participants. The participants explored the sights of Copenhagen on the traditional BEST city rally including the canal boat tours and Tivoli with a free pass to all the rides. Even canoeing was a part of the program and Danish culture and history marked the evenings though a “Viking” barbeque and a traditional Danish Christmas dinner, including Snaps, Herring and a parcel dice game. It is amazing what can happen when 25 young people from 20 different countries from all over Europe and even countries like India and Brazil is brought together for two intensive weeks. Even though everyone arrived as strangers to each other, they left with new friends and unforgettable moments to remember. The international evening where everyone shared their local cuisine and drinks was a very tangible example of how the participants shared their own culture with the other, but cultural exchange and bonding across the borders was happening all through the course. In the end we believe that everyone left the course with a good feeling and memories for a lifetime.

“

Summer course in Copenhagen gave me unforgettable moments, friends for life time and chance to visit one of the most green and beautiful cities of Europe”

The end of the summer course concluded eight months of dedicated work, and from an organizational perspective arranging such an event is a very demanding. It took a lot of hard work not only from us as the two main organizers, but from the entire Copenhagen BEST group and our four great co-organizers. In the end all the hard work does pay off in so many levels. Because of valuable experience helpful in growing both professionally and personally, but also the value of giving others an opportunity to experience what BEST is all about and get to know them at Jonas Deckers Poulsen the same time. & Ankit Khandelwal

Main Organizers SummerCourse’10

Letter from a participant

BEST spirit-that’s what it’s all about! Having the chance to be a part of something like a BEST Summer Course means having the chance to open your mind and start thinking globally! It’s your chance to develop your soft skills, your people skills, your knowledge and your ability to last through a rather long period of time with almost no sleep at all. It’s a chance you have to take! Because it can change your life forever - I know it did that for me. To be honest, I did not know what to expect when I found out that I was selected as one of the 25 participants for Copenhagen’s 2010 Summer Course “The Fast and Furious - Goes Green!”. After I’ve received my acceptance notice I started to build up this image in my mind of how it was going to be. I thought about the fact that I was going to visit Copenhagen, that I was going to meet students from all over Europe and that I would get the chance to learn new and interesting things about the topic of the course, but this image had the same accuracy as the description of a color made by a blind man. I did not just “visit” a city - I learned about the Danish culture. As a participant, I had the chance to visit the city during the “City Rally”, which was something like a scavenger hunt: the participants were divided in teams and along with the organizers and co-organizers were supposed to try to find and visit as many historical monuments and touristic places in Copenhagen as possible. Not only that, by doing this, we learned a lot about the city but we also got to do different interesting and crazy tasks which resulted in us having lots of fun and a lot of memories from that day. The academic part of the course also exceeded all of my expectations! I loved listening to the lectures and I’ve learned a lot about alternative energy sources and transportation. During our two week stay in Copenhagen we had lectures during the mornings (almost every morning) and we also had time to work on our projects that were due at the end of the course.

To emphasize the importance of green transportation, our wonderful organizers gave us the opportunity to use bikes as our main means of transportation. This turned out to be a great experience and even if our first trip from the sleeping lodge where we were staying at to DTU lasted for almost an hour, we (the ones that were in the “slow biking group”) managed to improve our time during our two weeks there. We all had a lot of fun during our bike trips to the beach and to the Open Air Museum. Seeing as the main idea was to take a look into the future and see how our world would be when oil won’t be an option, I’d say that this course reached its goal in making us realize just how the future car could look like. And we liked what we found

“

I had the pleasure of meeting wonderful people from all over Europe and I am now honored to call them friends!

Besides from its topic, the thing that made me apply for a BEST course was the possibility of meeting students from different countries and getting to know more about their culture and tradition. I have to say that my main concern was that, maybe because we were all coming from various countries, we would have problems in getting along. But this was totally not the case! I had the pleasure of meeting wonderful people from all over Europe and I am now honored to call them friends. One can’t understand the bounds that form during such an event unless they are there. We’ve “endured” parties that kept us up all night, we’ve learned to bike together, we’ve participated in an International Evening where everyone shared a little more about their country’s traditions, we’ve run around Copenhagen together, we’ve eaten at the same table and we have sat next to each other during lectures, we’ve played games, we’ve laughed together and also we felt sad when the time for us to part came. We’ve been a family for two weeks and we’ll be friends forever! And for this we have to thank everyone from BEST Copenhagen because they made this happen. What can I say now? Well... During my stay in Copenhagen I had the opportunity to understand what “BEST spirit” means. It’s passion and positive attitude, it’s work and self-development, it’s people and friendship. That’s what it’s all about! And that’s why after I came back home I’ve joined my local BEST group and I’m doing my BEST to spread this wonderful spirit.

Rafaela Voiculescu Bucharest, Romania

How to Apply! End of the semester, no more exams, no more reports, no more lectures, and time to think about the summer. There are many options; first of all being at home for whole summer, in your own country, where you have spent all your life, doing the same things that you have done until now… otherwise you can spend a lot of money, and arrange a trip abroad for few days or there’s the BEST third option… What do you think about meeting people from more than 30 different countries? What about learning while having fun? What if it is possible to enrich your studying in the university while learning new things about energy, sustainable development and energy efficiency and at the same time having simply the BEST time in Zagreb. What do you think about improving your food skills to ensure a healthy lifestyle while knowing a bit more about ancient traditions of the Vikings in Lund, walking their dark and scary forests or their long sandy beaches? Does it sound better learning which material is the BEST for building structures in Brno? And doing a trip to South Moravia? This is a BEST course, a summer course where you can learn about photography, computational biology, movies, special effects and film production, green architecture and many other topics. And in the meantime enjoying a pub crawling in Istanbul, a treasure hunt, going to the Pohorje forests or the valley of the Drava river in Maribor, learning salsa and enjoying the sun while becoming a fighter pilot, managing your own aircraft and conquering Madrid’s sky. You can expand your knowledge during a practical training of drinking beer in Belgium, surfing in Bulgaria or fire cooking food, driving a catamaran and drinking real Russian Vodka in Ekaterinburg. It sounds great, doesn’t it? And the BEST part of it is, that these activities are organized from students to students which imply no profit from it. Conclusion: Participants only have to book a flight ticket, potentially paying a small fee of 20-45€ and their own drinks. My eyes are shining! I want to do this! I want to have the BEST summer of my life! How do I do that? Easy, only five steps between you and your BEST summer course!

Find your course: Max 3 courses per season

Write a great motivation letter that makes you unique!

Go and have the BEST summer course of your life!

* This step secures course organizers that people applying are actually students. You can contact us at Copenhagen@BEST.eu.org

Cross your fingers and if you are lucky…

As it is mentioned in step 3, it is important to write a great motivation letter since the decision of which are going to be the participants of each summer course is based mainly on the motivation letter that you send.

Then an important question arises: What is a motivation letter? A motivation letter is a short letter where you have the chance to show that you are unique, and you might make the course different only by your presence in the course. It is a short text that gives you the possibility of convincing the organizers that one of the 25 seats for the summer course has to be yours (and this is an important part because there can be more than 400 applicants for those 25 seats). Once again, you might take into consideration that these events are organized by students for students which means that those who are going to read the letters and choose who are the lucky participants are students, no professors, no company senior managers, no HR people to find a worker for a job. We are just young students who expect you being creative and special. You might include: • Age and gender • Hobbies and interests • Something special from your country or city • Why did you choose this course and not any other • Skills in the field • Why a course on an international level which implies meeting a lot of new people • Why YOU, precisely YOU and not any other applicant We are waiting for you, just take a piece of paper and do your BEST for you BEST summer course.

[A crazy example you might get inspiration from] With a pencil in my hand I dream about the viking land, where the capital's L Bee Gee is about to discover why they want me!

I have also heard something about your beers, they pretend to be world's best. Since I'm a Belgian, I want to test, The exactness of this rumours, cheers!

You would probably like to know the person behind this poetry-flow? My name is Thomas, I live in Turnhout, A Belgian city where you must know about

In BEST I seek a great adventure, a cultural bath, an academic venture. I cànnot wait to see all those faces exchange ideas from so many places.

I love an electrical machine in front of me, The kind of engineering you can féel and sée. This is why this course seems cool, it's a challenge that makes me drewl!

With them I want to learn and see all about renewable technology. With them I want to travel some miles, On the lovely Danish isles.

But apart from an electric car I also love a cozy bar. On the background, some guitar... a lady on my side...you know: 'PR' ;-)

So let me feel and breath your city I promise you, you won't be pity Because honestly, I can't wait, To see your lovely little Mermaid!

Silvia Saldaña HR, BEST Copenhagen

Where to go?!

BEST has Courses all year round! Check best.eu.org Messina

Energy from Solar Systems: the Sun even by Night! 19/08 - 27/08/2011

Bratislava

Build it smART 26/06 - 06/07/2011

Veszpr茅m

Robots vs. Wrestlers 09/07 - 17/07/2011

Louvain-la-Neuve Ekaterinburg

B10 - YES, WE DO IT AGAIN! 16/07 - 25/07/2011

bonding Dresden

Life in plastic, it's fantastic - The world of synthetics & textile 03/06 - 10/06/2011

Bionic man : not so unrealistic! 03/07 - 12/07/2011

Zaporizhzhya

Brasov

Live long and prosper - self sustainble energy 17/07 - 25/07/2011

AC/DC: Track02_I've got the power! 03/07 - 13/07/2011

Brno

Manage Your Future: Career Design 12/06 - 23/06/2011

Want to improve your networking? Lose the wire and make it wireless! 20/07 - 30/07/2011

Ghent

Green for speed : save the environment, drive hybrid vehicles! 24/07 - 31/07/2011

Vienna

Save for Tomorrow - Save Tomorrow! 20/07 - 30/07/2011

Ecopolis - A smart, low carbon city 04/07 - 17/07/2011

Grenoble

Save the moment. Shoot it BEST. 11/07 - 24/07/2011

Summer School in Nanotechnologies 06/06 - 01/07/2011

Timisoara

Streaming Episode 24: Timisoara strikes back 21/07 - 01/08/2011

Gliwice

Leuven

Born to be wild. There is no place you can't reach 20/07 - 03/08/2011

Experience Biomedical Engineering 10/07 - 21/07/2011

Iasi

Krak贸w

Gliwice

FIXIN' THE CITY 08/07 - 20/07/2011

Lights, Camera, Action! - Course on 3D animation! 11/07 - 22/07/2011

Green Future 09/07 - 22/07/2011

Liege

GeoLiegy will be Mine 04/07 - 15/07/2011

Coimbra

Can you feel the heat? - Fire patterns and behaviours 26/07 - 06/08/2011

Ljubljana

How I met my mother Earth? 08/07 - 18/07/2011

Chisinau

Hot, why not? Keep it positive! 11/07 - 23/07/2011

Brussels

Rome, Tor Vergata

Nis

Lodz

Faro Algarve

Brand your product. Brand-yourself 10/07 - 21/07/2011

Energised by the Sea... The Tidal Power Aveiro 04/08 - 13/08/2011 Skopje FOODology: LEADERS- Some are born great, some achieve greatness When biotechnology gets Delicious! and some will be made in Skopje! 26/08 - 06/09/2011 03/07 - 13/07/2011

Zagreb

Porto

Watt can you do for the future? beSUSTAINABLE! 02/06 - 13/06/2011

Budapast

We WHEEL rock you! 28/07 - 08/08/2011

Bucharest

Fame Is My Middle Name, Acting Is My Game 19/06 - 30/06/2011

Wroclaw

Music and Technology: Loud and Clear! 30/08 - 12/09/2011

Maribor

Photo here, photo there, photo everywhere! 01/07 - 11/07/2011

Almada

Cluj-Napoca

We control the system! 04/07 - 17/07/2011

"Everybody wants Kung-Fu fighting" - Biomechanics of sport 12/07 - 20/07/2011

Lisbon

Be Wise - Enterprise! 01/08 - 15/08/2011

The Man on the Moon, An Odyssey in Space Engineering 14/08 - 27/08/2011

Lviv

Two beers or not two beers Secrets of brewing 09/07 - 19/07/2011

Tallinn

Clean it, trash it, re-recycle it! 08/07 - 20/07/2011

Aalborg

Space <- it's like HUGE, so get your satellite up there! 30/07 - 13/08/2011

Riga

treesBEC - INTO THE WOODS 07/07 - 20/07/2011

Tampere

Stockholm

The BEST of Technology Foresight S(t)imulating life: 07/08 - 20/08/2011 from CPU to your stomach 12/06 - 23/06/2011

Gothenburg

The Bullwhip effect: Is your "batch" large enough? 03/08 - 13/08/2011

Lund

Eat me! 05/06 - 18/06/2011

Copenhagen

LEt's GO! Don't MIND the STORMS 15/08 - 26/08/2011 Saint Petersburg

ĞůŌ

Wroclaw Krakow

Aveiro Izmir

Izmir Madrid Carlos III

Madrid

Watch in 3D! Enjoy like 3! 19/07 - 31/07/2011

WOA !! World of Aircraft ! Systems integration needed. 01/07 - 13/07/2011

Athens

Black gold: Drill for it... It ain't no trick to get rich quick! 19/07 - 31/07/2011

Patras

Re-create engineering: Think out of the box! 16/07 - 28/07/2011

Chania

The Algaes Always BEEPER: Learn the secret formula! 07/08 - 16/08/2011

Istanbul, Yildiz

Sense Istanbul: Photograph it,Expound it!!! 15/06 - 23/06/2011

Advanced Optical Imaging Methods and Technologies for non-Destructive and non-Invasive Diagnosis. 15/07 - 30/07/2011

BEST Copenhagen - Who are we?

President Lasse Korff

PR Jonas Poulsen

Secretary Treasurer Marimar Cortada Peter Bollhorn

Rune Paamand

HR Silvia SaldaĂąa

Johan Grundtvig Fernanda Mondadori

FR Christoffer Lythcke-JĂ¸rgensen

Wojciech Kozuch

Ankit Khandelwal Marie Rasmussen Kristian Ott Milbo Rikke Westphalen Marie Top Hartmann

Pink Duckie

Marieta Ivanova

Birgit Haastrup

Asli Ozen

Karen M. H Andersen

Sorin Marinescu

Gabor Pesti

Aleksander Gosk Christoffer Broendum

Inese Nagla

Deborah De Bruycker

Maria del Pilar Rom贸n Peris

Velina Lyubenova Alina Manolache

Michal Staszewski Hristo Valev

DTU Engineering Competition The second edition of the BEST engineering competitions at DTU, took place two days in the fall of 2010. 16 teams competed in the two categories Team Design and Case study. Again this year a record number of 196 students applied to enter the competitions, and in the end 16 lucky teams from various study lines and nationalities was chosen to compete. Both days of competition was started out by welcome speeches by Dean Martin Vigild and the main organizer of the event Marie Rasmussen, followed by a presentation of the topic of the competition.

Team Design The first day of competitions was dedicated to the competition in team design, where the task was to design a video game using the visual programming language KoDu. The main requirement for the video game was, that it should illustrate one or more laws of physics. After almost four hours of hard work, a lot of fun and great ideas, all the teams presented their games. The winners â&#x20AC;&#x201C; four international master students â&#x20AC;&#x201C; came up with a very addictive multiplayer game where the aim was to collect apples and avoid dangers. For this, they won an Xbox, a voucher for the Kinect Xbox controller both provided by Microsoft and VIP passes for all events happening during spring semester at Studenterhuset in downtown Copenhagen.

Case Study On the second day of competition it was time for the Case study, where the topic was to solve a real life problem provided by the main sponsor Maersk. Although the task was challenging, the teams managed to come up with a lot of creative suggestions on how to handle the problem. The judging panel consisting of three company representatives considered all of the solutions to be very good and innovative, so they had a hard time choosing the winners. In the end four Danish students enrolled on the bachelor of Nanotechnology was chosen as the winners, and was each awarded an iPad kindly sponsored by Maersk and VIP passes for Studenterhuset. The winners of both competitions now have the chance of representing DTU at the Nordic edition of the BEST engineering competitions nordBEC, which is being held in April 2011 in Trondheim, Norway. Here they will compete against teams from all of the Nordic countries, and get the chance of qualifying to the European finals. We wish them all the BEST of luck!

Winners of Case Study, and representatives from Maersk Marie Rasmussen Main Organizer

Partners

19 The Nordic engineering competition 2010 Live, learn, make friends, travel, have fun, be serious, think, present yourself, sell your ideas, make rules, bend rules, learn how to win, learn to be a good loser,â&#x20AC;Ś Meaning of life? Maybe, but if not, it is definitely a good description of what is BEST and its youngest child nordBEC. This abbreviation hides the Nordic BEST Engineering Competition â&#x20AC;&#x201C; the event that took place for the first time in region history in Copenhagen between 27th and 31st of March 2010. 60 students representing 8 Nordic Universities of Technology visited Copenhagen to compete, feel the international atmosphere, improve their technical skills and learn about other cultures. For each of them winning their Local BEST Engineering Competitions (LBECs) at their home universities was the passport allowing to come here and do their best to win fabulous prizes and get a free ticket to the next stage of the competition. LBECs are only the beginning, nordBEC is just the second step. The serious challenge starts right after. Eight lucky winners from nordBEC were automatically invited to the European BEST Engineering Competition (EBEC), which in 2010 took place in Cluj-Napoca, Romania, from 31st of July to 10th of August. The winning Nordic team competed with students from all over the Europe to become the best of the best. NordBEC (as well as EBEC) is something more than a student engineering contest. Include organizers and special guests from all over the Scandinavia and you will reach the magical number of 100 students at the same place, at the same time. A real melting pot containing different ideas coming from various places, study lines, countries, backgrounds, expressed in has diverse languages and by unique personalities. The cultural diversity that is hard to be created in other conditions. Huge help of the sponsors: Maersk, LEGO, Vestas and Microsoft made this fabulous event possible. The competition is similar to the ones at the local level. It was divided into two completely different categories â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Team Design and Case Study. Taking into account an almost infinite number of ideas originated in the heads of BEST members, the proposed tasks surprised even organizers. Can you imagine grown up students spending 8 hours on fulfilling their childhood dreams to create unstoppable LEGO robot to beat all their opponents? A mixture of technical skills with deeply hidden ideas from the forgotten parts of our juvenile imagination was probably a good way to win the first prize in this competition category. Compete and have fun at the same time? Welcome to BEST and its nordBEC.

nordBEC Sponsors

The Team Design task was based on LEGO Mindstorms NXT 2.0 sets provided by LEGO. Participants were supposed to design, build and program the robot enabling it to perform six different tasks. The first three was to follow a curved line, locate it after losing it and following a loop. Here the goal was speed and thus a low completion time. The final three tasks aimed for accuracy. Finding the way out of the chamber by locating one of the randomly opened exits, parallel parking and finally attaching a pen and writing “BEST” on piece of paper demanded serious planning and efficient testing of the participants .

The tasks were designed to allow plenty of different approaches and usage of all NTX possibilities and sensors. That is why boundless creativity of participants led them to various solutions for the presented problems. Using touch sensor to find the wall or trying to estimate the distance using the ultrasonic sensor? Three or four wheels or maybe tank tracks? Using provided software or any possible add-ons? How to be fast and accurate at the same time? How to find the balance between focusing on design, programming and testing? All those problems and questions resulted with different approaches and created passionate competition. After 8 hours of building and additional 3 hours of testing the winners was found. Team Design was won by 4 polish students representing the Technical University of Denmark. Doubtlessly they built the best robot and where able to complete all and win 4 out of 6 tasks. A NXT 2.0 got four new owners and Cluj-Napoca got to know the names of the first finalists. On the other hand, the other participants had to deal with serious and complex real life engineering problems. Case Study task provided by Maersk demanded from students to develop a theoretical solution of the problem that sometimes overwhelms even experienced engineers. This time students basing on numerous provided data, reports and the help from professionals had to propose power management solutions for oil platforms. Fresh and innovative points of view resulting in amazing and untypical ideas were key features that amused company judges and opened the way to win. Also in this category students from Copenhagen did not leave their rivals any chance and won LEGO sets and the tickets to Romania. The participant schedule was filled with more than only competition tasks. Personal trainings and various social activities didn’t let them get bored even for a second. Organizers didn’t miss the chance to show participants every worth seeing parts of beautiful Copenhagen during the City Rally. They repaid this great hospitality by presenting their own countries on the last night during the famous BEST International Evening. It is too late to take part this year, but do not miss your chance to challenge other students during next year LBECs and hopefully next nordBEC. We are going to be there, what about you? Wojciech Kożuch Main Organizer of nordBEC 2010

The Presidents are meeting in Copenhagen In November 2011, all of Europe will be looking towards Copenhagen where the next general assembly of BEST presidents will take place. 150 local group leaders, international committee coordinators and the BEST board members will meet to determine the future direction of BEST at the conference which we in the Copenhagen group has been elected to organize. In the spring of 2010, some members from BEST Copenhagen got the idea of running for the very prestigious task of organizing the BEST President Meeting in 2011. Over the summer, huge efforts were put into developing the concept that we were going to compete with at the Presidents Meeting 2010 in Krakow, and in the end, an overwhelming victory was achieved in the final voting round against Riga, one of the strongest BEST groups. This means that in the period 9th-16th of November 2011, the largest BEST event in Scandinavia since 2004 will be taking place at DTU in Lyngby, Copenhagen. The core of our concept is very simple: we want to take things ‘back to basics’. Why book a fancy hotel and spend a fortune on catered breakfast and lunch when people can just as well be sleeping in the university sports halls and eat a traditional Danish buffet? We believe that resources should be allocated to improve the core concepts of the meeting rather than to provide a few days of luxury for the participants. Also, we want to add a ‘Scandinavian touch’ to the event; things are to be run effectively, punctually and on time, and we want to use this unique opportunity that we have been given to present Scandinavian culture towards the rest of Europe as well. BEST traditions state that the Presidents Meeting must be given a theme, and sticking to the inter-Scandinavian concept, ‘Vikings’ was chosen for the event in Copenhagen.

22 In order to host a huge event like the Presidents Meeting successfully, the organization must be strong and well-functioning. At this point, seven people with four different nationalities from three BEST groups (Copenhagen, Aalborg and Riga) have been chosen to lead the event. Besides this, the project is backed up by the entire Nordic Region in BEST, meaning that members from all over Scandinavia will take part in the planning and preparations for the conference. The event itself will consist of three different parts; a partnerâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s conference, an internal workshop day, and the general assembly itself. During the partnerâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s conference, the companies that we cooperate with present themselves, they do workshops together with the BEST members, and there will also be a job fair in the end where the companies can address the members individually and vice versa. This part of the event will be carried out in cooperation with DSE and IAESTE, two other student organizations present at our university, while the rest of the event is taken care of by BEST Copenhagen. At this point, the facilities for the conference have been booked with help from DTU, and the basic contents have been decided. However, the progress will continue all the way until November 2011. If you are interested in the development of the Presidents Meeting 2011, want to know more about the event itself, or wishes to get in contact with us, you are more than welcome to visit our homepage www.2011.presidentsmeeting.eu. Otherwise, feel free to contact me or any other member from BEST Copenhagen if you have any questions or enquiries regarding the event. We look forward to seeing you in November!

Christoffer Lythcke-JĂ¸rgensen Main organizer, BEST PM 2011

www.BEST.eu.org www.BEST.dtu.dk

Annual Report Authors Design & Coordination:

Jonas Deckers Poulsen & Rune Tore Paamand

Photos: BEST members Texts:

DTU President Lars Pallesen, Christoffer Lythcke-Jørgensen, Lasse Korff, Silvia Saldanã Wojciech Kozuch, Marie Rasmussen, Jonas Deckers Poulsen, Ankit Khandelwal, Rafaela Voiculescu

Thanks to: MAERSK, DTU, PF and our beloved STUDENTS!

GOLD Sponsor:

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This report is published by: BEST Copenhagen Polyteknisk Forening Anker Engelundsvej 1 DK-2800 Kgs. Lyngby Tel: +45 77 42 44 05 E-mail: BEST@student.dtu.dk Local URL: www.BEST.dtu.dk Int. URL: www.BEST.eu.org

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