A team of students from Novia UAS and VAMK has been awarded fourth price in a national competition f

The team consisting of students from the neighboring universities of applied sciences Novia and VAMK participated with their application in the annual competition organized by SICK, one of the leading sensor manufacturers. The team members, Jan Van de Ven, Silke Debie, Annike Prehn, Carla Laborde and Mario Montero Garrido of Novia worked together with Robin Snellman, an engineering student from VAMK. The team was coached by Mika Billing, lecturer at VAMK.

Easily put, the team developed an application that is to be used in metro stations. The app makes sure there are no obstacles on the tracks, and at the same time, it monitors crowd movements on the platform. This makes it possible for the owners of the station to optimize the use of it.

- This has been an amazing experience. We all come from very different fields, and working together as a team made it possible to implement everyone’s special knowledge in designing the application, say Jan Van de Ven, Silke Debie, Annike Prehn, Carla Laborde and Mario Montero Garrido.

They are all students at Novia UAS’s EPS-program. This is a one-semester program that teams together a group of students and lets them work full time on a project. This year, the project landed them a fourth place in the SICK- innovation competition.

- We all agreed that we wanted to focus on ecology, the environment and safety. Our coach, Mika Billing of VAMK, has been absolutely great: so positive and encouraging during the whole process.

During the process, the team worked in the labs of Tehcnobotnia. Here, they had access to all the technology they needed, for example 3D-printers.

- All of us aren’t product developers and all of us don’t know a lot about technology. That was a challenge to overcome. And, of course, being a diverse, multicultural group has its own challenges. Some of us like working early in the morning while others prefer waking up in the afternoon. But we made it work, and we sure have learned a lot from each other. This kind of work makes the Erasmus-program complete, the team agrees.

Apart from the 1000 euro price, Tehcnobothnia is also allowed to keep the sensor developed by the team. This gear is worth approximately 8000 euro.

Novia University of Applied Sciences acts along the Swedish-speaking parts of the Finnish coastline. With over 4000 students and a staff of about 290, Novia is the largest Swedish-speaking university of applied sciences in Finland. High-class and state-of-the-art degree programs provide students with a proper platform for their future careers.

On the photo: Mario Montero Garrido, Carla Laborde, Silke Debie, Mika Billing, Jan Van de Ven, Robin Snellman and Annike Prehn.
Photo: Eeva Anundi

For more information, please contact:
Novia UAS, Senior Lecturer Roger Nylund, phone: 050 527 2281