The DTU Energy Conversions first yearly PhD symposium with industry participation was a success even if it lacked more participation from the industry.
The PhD symposium wanted to bring the departments PhD students closer together to network and share knowledge with each other and the industry. It worked.
"The entire concept was good. It gave us a unique opportunity to get insight in the fundamental research being done at DTU Energy Conversion"
Lars Martiny, CEO, Topsoe Fuel Cell
“I liked the symposium. It was a nice little mini-conference with good opportunity to present your work in a scientific environment where people asked questions. It gave good discussions”, says PhD Gregory Johnson, who found himself talking to people from other sections and other buildings that he doesn’t see normally.
“And we are following up on the discussions by e-mail. That’s knowledge-sharing, when it works the best!”
PhD’s Henrique Neves Bez, Felix Trier and Malgorzata Molin had the same good experience. They all met other students at the symposium, whom they knew by sight, maybe even by name, but they often had no idea about what their fellow students worked on and which projects they were part of.
“I know them, I meet them, but I had no idea on what they work on. It is good to know, what they work on and if they perhaps work on projects similar to mine. Nobody did, but it’s good to know”, says Malgorzata Molin, and her fellow PhD student Felix Trier mirrors her words:
“I had no idea about how many PhD’s we were in the department, and even within my own section we are not always good at telling, what we do. So it was a good opportunity to see, what the others were doing.”
The symposium was divided in two tracks of oral presentations and a poster session, were PhD’s presented their work and projects to each other, to researchers and professors and to the industry representatives.
“The entire concept was good. It gave us a unique opportunity to get insight in the fundamental research being done at DTU Energy Conversion, says Lars Martiny, CEO, Topsoe Fuel Cell, who participated. He continues:
“The presentations gave a good hint on which direction the research is heading on several topics, which is very valuable to us, and we also got a good feeling on the students and what kind of candidates, they will be in the future. That being said: A presentation, no matter how good it is, is not enough to tell you, whether they are good researchers, but it hints on the potential”, he says.
Both Lars Matiny and the PhD’s would have liked more industry participants. Of the 58 people partaking in the PhD symposium, only six came from the industry. This came as a disappointment to all.
“I expected more people from the industry. We were told there would be a possibility to talk with people from the industry, but there was very few. There wasn’t any networking, well yes, with other PhD’s which was also very good, but very little with people from the industry. I missed that”, says Malgorzata Molin.
The other PhD’s agrees, but to a man they also agree, that the missing industry partners were the only flaw.
Nobody know, whether the lack of industry participants was just a matter of bad timing, but to Lars Martiny and the researchers from Topsoe Fuel Cells, taking part in the PhD Symposium at DTU Energy Conversion was a good choice.
“I do not know why more companies did not show up. In my opinion, they missed a good opportunity to get a view over what’s happening in this field of research”, says Lars Martiny.
“One of our researchers from Topsoe Fuel Cells also took part. He had a really good day and learned a lot about what kinds of research, DTU Energy Conversions is doing. I would have liked more companies to participate, as it is also good for the companies as well as the students to network, but the symposium in itself was really good. It had a good scope, had interesting subjects and the students were eager to ask and learn. We’ll probably come again next year”, continues Lars Martiny.