Diogo Silva, 5th year student of the Integrated Master in Mechanical Engineering, participated in August in the Wind Power Summer School, promoted by Aarhus University, in Denmark, in collaboration with Vestas Wind Systems A/S and Siemens Wind Power.
The summer course “Wind Power Summer School – In Cooperation with Siemens Gamesa Renewable Energy A/S & Vestas Wind Systems A/S” is a program organized by Aarhus University that aims to educate and engage students of mechanical engineering and electronic engineering in the area of energy produced by wind power. In this international environment, participants are faced with two intense weeks of curricular activities and challenges in order to give students substantial knowledge about wind turbine technology.
During the last three days of this course, students are grouped into several teams and must create, develop and present an idea/concept that innovates and/or reinvents the design of a wind turbine or other aspects related to this industry. Each group developed a Product Development Model and, as the project progressed, the teams exposed their work to a group of engineers from both Vestas and Siemens Gamesa to simulate how a project would be developed in a professional environment. At the end, each group exhibited their project in front of all the participants, in order to award “Best Teamwork”, “Best Innovative Idea”, “Best Presentation” and “Best Technical Development”.
Regarding the “Best Innovative Idea Award”, given to the team Diogo Silva was part of, he says: “My group consisted of a seven-member team of four different nationalities, namely Portugal, Spain, Denmark and Morocco. Together we developed a project that focuses on one of the biggest current problems in the implementation of onshore wind turbines: the process of transporting the components from the factory to the wind farm. So, in order to mitigate this problem, the group thought about developing a 3D printing technology to produce certain components on-site such as the tower and nacelle and the creation of modular molds to create the blades. The work was done with a lot of simplifications and assumptions, but it allowed the students to acquire knowledge related to the wind sector as well as to develop teamwork with colleagues from other countries and other professional areas. I can proudly say that after a lot of hard work, our group won the “Best Innovative Idea” award.
Congratulations Diogo Silva!
