Last week students from all over Austria and neighboring countries participated  in Lakeside Park Klagenfurt to the Clean Energy Design Thinking Challenge – CEDCT2020 (19 to 21 February 20202). The competition represents an innovative learning format strongly based on real-life challenges of the relevant industry. Students worked under the coaching of SAP-Next Generation over 32 hours like in a hackathon and produced concept solutions for companies based on the Design Thinking methodology.

CEDCT is yearly organized by the Institute for Production, Energy and Environmental Management at the Alpen-Adria University Klagenfurt in cooperation with SAP Next-Gen  and uniforce Consulting GmbH..

Two topics have been advanced from the part of Silicon Alps partners:
• From Nymea: Functionality of energy management in wallboxes
•  Silicon Alps in general: Getting added-value from cluster coopetition

DAY ONE:  The comprehension of the two topics benefited  from the presentations of Simon Seres (Nymea) and  Josef Ortner (Ortner Reinraumtechnik) and their intensive discussions with the student teams.

DAY TWO: In the observation phase of the Design Thinking Process interviews with end-users (Nymea Team) and Silicon Alps Cluster partners and management were conducted.

Silicon Alps express warmly thanks to our colleagues from LAM Research, PMS Elektro- und Automationstechnik, Alpen-Adria University of Klagenfurt, TU Graz, Comprei, Silent-Quo  for sharing their experiences and views with the student teams! Based on the interviews the students reformulated and fine-tuned the challenges and developed the solution concepts

DAY THREE: The developed concepts were pitched in a  lively form by means of role-playing and presentations.

After jury evaluation…we proudly congratulate the winner team “Kraftwerk” – topic advanced by Nymea!

The second place was won by the other Silicon Alps team, which came with a deep understanding and innovative perspective on the digitalization of cooperation and the special benefits for the Silicon Alps partners!

Photo credits “SAP University Alliance/Next Gen” and Silicon Alps