In short
- The Saxion Challenge Day challenges students to work together on sustainability cases
- Hoppmann’s case won this year; students worked on finding a more sustainable automation process
Global Goal
Companies Mobility4Zero, Proptechpodium, Dealerdirect, Zolemba, Mochadocs, Hoppmann and GloBld did not only participate in the Challenge Day because of the solutions they will receive for the cases they submitted; it is also an opportunity to meet future employees. “Participating in this event was a wonderful challenge. We did not know that there were so many international students at Saxion, Windesheim and the University of Twente and that the Dutch students are so internationally oriented as well. They will soon be able to make great contributions to our business, considering our current explorations abroad. We have met dozens of students, and we would like to get some of them more closely”, says one of the entrepreneurs.
Involvement from companies and educational institutions is not self-evident for most international students. Getting this opportunity during their studies at Saxion, Windesheim or the University of Twente is the reason for signing up for the Challenge Day. “The Challenge day was an energetic event filled with much creativity and new ideas. This event helped us to boost our creative potential. Since the problem assigned to us was a real problem for Hoppmann, we were delighted that we could come up with an innovative solution for them, so that they could save some energy and improve the quality of their product using a basic principle called electrostatic induction. We wish we could be part of more and more such programs in the future”, says Rahul, one of the Challenge Day’s winners.
Hoppmann challenged the students to develop an idea for a more sustainable automation process that uses less energy. And with success: students Ushosee Roy (University of Twente), Humaid Alkalbani (Saxion), Hamed Moosa (Saxion), Ahmend Al Kathiri (Saxion) and Rahul Mondekkottil (University of Twente) came up with a solution that won the title of best idea at the end of the day.
It is an idea that Arjan Klaassen, Branch Director at Hoppmann, would love to elaborate on with the students. “We will soon be inviting both teams who worked on Hoppmann’s case to our company, where we will give them a tour and get to know them better. The Challenge Day is a perfect platform for us to get in touch with creative and enthusiastic students because of our international character. We were very impressed by the ideas and solutions for the problem we presented. We were especially impressed because even though not all of these students have a technical background, they still presented creative and innovative ideas for an issue that is quite technical.” Arjan Klaassen, Branch Director at Hoppmann B.V.
International students who continue to work in the Netherlands after graduating present golden opportunities for the region. They bring experience and a network from their country of origin, but also have knowledge about Dutch culture and doing business in the Netherlands. It is, therefore, important to bind international talents to the region. The Saxion Challenge Day is one of the initiatives in which education and business life work together to interest international students with a career in the east of the Netherlands. The Saxion Challenge day has been made possible with support from GO4EXPORT.
Internationale studenten die na hun afstuderen in Nederland blijven werken, zijn een gouden kans voor de regio. Zij nemen enerzijds ervaring en een netwerk mee uit het land van herkomst en hebben anderzijds kennis over zakendoen Nederland en de Nederlandse cultuur. Het is dan ook belangrijk om de internationale talenten te binden aan de regio. De Saxion Challenge Day is een van de initiatieven waarbij onderwijs samen met het bedrijfsleven optrekt om internationale studenten te interesseren voor een carrière in Oost-Nederland. De Saxion Challenge Day is mede mogelijk gemaakt met ondersteuning van GO4EXPORT.
Date: 21 March 2018 |
Source of tekst: Saxion |
Author: Twente.com