Project work and feedback from the pros
The MY Campers where divided into six groups that worked on their projects during the camp. The groups presented their work at MY Camp gala, and got feedback from the representatives of the University of Helsinki, and various enterprises.
Working on and presenting the projects. Video by Janne Salo.
Luka Manola and Adina Nedelcu opened the gala evening. They wanted to thank all the sponsors and organisers, and gave their special thanks to professor Maija Aksela.
”The project work itself was quite like brainstorming, really. You could present your own ideas, and then other people would comment on it. It was different than in our own countries. Everyone had an opinion, and there was no actual negative criticizing. Every idea had its place in the final project,” Luka said.
Adina Nedelcu and Luka Manola at MY Camp Gala. Photo: Veli-Matti Vesterinen
The theme groups had done their projects on applied mathematics, ICT, renewable natural resources, renewable energy, climate change, and water. Glimpses to Applied mathematics and ICT groups’ projects have already been published in MyScience.
Renewable natural resources
The renewable natural resources group with their poster. Photo: Papon Muangsanit
Renewable natural resources group’s project dealt with hydrogen production. “The purpose of this project was to evaluate the disadvantages and advantages of different methods of hydrogen production,” Jarkko Etula said. The other members of the group were Kathryn Carr, Chanikarn Khanutwong, and I-Ching Tseng. The group studied three different ways to produce hydrogen. In itself hydrogen is a clean fuel with high energy density, but the production of it is still expensive and some methods require employment of fossil fuels.
Electrolysis is very simple and fast way to produce hydrogen, but the problem is that you still need energy to do the splitting of the water, and that produces greenhouse gases. In electrolysis of water, the current splits the water into hydrogen and oxygen. The apparatus used is very simple and there are not many moving parts, which is good in primitive conditions. Currently the used method is alkaline based and very expensive compared to any large-scale industrial techniques to produce energy.
The second option is to produce hydrogen by fermentation. The process is very sustainable, and the used material can be recycled. The disadvantage is that a lot of time and money is needed to create the anaerobic conditions for fermentation.
The third option is to employ photosynthesis in algae to biochemically produce hydrogen. “Biological water splitting has many advantages, there is no electrical current needed, waste water can be used for growing of the algae, so it does not compete with any food crops. The production is also very simple unlike fermentation.”
Water
The water group. Photo: Veli-Matti Vesterinen
The water group’s task was to develop a sustainable water system for a rural village. In their project, Jorge Araya, Matej Franko, Santiago Rouco, and Menna Sirola introduced water filters that are effective, cheap, and made of easily accessible materials. After the water has been filtered, the remaining bacteria and parasites are exterminated by hydrochloride.
In their project they also presented a system to collect rainwater, that is used for shower, and after that the so-called grey water is used for irrigation. Also the village’s toilet facilities are separated, so that urine can be used as a fertiliser, and the composting of faeces can be utilized to create energy. The ultimate goal of the project is to create development.
“The water is related to everything else in the village, for example education, economics and health. In Africa there are villages where women spend literally their entire day walking to and from the water source, that is not even clean. But if the people are liberated from this task and they don’t have to worry about this basic need, they can focus on improving their standard of living,” Jorge said.
One option is to use the grey water to grow ornamental flowers which are sold and the money is used to maintain the water system and improve the possibilities of education, and send a child from the village to a university to study civil engineering, then he or she can grow up to maintain the water system.
Climate change
The climate change group. Photo: Veli-Matti Vesterinen
John Chen, Paula Hietala, Matthew McAteer, Nkosikhona Bulana, Andra Orasanu, and Kati Venho from the climate change group contemplated the possibilities of carbon sequestration in removing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere in order to reduce the green house effect.
Carbon sequestration can be executed in a variety of ways using physical, chemical or biological methods of which the group studied five options. The options included iron fertilization of ocean, reforestation, and algae all of which increase photosynthesis that takes up carbon dioxide.
“Carbon sequestration is becoming increasingly necessary. With more research and experimentation, carbon sequestration could become a safe and effective strategy that compliments the emissions rather than replaces them,” John said.
“What you’ve done is almost the same as Master’s thesis”
Antti Lauri giving feedback. Photo: Veli-Matti Vesterinen
After the presentations it was time for feedback. Accroding Antti Lauri from the University of Helsinki’s Department of Physics, the Climate change group was given the freedom to come up with the topic for their project.
“I now feel that this was the right choice, even though the starting point was extremely challenging. The group has worked very independently and has come up with great ideas, we wouldn’t have imagined before the camp,” Lauri congratulated the group.
”They certainly did not choose the easy way. They could have selected to study just one method, but they chose five. They could have done a simple analysis but they chose to conduct feasibility plan and risk assessment for each method. They could have limited their work to just study sequestration methods but no, they came up with fantastic innovations with huge market potential, such as the green car. If the future lies on the work done by people like these exceptional youngsters, I’m not worried about the success of mankind in the future challenges concerning the climate change and other threats,” Lauri continued.
Group picture of all the MY Campers. Photo by Veli-Matti Vesterinen.
Timo Repo from the University of Helsinki’s Department of Chemistry was equally impressed by the work of the Renewable energy group.
“The group’s topic was hydrogen, which is very important as a fuel but its also one of the major chemicals needed in sustainable chemical industry. I was very proud to see your presentation today. Just like we saw today, the production of hydrogen is not only chemistry, but also biochemistry. This will maybe be the topic of next Millennium prize,” Repo said.
Lotta Forssell from UPM encouraged the members of the renewable energy group to continue with their project that was about biofuels.
“You have the right attitude, from the start you wanted to look into something that isn’t used today. In your work you have come up with great ideas and solutions. I hope that some of you will continue with this subject, and that in the future you will come up with great innovations in the area of biofuels, because the is still work to be done,” Forssell said.
Representative of Kemira said he was a bit surprised when we heard the first two presentations of the evening, referring to ICT groups work. “We can live without computers, but we cannot live without clean water. The water team has done a great job in trying to see how the third world is going to cope with one of the biggest problems of humanity”, he said.
“Education is extremely important view. You can’t really develop something, if you don’t have certain knowledge. You did a great job in trying to cover everything, not just picking one point.”
Marko Mahkonen from Nokia wanted to justify ICT’s importance in making the difference in the world. “If we really utilise ICT technology efficiently, we will be able to reduce the overall energy consumption by one third. This statement brings ICT on the same level with the other green topics,” he said.
Mahkonen explained that the starting point of the group work was to familiarize the group with scientific process and employ autonomous learning and project work that are the hot topics at the moment in research business and education.
“I was very happy and surprised to see the presentation of the projects, because they were so mature proposals. I was also surprised to see the autonomous attitude which clearly increased during the camp”, Mahkonen said.
The Applied mathematics group. Photo by Chanikarn Khanutwong.
Juha Oikkonen from the University of Helsinki’s Department of Mathematics and Statistics gave some background information on the Applied mathematics group’s task. “The mathematics used in real applications today is extremely advanced. Instead of just toying with mathematics, we decided to take a more educational approach, where we take the youth on a journey to find out something about mathematics and how mathematics is used.”
According to Oikkonen, there was first a temptation to go into health issues as Luka had done in his project plan. However, another approach was chosen which was more close to the interest of the whole group. This approach was the inverse theory.
“What you’ve been doing is almost the same as Master’s thesis. You have not written it as a Master’s thesis, but you have more or less the content of a Master’s thesis. I don’t say that you are going to be Masters now, because we want to have you studying with us first,” Oikkonen said.
Elisa Lautala works as web editor for University of Helsinki's Faculty of Science. Elisa likes all kinds of cultural events, good books, warm weather, and aqua-jogging.