One week of hard work culminated Thursday 23 September when 34 students presented their innovative ideas for 1000 new bicycle parking spaces in Odense city centre.
- In our project the rear wheels of the bikes are facing each other, leaving room for twice as many bikes as in usual bicycle racks. The project task was to create 1000 extra parking spaces in the city centre and our solution is both cheap and practical, says Bjarke Damgaard Larsen (picture), who studies Product Development and Innovation.
Since Sunday, Bjarke and thirty-three other Danish, Nordic and Baltic students have been developing, designing and inventing multi-functional, space-saving, and innovative bicycle parking for Odense city centre.
Academic challenges and international socialising Nordic and Baltic Business Week 2010, which is the name of the intensive course, focuses on networking and idea development.
- It has been an amazing week. I have worked together with some really nice people and it has been some long days and fun nights. It has also been great to learn more about other methods and work processes. For example, one of the other students from my team came up with some very creative ideas whereas I with my engineering background have a more realistic approach and pull the plug on ideas that are not feasible in real life, says Bjarke.
- Working with students from abroad has been great fun, because the way they go about the work is completely different and, with a more business-oriented background, they have other competencies. It has been both a great learning experience and a very inspiring week, adds Thomas Kroman, who, as Bjarke, appreciated very much the opportunity to network with students from the Nordic and Baltic countries.
Impressed the judges
- I am impressed at how well they have solved this very difficult task. The bicycle racks cannot take up too much space. They must look nice, be sustainable, durable and not too expensive. And the students were also asked to include the vision of Odense that ‘playing is living’, as Connie Juhl, Traffic Planner at Odense Municipality, told the reporter from the Danish newspaper Fyens Stiftstidende.
Odense Municipality had specified the project task and Connie Juhl was a member of the committee of judges. The ‘Ferris Wheel’ was awarded first prize and, as the name suggests, the idea was to place some of the bikes upside-down inside a movable wheel.
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About Nordic and Baltic Business Week 2010
A total of 19 students from Finland, Norway, Lithuania and Estonia and 16 Danish students from the study programme Product Development and Innovation participated in the intensive innovation course. The project task was specified by Odense Municipality.
For further information, please contact Assistant Professor Søren Jensen, who is responsible for the academic part of the course, can be contacted by phone +45 6550 7513 or email
soj@ib.sdu.dk Back to the news list