Back to the future products

PDP course Gala returned to the campus after two years and at the same time it marked the 25^th anniversary of the Gala. Multidisciplinary student teams worked together since September to solve problems that their company partners had provided and presented these solutions as prototypes to the world at the Gala. Hundreds of visitors from Universities and companies participated the Gala and Design Factory stayed open to everyone who had interest in seeing what the best product development students of the world created during their 9-month PDP journey.

Watch the Gala stream: https://pdp.fi/gala22/

PDP is a product development course open to all Aalto master students. During the course multidisciplinary teams work together to solve a problem that a company partner provides. What makes PDP unique is that all teams have a 10 000-euro budget that they can freely use for the realization of their ideas. The course is based on company collaboration and during the past years several multinational companies such as Audi, ABB, Ericsson, Panasonic and Philips have been partners in the course. The number of small company and start-up partners has also been growing significantly.

The course follows a problem-based learning (PBL) methodology. At the start of the course, a lot of attention is directed to the forming of highly motivated interdisciplinary teams. A project typically includes phases of understanding the challenge, planning, research, concepts generation, prototyping and testing. For more information visit www.pdp.fi. The course starts in September and the course code is MEC-E3001. Application for the 2022-2023 course starts starts in the first Autumn period.

Get to know the products presented at 2022 Gala:

Team Elwood

Meet Elwood – a modern and sustainable electric boat. Handcrafted from Finnish wood and state-of-the-art technology, Elwood makes boat rides an unforgettable experience. Instead of a traditional combustion engine and hydraulic steering system, the boat moves quietly with an electric motor, and a unique electrical steering system developed by the team.

Team KoneQueens

How do you locate the accurate position of a crane in a factory to bring it to exactly where it is required? The KoneQueens team assisted Konecranes to develop a technology that can precisely tackle this problem. By using a revolutionary frame of reference, KoneQueens technology can zero in to the precise crane position.

Team Foamheads

A new sustainable cellulose-based material Foamwood was created at Aalto University in order to replace harmful plastic foams. Team Foamhead’s challenge was to upscale Foamwood production and find the best applications for this new material with superior properties. At the Gala, the team also offered bites of edible Foamwood for visitors to taste!

Team Noctus

Meet Noctus! A comprehensive system that detects, identifies and intercepts drones. The Noctus offers a toolkit that makes it possible to combine sensors to a package that fits users needs. The toolkit features affordable and versatile sensors such as cameras utilizing image recognizing AI. By combining sensor posts, resilient multi-layered surveillance zones can be created to protect targets of varying sizes from small drones.

Team Crosshair Splitter

If you were a hunter, would you like to have a riffle which can guide you when shooting?

Team Crosshair Splitter has developed the next-generation digital rifle for you. It will help you increase your first shot probability with our digital system. We adhere to providing you with a better shooting experience by technical means.

Team Lifa-Air

Severe COVID wave has become history and the post-covid age is coming. Are you still afraid of taking off your masks? Simultaneously, fresh air is so attractive. Are you looking forward to alternative ways to keep both safe and comfortable?

Purifair, who develops next generation of personal purifier, is here with innovative ways to provide uncontaminated air. Whether you are in a crowded area, or in your productive offices.

Team Cleandet

Without technological devices, people are rarely able to determine if they washed their hands effectively. Team Cleandet has created a prototype that is a reliable and accurate hand contamination detector that helps people quickly determine how well an individual has washed their hands. To realize this prototype, the team used the visible light spectrum that fluoresces the contamination, and this fluorescence is filtered from the background light with a bandpass filter that a camera ends up picking up. 

Team Ensto

The use of good underground cable connectors plays a key role in building reliable electricity distribution networks. These cable connectors are often installed in challenging conditions and need to have a long lifetime and a low environmental impact. Team Ensto has found a radical new approach to making underground cable connectors that changes the now commonly use leaded brass to a lead-free alternative, while also greatly reducing the total amount of brass used.

Team Chicks with Sticks

Finland has won the Olympic gold medal in hockey this winter! Such a great leap forward! But it can’t be forgotten that one fierce competition in 2006 in Turin winter Olympic, where Finland lost the game because of a hockey stick breakage at the wrong time. The solution from the Chicks with Sticks team is to explore the hockey stick defects, which is helpful to avoid hockey stick breakage.