PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT GALA
2023
The 26th Annual PDP Gala was held on
Friday 12th of May
9:00 to 17:00 (UTC+2)
What is the PDP Gala?
For 9 months the PDP teams have been working hard on their unique projects. At the Product Design Gala it is time to reveal the results to the world. For the whole day Design Factory has it’s doors open to everyone who is interested in coming to see the innovations that the future product developers have created. The projects are on display around Design Factory and visitors can interact with the students, try the prototype and get inspired by the atmosphere of the event. There are visitors from all walks of life and great connections can be formed.
If you want to learn more about PDP scroll down here.
Could not attend?
A video stream of each team’s presentation and live demo has been recorded and can be watched at the top of this page.
2023 PDP Projects
Team Hareva
Have you ever thought how surgeons can operate the complexities of human anatomy without making mistakes? Well, they don’t.
Even the most experienced surgeons sometimes make mistakes, even with thousands of hours of practice. After all, they are human, and many body parts are indistinguishable by the human eye. But we are going to give them superpowers!
Our team has been developing a near-infrared light source for the H3D-VISIOnAir project. Our revolutionary technology will enable surgeons to recognise different organs, nerves, and tissues, allowing them to perform more precisely and confidently, leading to safer operations and faster patient recovery.
Team Carbon Eaters
“Capturing industrial CO2 with the help of microalgae”
The industries and energy sector in Finland alone account for 82% of total carbon emissions. To counter this, we have adopted a natural phenomenon, photosynthesis and combined it with simplified technologies with the aim to help industries decrease the CO2 emissions.
Chlorella vulgaris, a species of microalgae utilizes CO2 as food source and is 400 times more effective than an average tree in capturing the CO2.
Our photobioreactor is home to this microalgae species which eats compressed CO2 for breakfast, lunch, and dinner, thereby sequestering CO2 and preventing it from going into the environment.
Team Heureka
Many of us have dreamt of what it would feel like to be in space. What if an immersive experience could offer you an opportunity to drive a moon rover?
Our team is working with the science centre Heureka to bring this dream to life. This project resulted in an interactive exhibition that allows the user to experience driving a rover on the lunar surface. Keeping it simple and intuitive, the interaction is made to be enjoyed regardless of your age or knowledge of space.
Come visit our booth and travel to the moon with us!
Team Seals
The fishing industry has been suffering from seals for a very long time. Seals are stealing catch from fisherman and damaging their fishing gear. There is a need to find an ecofriendly solution to keep seals away from the fishing equipment. Several solutionsare already on the market to protect the catch from seals, such as acoustic deterrent devices (ADD).
Our project aims to find a cheaper solution for mobile ADDs and a way to make the ADD unit move autonomously. In our project, the main focus is on the Iijoki river.
Come to our booth to hear more about the solution!
Team Lumiteam
The time between action and reaction is time wasted. With transparent displays by Lumineq, information is there one second and gone the next at the speed of thought.
Refrigerators lose 70% of their internal volume with each opening, our solution provides the necessary information and control simultaneously with no need to ever open the door. In-helmet displays for motorcycles are a stagnant fantasy, without any real progress downsizing the projection hardware and no new helmets to market for years.
Witness the mind-shattering sci-fi future for yourself as we explore novel heads-up display technology and take refrigerators in a new, more sustainable, direction.
Team Mitsubishi
Our sponsor, Mitsubishi Logisnext, manufactures both manually operated and automated warehouse trucks. At the moment, they are not working in the same warehouse spaces.
Our task was to study what kind of information must be provided to the manual truck drivers so that they can work efficiently with the automated guided vehicles (AGVs).
We conducted expert and user interviews and studied different technologies to come up with multiple concepts for user interfaces. We got an actual warehouse truck cabin equipped with our UI prototypes. We also built an AGV mock-up for acting out scenarios.
These can be found in our booth!
Team PDP
Introducing the Pluscon propane vending machine – a cutting-edge solution for selling and exchanging propane canisters. This self-service machine is designed to simplify the propane retailing process, saving both time and effort for customers and personnel alike.
Typically, propane gas storage requirements can complicate retailing. Customers must visit the cashier inside, then wait for a staff member to unlock the gas cabinets outside. With our innovative vending machine, customers can complete the entire transaction on their own, reducing wait times and enhancing convenience.
Our machine features state-of-the-art technology, including a revolving mechanism for easy dispensing of canisters of multiple sizes and types, an AI-enhanced canister detection system for improved safety, and a user-friendly touchscreen interface for simple operation.
Team Rel8
So you’re studying Advanced Energy Solutions at Aalto and you’re interested in working with renewable energy technologies. Where can you go to better understand them and learn how to improve upon them or incorporate them into other systems? We present to you RELab, the Renewable Energy Learning Lab that team REL8 has been working on since October.
Here, we have created a space to elevate your learning experience at Aalto, to enable students to physically interact with the systems they will work on in their future careers.
Team Search and Destroy
Have you ever wondered what would happen if a drone got injected into a jet turbine? Your situation would be even worse in a warzone where drones are used to drop bombs and set artillery coordinates. Imagine if you could have a system for detecting those drones. What if that system didn’t cost a fortune, it didn’t need to be transported on a truck, and it could be carried in your hands?
We have developed an affordable and portable system for detecting drones. Like Saab, we believe that safety is a fundamental human right.
See our exhibition near the entrance.
Team Sens Sirs
With their sensors, Safera has already saved countless private households by detecting the kitchens’ air conditions. What if we could scale up the benefits?
Team Sense Sirs is presenting you a mock-up of a commercial kitchen to showcase how Safera’s sensor technology can benefit you and your restaurant business – be it for energy savings, fire safety or employee health.
Come check out our booth from the lobby forward and see what’s cooking!
Team Velocity on Demand
When it comes to long range presicion shooting the variables that must be considered are plentiful.
Our team focused on one of the most crucial variables: Velocity.
We focused on making a presicion product with a invisble way of measuring the velocity of a fired bullet and a way to present that information to the shooter. For those who demand more and seek ultimate precision.
Come see us and expirience the invisble product.
Team CleanWaters
Join us on our mission towards a more sustainable future!
We are excited to showcase our cutting-edge project at the PDP gala day that is poised to revolutionize the way microplastic monitoring laboratories operate.
Our team has developed an innovative automated system that replaces the cumbersome and costly manual sample processing procedures currently in use. Not only will our solution drastically reduce costs, but it will also mitigate the risk of cross contamination and health hazards associated with the handling of microplastics.
Be sure to visit our booth to witness firsthand how our industrial-level concept prototype, programmed based on the tried-and-tested methodology of the Finnish Environment Institute, is paving the way towards a cleaner and healthier planet.
Team KONE
Take a second and imaging what the future of the city will look like will it look like the Avatar or maybe even the Matrix?
Our team has collaborated with KONE to use speculative design to derive plausible future scenarios for the life of urban developers in 2040. We have seen trends towards remote work, communal living, urban mobility and many more. At our booth, you can experience these future scenarios first-hand by exploring an immersive VR world. You can join the day of life of a future urban developer in 4 different levels displaying different plausible futures. Today you are shaping this future so join us into the endeavour into 2040.
Team Woamy
If recycling costs you more than buying a new product, would you recycle?
– Most probably you wouldn’t!
Recycling Styrofoam costs more than purchasing or producing it. Therefore, recycling foam is usually neglected by companies. Woamy produces foam out of wood which is 100% biodegradable, it is even edible!
With the new machine built by our team, Woamy is able to form foam blocks at an increased rate in order to make the foam markets more ecological and provide companies a solution to recycling!
Team Wärtsilä
Ships can save time by using a tunnel thruster for lateral maneuvers instead of sharp turns. However, the presence of tunnel openings in the thruster increases the vessel’s resistance by 8%, leading to higher energy consumption and CO2 emissions.
To address this challenge, Team-Wärtsilä has developed a solution where the tunnel openings will only be opened when necessary. By keeping the tunnel partially closed while the ship is moving forward, the extra energy required can be saved. This development is a significant step towards achieving the shipping industry’s target of reducing CO2 emissions by 40% by 2030 and 70% by 2050, as required by shipping regulations.
What is PDP
PDP core principles
The PDP course brings together students from all schools of Aalto University to work on real world challenges presented by an industry partner. All teams have a budget of 10 000 euros that can be used for the realisation of their project. The challenge is provided by an industry partner and the collaboration between the company and the student team is active throughout the year. PDP is an environment that is as close as you can get to real world working conditions with the additions of the freedom to experiment and fail plus the interdisciplinary composition of the teams that in many places is just a buzz word but in PDP it’s true.
Months
Budget
Alumni
History of PDP
The PDP course has been running for 26 Years and over 300 projects have been completed today. The total number of students who have taken the course is over 3000. These numbers speaks to the impact that the course has had and continuous to have in the Finnish and global industry. Many graduates of Aalto lists PDP as their most valuable experience going into working life. PDP has also led to the formation of startups, patents, employment by the sponsoring company and master thesis positions.
You can find the main website of pdp here pdp.fi