Throughout the autumn semester, students from DTU took part in the Innovation Pilot course, working on real-world cases. In collaboration with Engineers Without Borders, this year’s theme focused on optimizing, rehabilitating, and sustainably operating water towers in Sierra Leone. The students worked purposefully to address specific challenges and develop well-thought-out solutions, which they presented at the end of the course, where the best solution was also awarded.

The winning team, Guardian Program, impressed the jury with a project design grounded in local involvement and long-term sustainability. They developed a training program and a certification model for local technicians, ensuring both quality and ownership in the continued work.

For both us and the students, it is incredibly educational to bridge the gap between real-world challenges and academic studies. It creates learning with the potential for real impact and prepares the engineers of the future to tackle the complex problems they will face.