Renewable natural resources and technology

The idea of the Go Green With Smart IT project is to combine technology and green thinking, i.e. renewable natural resources. In addition to Finland, four countries are involved in the project: Bulgaria, Spain, France and Portugal.

– Each country organises a week-long meeting within the framework of the project, where the educational institution plans the content for the students participating in the visit, says lecturer Petri Keronen.

Visitors will learn about renewable natural resources, technology and the country’s culture.

– In Riveria, we chose hydropower as the topic of our visit. During the week, the students produced a functional scale model of a hydropower plant that converts water flowing through the plant into electrical energy, says Petri Keronen.

The parts of the hydropower plant were 3D printed, using fully recyclable materials. The power generation of the hydropower plant was controlled and programmed with an Arduino Uno microcontroller.

How does the cooperation work in practice?

– The first meeting took place in France and the second in Spain in spring 2022. In autumn 2022, we visited Bulgaria, says Petri.

The participants are ICT students. The project will come to an end in April 2023 in Portugal.

Each visit will be attended by two teachers and six students. We aim to have different students and teachers attend the visits to each country so that as many people as possible can familiarise themselves with the education organised in different parts of the world.

Petri Keronen

– During the visit to Finland, we visited, for example, the Kuurna hydroelectric power plant and explored different activities in Koli, including ice swimming, Petri says.