Eleven students take part in workshop on Heligoland

Putting theory into practice - that was the aim of the Maritime Technologies workshop. Prof. Dr Axel Bochert travelled to Helgoland with eleven of his students from the Engineering degree course specialising in Maritime Technologies to test the functionality of their own project work in realistic sea operations. Fridjof Forthaus, one of the students, describes the workshop as an opportunity to think outside the box.

Using a crane on board, the students join forces to lower their self-built equipment into the water off the coast of Heligoland. In addition to a current tank, Bremerhaven University of Applied Sciences also has a wave tank for testing measuring devices. The nearby Geeste or Weser can be used for initial field trials. However, the water depth and salt content off the island of Helgoland is even better suited for the workshop to test the devices developed by the engineering degree programme, explains Fridjof Forthaus, one of the Bremerhaven students. He and his fellow students spent a week on Heligoland to take part in the workshop. There, he and his fellow students gave presentations to a specialist audience from the Alfred Wegener Institute (AWI) and went out to sea on the AWI's research cutter "Aade" to test their self-built measuring devices.

The students' devices
One of the devices tested was an automatic water sampler that was developed for an AWI project. Fridjof Forthaus was also involved in the development of this measuring instrument. The systems developed by students also included a marine energy converter that utilises the tidal current to be self-sufficient for continuous measurements, a data acquisition system with several oceanographic sensors that was developed for an AWI project and a wind turbine with automatic pitch adjustment of the rotor blades.

The aim of the tests was to check the functionality of the devices. "We learnt a lot here. Nothing usually works the first time, but that's the exciting thing. It's more about troubleshooting and rectifying errors," says Fridjof Forthaus. For example, water was leaking into the marine energy converter. This meant that work had to be carried out to ensure that it was watertight. On the other hand, there were also success stories: For example, the water sampler was able to take samples at a depth of four to eight metres and the sensor data acquisition system of another working group was able to collect data. "The workshop is useful in that, in addition to testing the equipment, real project management is also practised," says the Bremerhaven student. This is also confirmed by Prof Dr Axel Bochert, who accompanied the group. "Communication is particularly important, because if one group is designing from one side of the prototype and the other group is working on it from the opposite side, there has to be an interface between the two works. We give the students a lot of freedom to try things out and try not to make corrections too early. Nevertheless, you could say that, in principle, the students test the devices and we test the students," says the professor from Bremerhaven University of Applied Sciences. Fridjof Forthaus, who took part for the second time, also finds the supporting programme varied every time. This time, for example, the group of students visited the diving centre of the Alfred Wegener Institute.

Project work in the Engineering specialisation in Maritime Technologies degree programme
Students work on two projects over two semesters in their degree programme. "In these projects, we are involved in the entire development process of the measuring devices. From research to design, material procurement, construction and finally the test on Heligoland under real conditions," continues Fridjof Forthaus. Prof Dr Axel Bochert is very satisfied with his students. "It was a very hard-working and committed group with a lot of stamina. Three of the students are even continuing to work on their projects with the Alfred Wegener Institute for their practical phase or their final thesis, which is also great." There will be another workshop on Heligoland next year.

The application phase for the winter semester 2024/25 is currently underway at Bremerhaven University of Applied Sciences. Prospective students have until 15 August to apply for admission-free degree programmes, including engineering, via the university's own application portal ecampus.hs-bremerhaven.de.

(Text: Jurina Kleemeyer and Isabelle Epplé)