FITech Hydrogen project course

Max amount of FITech students: 15

Persons without a valid study right at a Finnish university or university of applied sciences have preference to this course.

The FITech Hydrogen project course aims to teach both course students and participating companies to understand the business opportunities and challenges of the hydrogen economy. In the course, students suggest practical solutions for the various real-life challenges of companies working in the hydrogen economy. At the same time, students will develop their transferable skills such as teamworking, search and application of information for solving real problems, communication and presentation of ones’ own ideas.

Course contents

The course is aimed primarily at the personnel of companies working in the hydrogen economy. Project topics are collected from member companies of the hydrogen cluster and other companies in the field. Companies can announce topics, even if no employees of the company are taking part on the course. The topics can be either broader or limited in scope, and the amount of credits gained from the course, 2-5 credits, is determined based on the complexity of the group’s topic and the amount of work and expertise required from the students.

A two-credit course can be based on, for example, a well-defined theme or a challenge indicated by the teacher for which there is a solution. The broader course is typically based on the so-called to an open-ended problem, i.e. to a real-life challenge that has not yet been solved, or otherwise to a wide-ranging problem.

The topics of this project course in spring 2024:

Hydrogen purity measurement: Project work provides participants with a profound understanding of measuring hydrogen purity and related techniques and methods. Participants will learn how hydrogen is used in various industrial applications where the quality of pure hydrogen gas is a critical factor. The course offers a strong foundation in concepts and practical applications related to measuring hydrogen purity.

Placement of hydrogen refueling station: In the project group, the placement of a hydrogen refuelling station is examined from a techno-economic perspective. This includes analysing cases where it is more cost-effective to transport hydrogen to the refuelling station versus producing it on-site.

Students choose the project topic in the beginning of the course, they can also suggest a topic of their own interest.

During the project course, participants deepen their knowledge through guided meetings and project work. In the end, groups compile a summary of their project work, which is presented at the final seminar.

Learning outcomes

The students of the course learn to

• analyse and understand a given problem related to the hydrogen economy and its components
• plan and implement teamwork with steps to solve the problem
• identify the roles of the members of the project team, agree on the group’s areas of responsibility and division of work, and combine their own work with the group’s work
• anticipate the possible challenges of teamwork
• communicate on the topics of their own field of expertise to stakeholders with different educational backgrounds
• to communicate the progress and perfromance of the project to external stakeholders
• to search for and combine information to solve the problem
• to produce an analysis of the given problem and suggest well justified solutions to solve it.

Teaching schedule

Mandatory kick-off meeting on 20.3. 13–15 and final seminar on 29.5. 13–15. Other guidance events are agreed with the instructor.

Completion methods

Project work, report and final presentation. The course is implemented as group work (5-7 students in two groups), which makes it possible to complete the course in English or Finnish.

More information in the University of Turku study guide.

You can get a digital badge after completing this course.