Magdalena Stepien on the Group Design Project

"During the second half of my first year, I and six fellow PDEng trainees started our four-month group design project, focusing on a design challenge put forward by a company. We are designing a sustainable product based on polyhydroxyalkanoate (PHA), which can be derived from waste streams. This compound can be biotechnologically converted to certain bioplastics. So far it is looking very promising.”    

Although all seven students are involved in the entire design process, they have divided the tasks among them in order to operate more efficiently. Stepien: “Some of us are working on the composition of the microbial mixture. Others are looking at the nature of the substrate, which has a strong impact on the final product. And all of this has to be analysed in the context of market demands: which are the desirable product characteristics? Which are the pitfalls in terms of economy, time, environment? All of these factors place strict demands on the various production steps and have an impact on the design of the actual product."

The PDEng students are carrying out their group design project under supervision of TU staff and in close cooperation with the company that proposed the project. They are meeting regularly with these people to discuss progress and challenges. It is not always easy, as Stepien points out, to work this closely together with different people who each have a particular style of thinking, working and communicating, and who come from different cultures. In addition to the technological work, the group also spends time on reflection, and has formulated guidelines for effective project management. Actually Stepien is very pleased with how it’s going so far: “All of us are doing our very best. We want to deliver quality work and learn as much as we can.”

(Text: Nienke Beintema, photo courtesy: Jacqueline de Haas)