On the 26
th of October 2016 we made the big step and founded the first student association for students of wind energy at DTU. It was the day when WESA was officially created and presented to the students. After having some preliminary meetings (someone might consider them as dinners accompanied by some wine and beer) we came up with the constitutions and the structure of WESA.
All the above mentioned would not had taken place if it was not for one person who approached the right students and planted the idea into their minds. DTU graduate and wind energy engineer Mareen Tiedemann is the person that made all these come true.
More than a year later, WESA has grown big, counting more than 240 members and having created very good bonds with the students, DTU and the wind industry.
We will publish a series of articles, presenting the first board and founders of WESA. We begin the series with an interview of the former president Mareen, where she elaborates on how and why everything started.
First let us present a few words about Mareen:
Mareen is a recent graduate of DTU (Technical University of Denmark), having obtained a Master of Science (M.Sc.) in Wind Energy and also holds a Bachelor of Science (B.Sc.) in Mechanical Engineering from TU Berlin (Technische Universität Berlin). Mareen had been the president of WESA for the first year and she is currently working at Vestas.
The interview:
WESA: You are the initiator of WESA – Wind Energy Student Association. What gave you this idea and what was your motivation in creating the first student association for wind energy students at DTU?
Mareen: ‘’To establish something like WESA at DTU was my idea from the beginning of my studies at DTU. I started my Master in Wind Energy in 2015. Like most of the wind students, I was new in the country. I remember on my first day at DTU I knew exactly one person in Denmark. Being lucky to have some people from wind in my introduction group, I knew whom to work with when lectures started. Peu à peu we found out who were the other students. Although we all studied wind, we were distributed over mechanical, civil, electrical engineering and physics and never met all together. I knew only one fellow student from the year ahead of us, and sometimes I wished for some guidance from the senior students.”
WESA: So, this is what gave you the idea and motivation for WESA?
Mareen: “Yes! Well, almost…The concrete idea came from an active student association ASE Aeolus that was facilitating networking between students and students and industry. I asked myself why we didn’t have something similar for the wind students at DTU. Being a bunch of students that come from all over the world, in a similar situation, striving for similar goals, we should meet, have some fun, help each other and start something together- outside of the lecture room!
My motivation was to bring people together, in the short time during the masters at DTU and in the long term for the professional life following afterwards, to inform students about the several fields, to ease the communication between the disciplines afterwards – globally seen, for making the planet a bit greener and better with engineering.’’
WESA: Tell us how it all started and what where the challenges you and your team faced?
Mareen: ‘’In summer 2016 I was so lucky to meet the guys that started the association together with me – we all thought it would be a good idea. One day in September 2016 we made a brain storming with some fellow students after our courses – what could we make? How should this look like? In the beginning we talked about one event, not an association, just to give people the chance to meet. We had some nice ideas – support of the “freshmen”, trips and industry contact. We held several follow up meetings, we had to create something, the momentum was there, that was clear very fast.”
WESA: But how do you make “something”?
Mareen: “Exactly, that was the question. A group? An association? What are the rules in Denmark and at DTU? How should we organize ourselves? Would our fellow students like the idea? How should we be called? How do we receive funding? How do you get in contact with the industry? Since our master goes two years, we also had to come up with a smart solution for establishing WESA as an ongoing part of DTU, when the old generation graduates.
The major challenge for WESA was that we work without membership fee, to give access to every DTU student that is interested in wind. Hence, we basically started with zero budget. That can be quite challenging!”
WESA: And how did you solve these questions?
Mareen: “We started to collect information. From other student associations. From PF, from Skylab/Stardust, from the Danish Wind Industry association, from IDA and from the industry. Took notes, explained each other our findings and then, one Sunday evening in September seven of us met at my house to establish WESAs core – our constitutions, role distribution, name and discussed our goals, strategy and ideas. Then we had our first meeting with the students, where we presented our ideas in an evening session on 26th of October 2016. The positive feedback of 85 students participating gave us the reason and motivation to proceed. We could then apply for funding at several institutions to improve our financial situation.‘’
WESA: What are the goals of WESA and how were they chosen?
Mareen: “WESA has three goals: To connect our students to each other and establish a network between them, to improve our study environment at DTU and to connect the students with the wind industry. These goals became quite clear early in the beginning of the creation process.
The overall idea is to support our engineers in broadening their horizon, personally, academically and in a professional way.
The wind energy students are mainly international – we come from all over the world to Denmark to study wind energy. We leave our homes for something that is important enough for us to start from the scratch – new friends, new language and new climate (J). We all meet at DTU in (usually) the master, where WESA supports the growth of a network that includes your friends – or the friends of your friends.
While we are studying here, we strive to improve our time at DTU. That is with social activities and support of the seniors to the freshman and with feedback from the students to the department of wind energy. Last but not least, to establish the network between companies and the students is chosen to introduce the students to the industrial world of engineering, obviously also aiming for career possibilities but further to gain insight about all the different stakeholders in wind energy. It’s is a product of several engineering disciplines and we need to work together to advance. So that an electrical wind engineer also knows what is going on in structural engineering and siting – to think broad and be informed about all the different challenges and aspects of wind energy. This will – from my point of view – improve the goal that we are all aiming at, to develop cheap and green energy. It is a joined effort, not a single-player game. ‘’
WESA: Tell us about the progress of WESA during this first year of its existence.
Mareen: ‘’Well, we first had to overcome all the challenges I mentioned earlier, to organize our internal structure, make a website, contact companies, build our social media platforms and get known at the university. Since our kick-off, the board members, with support of the members have committed to a huge job – and have made an incredible progress.
We had three end of the semester parties till now, two times around Christmas and one barbeque in spring. The students from the two years of the master are now better connected, friends can be found in both semesters and many of my fellows told me that they do know more wind people at DTU now.
We had our first advisory event in February, where ‘old’ students shared their experience about courses with new students and repeated that for the new students in autumn 2017.
We work together with the DTU Wind Energy Department with feedback from our students.
In two lotteries we distributed tickets for two wind conferences, the Danish conferences WESC – Wind Energy Science Conference in June 2017 and to WED – Wind Energy Denmark in October 2017.
With regards to our industry collaboration, we visited LM Wind Power in Lunderskov, ENERCON, ConWX, Siemens Wind Power and Gram & Juhl presented their field of work to us at DTU! In September we organized a big event with Ørsted (DONG Energy) and I was happy to visit WESA with my new employer, Vestas in November.
We can observe an improved network between the students and the industry – some of us find their student jobs/internships through the contact, we actually have students that found their jobs after graduation through WESA! That makes us very proud.
Behind all of this, there are other achievements:
We have a beautiful official website, you can follow us on Facebook and Instagram. To strengthen our roots at DTU we are part of PF and are an associated network of IDA. As the time goes by, we receive positive feedback from our members, the industrial partners and from the Wind Energy Department. This is especially happening because of a very engaged board – but also because of the members actively being involved into our development. WESA is from students for students – we together can make a difference.’’
WESA: How do you see WESA in the years to come?
Mareen: ‘’I have this vision of WESA developing into a stable part of the wind energy activities at DTU and in Denmark. I wish that our graduates support WESA and that the “old” students will keep their network and help out here and there, with knowledge, advise and a network. I hope that we can also reach out to Bachelor students and involve students longer into our activities. I think that WESA is the think-tank and “jar” for companies to reach out to and find new talents for their wind challenges. I can also imagine that start-ups and other organizations can grow from WESA - simply because you know the right people. I would wish that we get more recognized by the bigger wind associations – in Denmark, the Danish Wind Industry Association knows about us and works with us – I can see that on a European or even world-wide level as well.’’
We would like to thank Mareen for conceiving and realizing the idea of WESA, and for giving us her perspective of how all started.
By Thanasis Kormas