Intelligence hunt offered engineering students valuable networking opportunities

On Tuesday 14 November the finals of the maritime-focused competition Intelligence Hunt took place at Silja Serenade in the Port of Helsinki. The event, that gathered students and professionals from more than 30 countries, offered Arcada’s future experts in engineering the opportunity to work with real-life cases for leading companies – as well as making valuable connections for the future.

Intelligence Hunt 2 was organized by the business platform SeaFocus, which aims to bring current events in the global maritime business up for discussion. More than 90 students divided into 25 teams took on 13 cases from maritime companies. Daria Osipova, a second-year student of Materials Processing Technology at Arcada, was one of the participating students. She and her team worked together on a case together with Finnlines, and she was more than pleased with the outcome.

“It was a great experience and I’m really happy with our presentation,” Daria says. “Most of all the competition was a good opportunity to meet lots of people from different companies connected to the maritime industry and expand your network. For us engineers this is a huge industry with plenty of work opportunities.”

A total of six participants represented Arcada during the event. Five of them from the Department of Energy and Materials Technology, and one student from the Degree Programme in International Business.

“I really feel like I gained a lot of new knowledge,” Daria continues. “Both from working on our own case, but also from all the other presentations. Students could either register as teams or as individuals – and then get paired up with other students working on the same case. My team consisted of participants from both Finland and Sweden and I also got the chance to make some great new friends along the way.”

And according to Daria it’s clear that environmental awareness – which plays such an important role in the education of future engineers – could be put to good use in a maritime setting.

“What you soon realize is that not all maritime companies are really so concerned with environmental issues. People in this industry sure can talk a lot, but there are very few actions actually taken. But the environmental challenges we’re facing are real, and we have to pay attention. That’s why gatherings like this can fill an important function. One older gentleman who spoke during the conference addressed the younger listeners and concluded that ‘Our generation was informed, but we didn’t do anything. Now it’s your chance!’”

Read more about SeaFocus and Intelligence Hunt 2 here External link.