TechMark Arena is a transdisciplinary academy at RISE Research Institutes of Sweden that brings together master’s students and supervisors from various backgrounds in order to work on a common theme. The financiers for this year’s initiative were RISE, Gunnar Sundblads forskningsfond, Sio Grafen and the Digital Cellulose Center (DCC).
The idea for TechMark Arena came from a desire for better cooperation around biobased materials. The name TechMark comes from the words Technology and Market, and it is just that, a place where technology and the industry can meet across various disciplines. Master students from fields such as chemistry, psychology, physics, design, economics and more come together and work on a common themed project.
Within the project each student has a company that supports them. They also have one main supervisor and 2-3 supporting supervisors that guide them through the project. They have a joint kickoff and meet once a month for the 6 months the project is ongoing.
This arrangement encourages a broader approach to a topic and ensures a greater exchange of ideas between students and increased knowledge sharing between different projects. And it gives an opportunity to breach the same subject from different angles and from different fields.
The theme for TechMark Arena 2024 was “Laser-Induced Graphene from Lignosulfonate” and had 5 master’s students presenting their work at the Vernissage that took place 4/6.
Sampada Prashant Pudke presented “Optimization and scaling of the process for laser-induced graphene from lignosulfonate”, Lucie Tarazona’s presentation was called “Characterization of graphene using X-ray and Raman techniques”, Huizhen Jin presented “Technoeconomic assessment of graphene from lignosulfonate”, and Jonathan Tar and Jonathan Grenthe’s presentation was called “Life cycle assessment of graphene from lignosulfonate”.
The day started with a vernissage where the students were presenting their posters, visitors could mingle and look at the posters and ask the students questions. Then came time for presentations, and first Tatjana Karpenja and Hjalmar Granberg from RISE presented TechMark Arena and this year’s subject, graphene. This was followed by the presentation of the student projects and their results, as well as answering questions.
There were some great discussions and many things learned, in summary, yet another successful TechMark Arena!
