The Head of the Institute of Renewable Energy Systems (IRES), Prof. Dr. Johannes Gulden, and his colleague Romy Sommer recently visited Finland (from February 3 to 7, 2025) to share their expertise in the field of renewable energies with students and colleagues.

In total, the two of them visited three universities of applied sciences “to present HOST, IRES, our research topics on renewable energies and H2 technologies, the Spring School and Sustain MV,” explains Romy Sommer. “We had an intensive exchange about opportunities for research collaborations, teaching exchanges and student exchanges,” says Prof. Gulden. They also discussed their idea of a Baltic Sea Hydrogen Conference. “We met with great interest,” says Romy Sommer.

Course of the excursion
First port of call: Metropolia UAS in Vasaa in the Helsinki region. It was the first visit to this university to make new contacts with colleagues and to exchange ideas, for example through exciting laboratory visits. Their highlights at Metropolia were innovation hubs on the topics of Smart & Creative City, Clean Sustainable Solutions, Entrepreneur and Innovation Services as well as thematic “garages” where students can independently carry out their own projects and also implement smaller projects for companies, such as the Robo Garage, AIoT Garage and Urban Farm Lab. The Stralsund researchers and teaching staff will take these ideas back to HOST.

Part 2 of the trip took us to XAMK University
... of Southern Finland in Kotka. HOST and XAMK have been partners for many years. Romy Sommer and Prof. Dr. Johannes Gulden introduced around 20 third-semester students to HOST, gave lectures on hydrogen and the current research work at IRES and carried out H2 experiments with the students.

The visit to Savonia UAS in Varkaus as the third and final part
... of the trip to Finland was also a first visit after representatives came to HOST last year. It was an exchange with lecturers and researchers. Romy Sommer and Prof. Dr. Gulden presented HOST to around 25 students in the subjects of Energy Engineering and Industrial Engineering, introduced them to H2 technology and experimented with their PV electrolysis fuel cell lab.