November 13, 2024
“AI will not replace engineers – but engineers with AI tools will replace engineers without.” This powerful message from Tero Hämeenaho’s presentation set the tone at DIMECC’s 17th Annual Seminar: AI Powering Product Development, held in collaboration with Aalto Design Factory.
The event brought together a full house of AI and R&D experts, all eager to explore the latest advancements in AI-driven product development.
With engaging presentations from Etteplan, Unikie, Danfoss Drives, Pemamek, Konecranes, and DIMECC Oy, followed by interactive workshops, the day provided valuable insights and thought-provoking ideas.
Award Ceremony with the Minister
The Product Development Path Makers 2024 Awards and Mentions were awarded and handed out by the Minister of Science and Culture Sari Multala, President of Aalto University Ilkka Niemelä, Chairman of the Board of the Technology Industries Centennial Foundation Aaro Cantell and the Product Development Path Makers jury.
A national Product Development Path Makers Award has been established by Aalto University Design Factory, supported by the Tekniikan akateemiset TEK, Espoon kaupunki – Esbo stad – City of Espoo and Teknologiateollisuuden 100-vuotissäätiö – Technology Industries of Finland Centennial Foundation.
Opened for the first time this year, this new award aims to recognize inspiring experiments and activities that have opened up new types of opportunities and/or impact in product development. Based on nominations made in August-September 2024, a jury consisting of representatives from Aalto University, Espoo, Technology Industries of Finland Centennial Foundation, TEK and industry selected four winners and three honorary mentions.
The main award was determined based on a public vote on the four jury-selected winners. This public’s favorite award, the “Ekman Award”, honors Professor Emeritus Kalevi “Eetu” Ekman’s career, passion and commitment to develop education and research in product development and founding the Design Factory concept.
This year, the Ekman Award went to the KONE Veturi project, leveraging scenario-based planning to develop a joint vision in a large development consortia.
The 2024 Product Development Path Makers Winners were:
KONE Veturi Project – Collaborative innovation for revolutionizing urban living (Ekman Award winner);
Sulapac – Sustainable packaging materials through comprehensive knowledge & strong vision;
Surgify – Developing the Halo surgical drill through effective collaboration;
Vaisala – Agile development of a Carbon Capture, Utilization, and Storage (CCUS)
device.
Honorable mentions were given to modular development of a Direct Reduced Iron smelting
furnace at Metso, smart utilization of existing resources and infrastructure in a hardwareenabled
SaaS platform for energy efficient buildings by Nobody Engineering, and agile,
customer-centered development of a propulsion system by Steerprop.
