Nordic students tackled complex challenges

Nordic Case Challenge took place at Reykjavík University from 8 to 12 March. Nordic Case Challenge is based on a collaboration between universities and companies, where the goal is to connect theoretical knowledge with practical situations. The competition gives students the opportunity to work in teams, tackle complex projects and meet students from other countries. This time, students worked with projects from Icelandic companies Carbfix and Alvotech.

This year, teams from 10 Nordic universities, including Reykjavík University, participated. BI, NHH, NTNU and Agder from Norway, CBS and Aarhus from Denmark, SAMK and LAB from Finland and Lund from Sweden. Students put in a lot of hard work in preparation for the competition under the guidance of coaches from each school.

The students worked on a challenge from Carbfix in mixed teams and then competed in the finals to solve a challenge from Alvotech. It was NTNU that emerged as the winner, with Aarhus University in second place and LAB in third place.

Stefán Drengsson from Alvotech watched the students present the results of their work after receiving a rather complicated task from the company. “In short, the challenge was about how the company could respond to new regulations on increased requirements for the use of renewable materials in pharmaceutical packaging, and how such an implementation could take place over the next four years,” said Stefán. “What was pleasantly surprising was how well the students managed the challenge in such a short time. They showed good data collection, clear presentation and did a good job answering questions. They only had 15 hours to complete, which is not a lot of time for such a comprehensive challenge that they had not seen before,” said Stefán after the competition.

Jón Helgi Guðmundsson, Karen Nordquist Ragnarsdóttir, Orri Einarsson and Viktoría Ósk Kjærnested competed on behalf of RU and performed excellently. Jón Helgi was on one of the winning teams in the Carbfix challenge and RU's team came in second place in the semi-finals of the Alvotech challenge, against NTNU who ultimately won the competition.