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Faculty of mechanical engineering

DAAD Summer School 2023: Focusing on Innovation and Sustainability in Beverage Production

Teilnehmer der Summer School im Braulabor © IPS​/​TU Dortmund

In early December 2023, René Wöstmann, Nikolai West, and Marius Syberg traveled to Sydney to conduct the DAAD Summer School on Internet of Things (IoT), Machine Learning (ML), and Sustainability in the Beverage Industry. With the support of Josef Kimberger from the Bitburger Brewery Group, the group of lecturers gave the students from the University of Technology Sydney (UTS) a week of inspiration on the practical application of ML and IoT.

This year, alongside digitalization and the brewing process, a particular focus was placed on reducing the Product Carbon Footprint in the brewing industry. The participants gained insights into digitalization technologies such as database systems, IoT platforms, and machine learning methods, applying these approaches directly to the brewing process. Through interactive workshops and a hackathon, dashboards for condition monitoring of the brewing process were developed, and an optimized brewing recipe was created using ML techniques, with a strong emphasis on sustainability aspects.

A highlight of this year was the excursion to Grifters Brewery. This visit provided the participants with an insight into a real brewery. The visit to Bürkert Fluid Control Systems complemented the program with valuable insights into state-of-the-art control and regulation technology, especially the application of various types of connectivity.

The program concluded with the practical application of the learned concepts: under the guidance of the experts, a recipe was brewed, which, according to the parameters, had the lowest Product Carbon Footprint. The Summer School also offered a platform for valuable exchange about study and career opportunities at German universities.

The "Sommerschulen im Ausland" program of the DAAD is funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF).