Visit to the Future Food Factory of Technische Hochschule Ostwestfalen-Lippe

The planning of the visit of Jarmo Alarinta, Karri Kallio and Gun Wirtanen to Technische Hochschule Ostwestfalen-Lippe (TH OWL) in Lemgo started in December 2022. We contacted Prof. Dr.-Ing. Björn Frahm, who has been our contact in two recent master theses performed by TH OWL students, Ms Sylvia Fasse and Ms Carolin Müller, at Seinäjoki University of Applied Sciences in 2020-21. These master theses were performed with excellence despite the corona outbreak. Our contact Prof. Frahm gave the planning of our programme to Dr. Manuel Zimmer, who prepared a well-filled program with presentations on TH OWL by professors and leaders. Furthermore, there were visits to various TH OWL laboratories in the Future Food Factory e.g., the Sensory Lab, Beverage Technology Laboratory, Chemistry laboratory, Protein and meat laboratory, Smart factory OWL and Biotechnology laboratory, as well as to well-known sights in Lemgo with surroundings e.g., the Museum Hexen Bürgermeisterhaus, the Externsteine and the Hermannsdenkmal (Figure 1). This 3-d visit to TH OWL took place in late January 2023 (Figure 2).

Figure 1. Well-known sights in Lemgo with surroundings: a) the Externsteine and b) the Hermannsdenkmal in the mist. Mr Sebastian Wittland, who is also seen on the picture to the left, took us to these sights. The picture was taken by the IT-system administrator Arthur Isaak.

Figure 2. Picture from the roof of the main campus with Jarmo Alarinta, Karri Kallio, Björn Frahm & Gun Wirtanen. The picture was taken by the IT-system administrator Arthur Isaak.

Then back to the scientific programme. On the first day we met with James O’Reilly, Head of the International Office at TH OWL, who gave a thorough presentation of the profile areas at TH OWL. Thereafter Prof. Dr. Stefan Witte presented the Innovation Campus in Lemgo. He told about current development within the Future Food Factory OWL. He highlighted the synergies in research, education and business. All three SeAMK representatives gave short presentations to the TH OWL audience. Afterwards, all participants exchanged possibilities for the exchange of students and researchers (Figure 3).

Figure 3. In the audience there were a dozen members including the dean Prof. Dr. Thomas Gassenmeier. Here Karri Kallio is giving his presentation. The picture was taken by the IT-system administrator Arthur Isaak.

On the second day there were a lot of visits to various laboratories mentioned above. The SeAMK team members together with Prof. Frahm met with both Ms Sylvia Fasse, who is now working as a researcher in the Hochschule Bremerhaven, and Ms. Carolin Müller, who is working in the Sartorius company. On the third day we visited the Renewable energy field lab, where Timo Broecker told about energy research performed at the research station in Wendlinghausen. After this we visited the Strate Brewery Detmold (Figure 4).

Figure 4. The entrance to the Detmolder brewery. The picture was taken by the IT-system administrator Arthur Isaak.

There will be separate articles about the visits to various laboratories, the activities in the Enterprise Centre and the city tour.

Gun Wirtanen, Karri Kallio & Jarmo Alarinta
SeAMK, Seinäjoki, Finland

Arthur Isaak
TH OWL, Lemgo, Germany