SDC Ideathon 2026: 3D-printed food and plastic sorting drones
These were the two winning ideas among many innovative solutions developed during this year’s SDC Ideathon, where more than 150 master’s students from all seven MSc programmes at SDC worked intensively for 36 hours to tackle pressing global challenges.
Working in transdisciplinary teams, students moved rapidly from identifying problems to developing solutions and pitching their ideas. Guided by around 40 mentors from universities, industry, and Innovation Centre Denmark, participants were challenged to turn complex problems into actionable ideas.
“It was a success to once again see students from the Chinese side and the Danish side working very closely together in such a time-limited manner,” says Søren Boutrup, Science and Research Attaché at the Royal Danish Embassy in Beijing and mentor at the Ideathon.
Real-world challenges, real-world solutions
Each group of approximately five students worked on one of the two challenge tracks:
How can we empower and enable healthy ageing? And, how can we reduce plastic consumption and its environmental and health impacts?
Rather than treating the themes as theoretical exercises, students were asked to develop solutions grounded in real-life scenarios. Throughout the 36 hours, mentors from the industry and partner organisations were invited to help challenge the students’ assumptions and pushed them to consider implementation and real-world impact.
“The mentors made us think beyond theory and consider feasibility and market-fit, which has brought great value for all of our projects,” says Alexia Maria Sovar, who studies Innovation Management.
The dialogue with professionals working directly within life science and sustainability ensured that ideas were not only innovative, but also realistic.
“It’s been really fun using my experience to help keep some commercial grounding to their ideas and to encourage creativity whilst making sure there’s a realism as well,” says Ben Kirkeby, Brand Manager at Nine United.
Supporting shared, global goals
The two challenge tracks were inspired by the joint green work programme between Denmark and China, as well as by two of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs):
SDG 3: Good Health and Well-being, which aims to ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for people of all ages
SDG 12: Responsible Consumption and Production, which focuses on reducing waste, improving resource efficiency, and promoting sustainable production systems
By working on these themes, students were encouraged to develop ideas that could contribute to healthier societies and more sustainable use of resources.
“I think this is a fantastic opportunity to combine students from Denmark and China – two countries which are leading in development of technology - and hopefully have them come up with some innovative solutions to some of the biggest problems we have on our planet,” says Troels Skrydstrup, Professor of Organic Chemistry at Aarhus University.
Learning beyond the classroom
As in previous years, the Ideathon was not only about winning - but about learning and sharpening skills rarely practiced in their traditional courses; rapid ideation, collaboration across disciplines, and pitching ideas.
“It is really important for all the students regardless of disciplines to utilize their knowledge in action by working on ideas, and also on soft skills like networking and collaboration, because we know these skills are in high demand in the industry,” says Dmitrij Slepniov, who is Head of the Innovation Management programme.
But the two days of intense work also presented a rare opportunity for the students to work across disciplines and cultures, and to use this opportunity to share experiences and learn from one another.
“It’s been very interesting to learn different things from students from completely different backgrounds and cultures,” says Mingxuan Liu, who studies Nanoscienceand Technology.
“We talked a lot about how plastic is produced and reused in the EU compared to China, and I’m looking forward to continuing those discussions after the event.”
What the mentors get from it
Although the mentors are invited to guide the students and help them make the best possible solutions, many also experience the Ideathon as a source of inspiration and a learning experience.
“It’s been really enjoyable to see a little bit more creative thinking, than when you’re stuck in corporate and too focused on KPI’s. So, it’s been nice to see some young innovators, that are not constrained by the real world,” says Ben Kirkeby.
Mentors from Innovation Centre Denmark (ICDK) in Shanghai also saw strong potential in the students’ work, and they have a lot of hope for future innovation after seeing the students work:
“It’s great to see the students learn from each other and from the insights from the mentors, and it’s been really inspiring seeing what solutions they’ve come up with within green transition and life science,” says Le Chang, who is Innovation Officer at ICDK Shanghai.
A platform for future impact
Beyond the competition itself, organisers hope that the strongest ideas may eventually develop into real-world innovations or even start-ups.
“Another takeaway for the students is that we hope the strongest ideas can become a catalyst for a real start-up emerging from this process. It would be fantastic to see some of these ideas move beyond the Ideathon and into real-life applications,” says Dmitrij Slepniov.
The 2026 Ideathon was once again organised by Amalie Maj Christensen (University of Copenhagen), Valeria Gulieva (Aalborg University) and Morten Foss (Aarhus University), who is thrilled by this year’s iteration of the Ideathon and enthusiastic about it’s evolution going forward:
“This was the third edition of the SDC Ideathon, and we’re already looking forward to organizing the next one in 2027,” says Morten Foss.
