協定校シーズンプログラム （デンマーク工科大学） 2022年6月2日～8月19日

My purposes of studying abroad are learning of environmental initiatives in Denmark and being confident in myself by overcoming weaknesses such as programming and discussion in a big group. Denmark is environmentally advanced country and Danish is good at speaking in English, so Denmark is appropriate country for my purposes.

I had three intensive courses of summer university DTU in three months. Each lecture was approximately full 15 days and I had a week off between the courses. The first course starts from June 2nd and end on June 24th. The second one was from July 4th to 22nd and the third one was from August 1st to 19th.

In summer university DTU, you can choose the course from 200 different courses.
I chose "Smart cities" for the first course. In this course, I learned about relationship of smart city and sustainable goal, indicators and technology of smart city, urban issues and solutions.
The second course was “Decision Making Under Uncertainty” and I learned the techniques to address the decision making processes under uncertainty with appropriate quantitative methods Engineering”such as stochastic programming and robust optimization.
The third course was "Innovation in Engineering”and I get the mindset of innovation thinking and become familiar with a toolkit of methods and tools for innovation.

1. Smart cities
This course consists of Lecture, Reading, Exercises a nd Group work. I learned what is "Smart cities", the indicators and the technologies in the lecture and reading. We visited DOLL Living Lab and had a look around cutting edge technologies and system in the smart city. In the group work, we considered a bicycle delivery service for non food as a solution for the greener and faster delivery of online shopping items. We had six members in the group and I suggested comparing the service with the existing
service s and considered the relating smart city indicators in the group discussion. By researching about existing services, I contributed the group work and learned about delivery services in Denmark. We made a pitch in front of the professor in the last day. Since it was first time to do pitch, I was nervous, but we delivered the idea well and received a high evaluation.

2. Decision Making Under Uncertainty
This course consists of Lecture, Exercises (Individual and Group) and Group Formulation of optimization problems including uncertainty was more difficult than I expected. But hopefully the lecture was on demand, so I could watch the lecture again and again until I understan d the content.
We used Julia as a programming language and Gurobi Solver as an optimization software. Regarding to the programming, I had an aversion to it and I wanted to change that feeling. I realized that I can program calculation part of optimization problem well (although I tend to stall when input and output of data) through working on the exercises in the course. It was good for me to know that there is a strong area even though in my weak points. Also, I formulate the group with summer exchange students for the group work. Since the assignment was difficult, we worked together even though outside school hours and had dinner a lot.

3. Innovation in Engineering
This course consists of Lecture, Exercises and Gro up work. The first week was Boost module and we did activities for team formation and learned innovation theory. The second and third week were experience module and worked on arrange ment of stakeholders, data collection, ideate, conceptualize, prototyping, improving and deliver. Theme of innovation was “Transport for all” and we considered accessible and user friendly check in and out system without smart personal devices. Our group developed the simplified ticket system for elderly people and disabled people which use the health card for ticket checking.
In the course, Double diamond scheme was used for innovation process and Mindset model was used for evaluation of the idea concept. Since I and other group members were not accustomed to the process to expand the idea, it was difficult to follow the Double diamond process and we tended to try short cut the process. However, we succeeded conceptualizing idea and delivering it to the other groups.

I learned and developed capability in mainly three fields; Environmental issues, Programming and Creativity through studying in DTU and living in Denmark.
Firstly, I learned environmental issues and solutions through“Smart cities” course and living in Denmark. For exampl e, a sensor technology to measure pollutants in air or water, diverse use of eco friendly mobility, bio energy plants with ski slope in Copenhagen and many eco products in supermarkets. These knowledge cannot be applied in my research, but they improved my sustainability mind and they will help my job which is construction consultant including renewable energy and city planning
Secondary, I overcame the feeling like I am not good at programming through the second course. Though I am using programming for my research, I used only the bare minimum before I study in DTU I would like to exploit it for now and look for the suitable language.
Finally, the third course and living in Denmark gave me the scheme to improve creativity and confidence myself to challenge new things. I realized that the double diamond scheme itself and the process to expand the idea are new , but the essential foundation for creating idea (; explore needs, find problem, approach it from variable perspectives) is not very new for me through the course. That discovery lowered the bar for “Creativity things”.
Also, I faced what I was not good at in this study abroad. That fact will give me brave to challenge new things.

1. Bicycle
Denmark especially Copenhagen is known as the town of bicycle. Many Danish use bike as means of commuting to work or school and I also used bike to go to school. Every road in Denmark has smooth and comfortable bike path and traffic light s are adjusted for suitable bike velocity. Some roads even place air pumps and there are many bicycle parking lots in Denmark. Also, you can bring bike to trains for normal fee.
It took 50 minutes from the accommodation to the school, though I was surprised at the comfortableness of bike. On the other hand, other tran sportation such as bus and train are not convenient as much as Japan. There are less stop s and less number of bus/train. Also, some roads do not have pedestrian path and set the top priority for bicycle. However, commuting by bike along forest and lake was awesome.

2. Culture shock
There are mainly three culture shocks in Denmark.
Firstly, the cost of living is high. The cost of food, daily necessities and transportation are 1.5～2 times as expensive as Japan. So, I had to cook everyday and rarely went eating out. But some vegetables and fruits are cheaper than Japan and I enjoyed them.
Secondary, there are a lot of cigarette litters on roads Since my image of Danish were caring nature a lot, it was disappointing. On the other hand, my group member used nicotine gum, there probably be many types of opinion and people.
Thirdly, opening hours of supermarkets, shops and offices are very short. Pharmacy is also short opening hours, it was inconvenient when I wanted to buy medicine for allergy. But I thought that inconvenient helps healthy way of working and well being in Denmark.

3. Well being
As I mentioned short opening hours, many Danish people enjoyed dinner from early time even though it is in weekdays . And I felt that Danish people are health conscious as well as they are env ironmentally conscious. For example, many people use bicycle, many vegetables are marked Danish flag (produced in Denmark), my group member skipped class when she felt bad even a little and etc.
I guess they behave based not on how they are seen, but based on how they want to do or how their action give impact to others. I do not know this emotional leeway are coming from high welfare system or cultural mind, but I thought the mind caring myself, others and impact of my action is amazing and it will be essential for sustainable society. As I tend to care how I am seen too much and focus on my work too much and disrespect my health, I would like to remind the living in Denmark and have Danish leeway.