Hanwha Group Conducts Overseas Exploration with Winners of the 'Hanwha Science Challenge'

[Asia Economy Reporter Yoonju Hwang] Hanwha Group announced that from the 5th to the 12th, it conducted an overseas exploration program with future science prodigies who won awards at the 'Hanwha Science Challenge 2019.'

The exploration sites included advanced research institutions such as the Hanwha Q CELLS R&D laboratory in Germany, the Potsdam Astrophysical Institute boasting 300 years of research history, and the Netherlands Marine Research Institute conducting important studies on global warming. Ten high school students from five teams who won silver awards or higher in the 'Hanwha Science Challenge 2019,' which concluded in August last year, along with the president of the alumni association of past 'Hanwha Science Challenge' awardees, participated together.

This 6-night, 8-day overseas field trip provided science prodigies dreaming of future Nobel Prizes with opportunities to visit various renewable energy research institutions that they were interested in but had difficulty accessing. On the journey from Germany to the Netherlands, students experienced real-life applications of various renewable energies such as solar power, wind power, and tidal energy.

Starting on the 6th (local time), the students visited the Potsdam Astrophysical Institute (AIP), one of the top ten astrophysical research institutes worldwide. On the 7th, they visited the Hanwha Q CELLS Germany R&D Center located in Thalheim, Germany, and Feltheim, an energy self-sufficient village. The Hanwha Q CELLS Germany R&D Center is the world's first laboratory to commercialize high-efficiency silicon-based cells (PERC cells) and is one of the largest research centers in Europe.

The site that attracted the most interest from the students was the IBA Hamburg (Hamburg Urban Green Building Information Center), visited on the 8th. It was especially popular because they could experience firsthand how buildings themselves act as 'power plants' producing energy within urban spaces where citizens actually live.

Lee Kanghyun, a student at Seoul National University and president of the alumni association of past awardees, shared his thoughts: "Germany has more than two solar modules per capita, and I felt proud that Hanwha, a Korean company, is the market leader there."

On the 9th, the group visited the Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research (AWI) in Bremen, Germany, and on the 10th, they toured the Marine Research Institute (MARIN) and Wageningen University and Research in the Netherlands.

Meanwhile, the 'Hanwha Science Challenge' is the nation's top high school science competition, with over 10,000 cumulative participants over nine years. It is a future science and technology talent discovery program designed to enhance understanding of science in general?including energy (such as solar power), bio (diseases, food), climate change, and water?and to improve creative inquiry skills for a better future for the Earth and humanity. The ‘Hanwha Science Challenge 2020’ will begin accepting applications from March on the Hanwha Science Challenge website.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.