Winners of Best Student Project 2026

This year’s winners impressed the jury with strong interdisciplinary work, demonstrating the potential for more targeted condition monitoring.

We congratulate Marie Gjerdevik-Henanger and Eirik Hellegård Indrebø as winners of the best BSc project 2026.

The project title is “Development of an offshore wind turbine jacket prototype for structural health monitoring applications”.

A challenging and highly motivating project

The project offered an opportunity to address a real engineering problem involving mechanical structures for renewable energy applications.

The students followed the entire development process, from generating and evaluating possible concepts to creating the CAD model and production drawings.

The design was analysed using FEM before the physical prototype was built and tested.

– One of the most valuable aspects of the project was the collaboration across different engineering disciplines. Combining mechanical engineering with automation and sensor technology gave a broader understanding of how these fields work together, explains the winners.

It was especially rewarding to see that the results from the physical tests corresponded well with the FEM analyses. Seeing a design developed on a computer become a physical structure that performed largely as predicted was a valuable experience.

Marie:

"The bachelor’s project gave me valuable experience with the entire engineering process, from design and simulations to manufacturing and testing. It also showed me how important coordination between different disciplines is. This has motivated me to continue my studies at NTNU, where I am pursuing a master’s degree in Mechanical Engineering and Production, specializing in Management and Systems Engineering."

Eirik:

"The bachelor’s project provided valuable experience in the development, simulation and testing of mechanical structures, while also offering insight into how engineering solutions can support renewable energy development. I am currently pursuing a master’s degree in Energy and Process Technology at the University of Bergen, where I am building on my background in mechanical engineering and expanding my expertise within energy systems and process technology."

From left: Jon O. Hellevang (GCE Ocean Technology), Majid Anvari (Aker Solutions), Henrik Hodne Eliassen (DNB), Eirik Hellegård Indrebø and Marie Gjerdevik-Henanger (winners), Elisabeth Mohn Furre (DNB), Tone Røkenes (HVL), Rene Jenensch (Aker Solutions).

– The award is an inspiring example of something that is becoming increasingly important in todays and tomorrow’s working life, that the greatest challenges are rarely solved within a single discipline alone. They require people with different expertise to share insights, challenge oneanother, and build solutions together. When talented and passioned students recognise the value of a multidisciplinary approach, something greater than the sum of its parts emerges. This is how novel ideas, innovation and magical results are created, says Rene Jenensch, Department Leader at Aker Solutions.

The students were supervised by Tone Røkenes and Bjarte Sivertsen at HVL, and Majid Anvari from Aker Solutions.

The project involved extensive laboratory work, where the students worked independently, supported by excellent facilitation from our lab engineers.

– It has been a real pleasure supervising Marie and Eirik. They have been highly motivated and engaged throughout the entire process and have impressed us with both their strong academic understanding and practical insight. They have been curious, solution-oriented, and excellent to collaborate with, and the Ocean Young Award is a very well-deserved recognition of their work, says Tone.

Paving the way for smarter operations

The winning thesis demonstrated how vibration-based Structural Health Monitoring (SHM) can detect structural changes at an early stage, through changes in natural frequencies and dynamic response. The work was carried out in collaboration with Aker Solutions and was based on numerical analyses and experimental testing.

The results are paving the way for smarter maintenance, improved safety, and extended asset lifetime. By combining advanced simulations, physical testing, and sensor-based measurements, the work provides valuable insights for the future development of digital twins and condition-based monitoring systems.

An Impressive Level

– It was very impressive to see the results from the nominated student projects, says Jon Hellevang, R&D Manager at GCE Ocean Technology and Head of the jury.

– It is great to see how students collaborate with industry to provide innovative solutions to huge challenges. The winning project stuck out by a strong interdisciplinary collaboration, combining theory with experiments. Once again congratulations to the winners!

A new batch of student is soon to perform their BSc-project.

If you have ideas to student project you should submit this by 30 October.