One of the things the MSc Food Process and Product Engineering consistently aims for is exactly what its own website describes: students coming into direct contact with companies from industry at an early stage, combining practical work in food process engineering with real scientific exposure. The DIL Technology Day is one of the clearest expressions of that in practice and this year, our FPPE-students were there for both days of it. 

The event, held at DIL in Quakenbrück, brings together researchers, industry professionals, start-ups, and technology providers from across the food sector. For FPPE students, attending the event means stepping into a room full of the people and organisations working on the exact fields the programme covers – from fermentation and novel processing technologies to sustainability, digitalization, and food innovation. 

The exhibition area was where a lot of the most direct learning happened. Students moved between booths, speaking with technology providers and industry partners about the solutions they are actually building, not as a tour, but as genuine conversations between people who share a technical language. Since their curriculum already includes process engineering, life cycle assessment, and food safety, FPPE-students arrive at the industry exhibition with better questions than students from other fields. 

The poster session brought a different kind of energy: Researchers presenting their own work, students engaging directly with the scientific topics, discussions going longer than planned, the kind of exchange that only happens when the work on the poster connects to something you have already spent time thinking about in a module or a lab. 

The FPPE is built on the principle that research-driven learning and practical training belong together. Students are introduced to current research and scientific work early, and brought into direct contact with industry. Days like this that this principle leads into practice and is not only a statement on a webpage.

Catch up on everything from this year’s event at dil-technology-day.com