Album of the Day: Forever ends today – kiowa
Today was a day jam packed with interesting innovations. It all started around 11 am when we arrived at the floating farms here in Rotterdam. The company behind them, very aptly named Floating Farm, has managed to create a farm in which they can care for cattle, age cheese, and grow microgreens that floats perfectly off the massive port here in Rotterdam. Small fun fact: Rotterdam’s seaport is the largest in all of Europe, which means being able to build stuff on its waters and other waters quite useful. The limited land area of the Netherlands makes innovations like the floating farm very necessary for its future. Aside from the clear floating innovation, the farm also runs incredibly efficiently and sustainably. The feed for the cows comes from the waste of many establishments around the area (don’t worry, it’s good feed for them). The cows’ waste also goes directly into getting purified and watering the plants or being turned into other useful products. At some point, one of the interns there was working on creating functional building blocks out of the dried cow manure (kinda gross but it was actually pretty cool). The energy to run the farm is also sourced plenty sustainably, having around 50% of it come directly from solar panels next to the farm. Overall, the farm was a star in sustainable development (it also had incredibly good cheese, which has won many awards, and amazing milk!!).
After our farm adventure, we took a water taxi to RDM Rotterdam, what is essentially a massive makerspace for students and businesses alike. RDM Rotterdam is located in what used to be a massive shipyard right inside the Rotterdam seaport. Around 100 or so years ago, the shipyard was retired and sold off to a university, which turned it into a massive place for sustainable development. Half of the space is reserved for a massive makerspace for students at the Rotterdam University of Applied Sciences, while the other half is space that is rented out to companies that fit RDM’s goal of facilitating sustainable development. The maker space is insane, having space for students to create anything that is even remotely close to a good idea. Around a decade ago, a group of students used 500$ (and a chill sponsor from Siemanns) to build an electric car from scratch in a year, which now just sits there. What’s even more crazy than the student innovations are the companies stationed just next door. With its mission being to bolster sustainable development, the companies at RDM live up to the name. From companies working on restoring coral reefs, to establishing hydrogen power in any vehicle they can, the companies that are allowed in RDM Rotterdam are insanely cool. RDM even had the company responsible for the original hyperloop design, which is a magnetic train designed to reach speeds of over 200 kilometers per hour within an airtight tube that would work as its track. Overall, RDM is absolutely insane as an engineer and I’m incredibly jealous of everything in that building (Joan Gabel please upgrade Benedum hall please!!).
