Accounting for NTNU’s China partnerships

SHANGHAI: Norway’s flag flew side by side with China’s on Friday, on the occasion of the opening of the Norwegian Pavilion at Expo 2010. After having officially opened the pavilion, HRH Crown Prince Haakon wanted to know what kind of cooperation NTNU had going with China.

“That was a welcome question,” said Rector Torbjørn Digernes to Universitetsavisa, after having made as concise and effective an accounting as possible about the relatively extensive relationships that NTNU has with universities around this enormous country.

Frozen polar bear tracks

It is well known that NTNU sent a large delegation in China, and the rector has had to defend the university’s use of resources in the Norwegian media. The area where technology from NTNU and SINTEF was showcased was the last stop in walk through by the crown prince’s walk-through of the Expo on Norway’s day.

The Norwegian Pavilion is entitled Powered by Nature. While the crown prince had just a carefully allotted amount of time for his visit, a number of Japanese professionals lingered. Here you find a tilted plate depicting a glacier where you can see footprints that show the wanderings of a polar bear. Professor Trygve M. Eikevik at the Department of Energy and Process Engineering at NTNU has been working with the cooling technologies used in the exhibit, and answered questions from interested parties.

Cooling technology from NTNU

“What we see here is an aluminium plate marked by footprints from a polar bear who is 3-4 years old. So, we have freezer pipe on the underside of the plate, so that we get condensation on it. When it cools down, we get a thick layer of frost on it, so it looks like the bear is walking on ice,” explains Eikevik.

Many visitors have arrived and put their hands on the frost-covered, glacier-like plate. Some jump, as if they are afraid that their hands will freeze in place.

Snow and traditional Norwegian stabbur

Polar bear footprints are reminiscent of a nation's global footprint, which should say something about greenhouse gas emissions. In line with Norway's own profile as an environmental nation, untarnished nature is a recurring theme at the exhibit. Even the Norwegian Pavilion’s building was praised by visitors. It looks like a purely wooden structure, although rumour has it that a steel bearing structure is outside. The roof, with many ridges and laminated beams designed to look like giant tree branches, induced many Norwegians and Chinese to snap pictures.

NTNU’s delegation and its many invited Chinese partners was ushered through the exhibit. In addition to polar bear tracks, the inside of the pavilion features picturesque Norway, with pictures of snow and traditional wooden storehouses, called stabbur. The exhibition consists predominantly of TV monitors embedded in the wooden structure.

Huge size

The Expo is of enormous dimensions. Roughly 200,000 people, mostly Chinese, visit the Expo each day. There are long queues in front of many pavilions. The biggest queue is in front of China's pavilion - the first arrive to line up at 2:00 -3:00 at night. You need to take a shuttle bus to get from one end of the Expo to the other.

Friday was the day when the Norwegian flag had the place of honour next to the flag from the host country. In the morning a new flag will replace Norway’s. These days, everyone wants to be next to China.