As a recent graduate with a Bachelor's degree in Food Technology from ZHAW, I take every opportunity to connect with inspiring professionals in the industry. It’s not just about meeting new people and having insightful conversations, it’s also about putting my up-to-date academic knowledge, curiosity, and creativity to work on real-world challenges, and building something new together.
During the Pioneer Innovation Challenge, I had the chance to work on a challenge from Emmi Group alongside two fellow students and a new teammate I met through the program. Our mission: to develop innovative product ideas for high-protein beverages.
My personal highlight? The prototyping workshop.
We had the perfect drink – on paper.
On this day, things got serious! We had to literally “bring our idea into the glass”. Our first recipe? A disaster. Despite all the theory about the sweetening power of sucralose, our first drink was a total flavour failure, far too pungent, far too intense. But that's exactly what made the prototyping workshop so valuable: we were able to experiment with real ingredients, test our senses, discuss - and develop a flavourful prototype in a short space of time. No textbook could have conveyed this experience to us so precisely.
In addition to hands-on work, the workshops on design thinking, idea development, and co-creation gave me a fresh perspective. The challenge taught me how to build a tangible, pitch-ready project from the ground up – in a team, in a tight timeframe, and with a clear goal.
