Students from Bialystok University of Technology built Santa’s sleigh. They will donate it to the auction of the 30th Grand Finale of the Great Orchestra of Christmas Charity!

The idea to build a sleigh that could be donated to charity came from Mateusz Adaszczyk, Head of the BUT Career Development and Alumni Relations Office.

– We wanted all faculties of Bialystok University of Technology to get involved in the action of building Santa’s sleigh, explains Assoc. Prof. Jarosław Szusta, DSc, PhD, Eng, Vice-Rector for Student Affairs. – I agreed to this idea on the condition that we build the sleigh at no cost and that the effect would be donated to charity. Despite the classic construction of the sleigh, we also wanted to make use of modern technologies available at Bialystok University of Technology. We teach creative thinking and creative activities, so we decided to use modern construction materials. We were also thinking about sustainable development and a low-carbon economy. In practice, this means that we used recycled materials to reverse their course in the life cycle of a technical object.

 
Before the construction of the sleigh elements could begin, a technical design was needed. It was handled by Karolina Sobolewska, a student of the Faculty of Architecture, who previously worked in the team designing the Podlasie region’s Xylopolis exhibition for the EXPO 2020 in Dubai.

– How many times in life does a designer get a chance to design Santa’s sleigh,” laughs Karolina Sobolewska. – I knew that the sleigh had to be made of wood and the skids of metal elements. Of course, there is also the logo of Bialystok University of Technology on the sleigh.

– The whole community got involved in the work of the mattress for the sleigh, but without the assistant to the Vice-Rector, Anna Gromko, the idea would not have succeeded,” reveals Jolanta Owerczuk, PhD, Eng, Arch, Vice Dean for Student Affairs and Education at the Faculty of Architecture of Bialystok University of Technology. – She was the one with whom we made the instructional film, which explained to everyone how to make the colourful cotton balls for Santa’s sleigh. She was the one who sat with us in the evenings and nights at the Faculty of Architecture, trying to sew the missing elements and put the mattress together.

 
The administrative staff at the Faculty of Architecture also contributed to the work.

– The cotton balls, which made up the mattress in Santa’s sleigh, were sewn by students, the ladies from the reception desk and the ladies from the dean’s offices,” said Jolanta Owerczuk. – The coordinators of the campaign from the Career Development and Alumni Relations Office of Bialystok University of Technology and Vice-Rector Jarosław Szusta, played an invaluable role. The students painted the sleigh thanks to materials provided by our business partner, Lux Decor, including special impregnates for wood. Building this sleigh is a great satisfaction, although also a great effort.

Once the student from the Faculty of Architecture had created the design, students and technicians from the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering got down to work.

– Our task was to design the supporting structure for the sleigh,” says Łukasz Kotarski, a student of the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering of Bialystok University of Technology.

– The faculty members developed and produced drawing documentation, on the basis of which the sleigh was created,” explains Assoc. Prof. Łukasz Derpeński, PhD, DSc, Eng, Vice Dean for Development and Cooperation of the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering. – The technical staff welded the supporting structure of the skids and prepared the documentation enabling the cutting of individual elements made of plywood.

– We made the steel structure of the sleigh, cut the profiles, welded and sanded the welds,” says Bartosz Ostrowski, a technical worker at the Mechanical Engineering Faculty, about his work. – We made a steel construction for the sleigh, we cut the profiles, welded and ground the welds. I have welded many constructions before, but Santa’s sleigh for the first time.

This kind of activity for a very noble cause is very unifying for the students and employees of the various departments of our University,” sums up Prof. Derpeński. – It was very nice to see how selflessly everyone came together and worked on an idea which could help those in need in the future.

 
Our students assembled the wooden structure in the hall of the Faculty of Civil Engineering and Environmental Sciences.

– We tried to use recycled materials as much as possible – in the case of the Faculty of Civil Engineering and Environmental Sciences it was wood and plywood – explains Katarzyna Kalinowska-Wichrowska, PhD, Eng, Vice Dean for Development and Cooperation at the Faculty of Civil Engineering and Environmental Sciences. – We would like to thank the companies which only needed one signal to support the construction of Santa’s sleigh. These are Biaform from Bialystok and Unihouse from Bielsk Podlaski. Our faculty offered a big space for building the sleigh, for several days students and employees of other faculties have been visiting our hall and building individual elements of the sleigh.

– When we found out about a charity initiative that we could help with, we organised a team, as big as possible, of the members of our student association – says Piotr Wysocki from the Student Scientific Association “Konstruktor” operating at the Faculty of Civil Engineering and Environmental Sciences. – Our task was to create a sheathing for the metal structure, which came from the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering. We joined wooden elements together.

And since Santa Claus travels mainly after dark, students from the Faculty of Electrical Engineering at our University took care of the spectacular lighting of the sleigh.

– Every vehicle moving in the air must be illuminated,” says Wojciech Trzasko, PhD, Eng, Vice Dean for Development and Cooperation at the Faculty of Electrical Engineering. – The Faculty of Electrical Engineering was to prepare artistic illumination of the sleigh, of course, after consultation with architects. We illuminated the university logo in green (controlled wirelessly using an application), similar to the colours of the University, white or red, associated with the colours of our faculty. We used LED strips and controllers for each colour. We also decided to illuminate the benches so that there would be a nice glow inside the sleigh. The lighting was made by students of the Research Club of Electronics, which worked hard on the final effect.

– This lighting is battery-powered, – explains Damian Orzechowski from the Research Club of Electronics operating at the Faculty of Electrical Engineering, who was involved in the construction of the sleigh.

In the 21st century, even Santa’s sleigh cannot do without a bit of computer science and modern technologies.

– Students from the Faculty of Computer Science were very willing to get involved in the construction of the sleigh – explains Tomasz Grześ, PhD, from the Department of Information Systems and Computer Networks at the Faculty of Computer Science. – We will be able to watch the transmission from two cameras – one will show the sleigh’s surroundings and the other the inside.
The Faculty of Engineering Management also joined the initiative.
– The whole system was made as “the intelligence of things” – adds Michał Kowalski, a student of the Faculty of Computer Science. – We used the Raspberry Pi platform to connect to the cameras and the streaming platform.

– We took care of the information about the construction of the sleigh, so as to involve as many students as possible – says Artur Gołubowski, a student of the Faculty of Engineering Management.

– Our faculty got involved in the promotion and logistics of the sleigh’s construction – says Ewa Rollnik-Sadowska, PhD, Vice Dean for Student Affairs and Education at the Faculty of Engineering Management. – Students very willingly volunteered to document the events, take photographs, create information for social media and support the construction of the sleigh itself. Students from research clubs, in contact with their tutors, learned how information about the event could be disseminated and promoted. It was a very interesting experience, which showed that you can do something together, with the hands of individual faculties, and the effect is really amazing, and that you can use your skills and knowledge to spread information about such a very interesting University idea.

 
We did it together! – enthuses Mateusz Adaszczyk. – Employees from each faculty gave something of themselves, a gift from the heart. The idea was only the beginning. It took a lot of work to meet the deadline for this crazy project. Everyone was motivated by the fact that the sleigh is for a good cause. I hope that we, Bialystok University of Technology, as constructors and producers of the sleigh, will also contribute to the fact that children will feel our help. Once again, I would like to thank all the people who supported us, companies that donated sometimes substantial funds – together we have created a great project, which I hope will help many more people.

 

Thanks to the students’ initiative, the sleigh will be donated to the auction of the 30th Grand Finale of the Great Orchestra of Christmas Charity. Because, as our student said, it is fun to help others. In this case, the aid will go to children who need help from paediatric ophthalmology specialists.

The construction of the sleigh was supported by the following companies:

 

https://youtu.be/dj1r91j8Ty0 https://youtu.be/4Pwntg9w6QY https://youtu.be/-gvp72xixc4 

https://youtu.be/4ICbwB0T1Mk