Showcasing the impact of the MDU–Hitachi Energy strategic partnership

MDU recently welcomed senior leaders from Hitachi Energy for a visit highlighting key achievements and future opportunities within the strategic partnership between the two organisations.

The programme began with an introduction by Helena Jerregård, Deputy Vice-Chancellor for Collaboration, who presented MDU’s strategic priorities and ongoing initiatives to strengthen collaboration between academia and industry.

One of the featured presentations showcased research led by Professor Tiberiu Seceleanu, conducted within the PerFlex research environment and in collaboration with Hitachi Energy. The project addresses challenges related to real-time protection and energy transport protection systems, where customer-defined configurations can risk overloading system processors.

The developed solution enables rapid prediction of whether new configurations are safe, borderline, or unsafe, significantly reducing the need for time-consuming manual testing. An interactive user interface is also being developed to provide users with instant feedback on system performance prediction, with high accuracy.

The visit also highlighted the educational dimension of the partnership through a presentation by Phyllis Waithira Mungara, a student in MDU’s Master's Programme in Global Strategy and Management. Drawing on a case study of Hitachi Energy, the presentation explored how industry collaboration enhances learning by connecting academic knowledge with real-world challenges in global strategy, supply chain management, sustainability, and organisational transformation.

The visit demonstrated how the MDU–Hitachi Energy partnership creates value through research, innovation, and talent development, strengthening the connection between academic excellence and industrial impact.