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photo of students and academics outside the RAEng HQ in London

1 May 2019

Students compete in international competition hosted by the Royal Academy of Engineering

Two groups of students from the University have attended the first in a series of workshops hosted by the Royal Academy of Engineering (RAEng) and the Royal Society in London as part of the RAEng’s Global Grand Challenges Summit.

The groups submitted original product ideas for a solution to global engineering challenges centred around climate change, increasing populations and scarcity of resources.

The first team from the School of Architecture, Building and Civil Engineering, included two Civil Engineering students and two Architecture students who worked in a cross-disciplinary way to develop their idea for an emergency shelter.  

The team from Wolfson School presented an innovative idea for an energy neutral self-sustaining toilet. The team included students from Product Design Engineering, Innovative Manufacturing and also Economics.

After this first stage, the teams now need to further develop their idea and attend a two-day showcase event in late June to re-pitch their amended plans.

The top five teams from the UK will then represent UK universities in a global summit against teams from China and America in September, which will see 900 leading engineers from around the world congregate in London.  

The students are being supported by academics from their respective Schools who are mentoring them through the process.

Dr Ashraf El-Hamalawi, one of the team mentors, said: “This competition has been an ideal opportunity for our students to show their ingenuity and business development skills in developing and pitching an idea and concept to a challenging and informed board”.

Senior Lecturer in Product Design, Dr Mey Goh, who also attended the event, added: “The students have had a real insight into the development of ideas and business plans and the summit has provided an opportunity to share ideas with Engineering students from across the UK. We are really looking forward to the next phase in late June.”