EDITOR’S CHOICE
DESIGN CHALLENGE
IMECHE
BRUNEL AND DURHAM ENGINEERING
STUDENTS WIN 2018 DESIGN CHALLENGE
Student teams from Brunel
University London and Durham
University have been crowned
champions of this year’s Design
Challenge, which is organised by the
Institution of Mechanical Engineers
to encourage young engineers to
develop their technical and design
skills.
Around 2000 engineering
undergraduates from across UK
take part annually in the Design
Challenge, a competition that
provides a taste of the ‘real world’
of engineering by setting teams of
up to five students a task to design,
build, test and present a mechanical
device based on a set technical
specification.
It is open to first and second year
students – Brunel’s team won
this year’s award for second year
students, while Durham won the first
year student category.
The Design Challenge is intended
to complement the academic
curriculum and allows participants
to showcase their design skills and
innovative ideas in projects that
form part of their course.
The final, which was held at the
Institution’s headquarters in London,
featured devices designed to climb
autonomously up inside a pipe
carrying an increasing load.
This year, the successful projects
included a scissor design that moved
up and down the tube in under four
seconds, a design with caterpillar
treads that worked on a timer to
successfully stop at the correct
point and also an exciting design
propelled using canisters of carbon
dioxide.
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PECM Issue 35
“We set up the Design Challenge to
show students that their academic
studies have real life application.
We want to build on their interest to
study the subject and subsequently
follow an engineering career. The
students give us great confidence for
the future of engineering in the UK,”
said Colin Brown, Chief Executive
of the Institution of Mechanical
Engineers.
“The experience was truly valuable.
We have become better engineers
by learning to work to deadlines. The
presentation and poster competition
made us more ready for the
corporate world,” said Sam Whelan,
leader of the Durham University
team.
For the universities, the competition
is a valuable opportunity to develop
their students’ creative and technical
skills.
“The Design Challenge provides
an essential and stimulating
professional-level engineering
project through which students
can benchmark themselves against
not only other universities but,
most importantly, the expectations
of industry,” said Professor Mark
Atherton, Brunel University London.
Results:
1st Year Winners:
National Champions: Durham
University (North Eastern Region)
Runner-up: University of Salford
(North Western Region)
3rd Place: Coventry University
(Midland Region)
Poster Competition: Coventry
University (Midland Region)
Presentation Competition: Coventry
University (Midland Region)
Design Excellence: University of East
London (Greater London Region).
2nd Year Winners:
National Champions: Brunel
University London (Greater London
Region)
Runner-up: Manchester Metropolitan
University (North Western Region)
Poster Competition: Manchester
Metropolitan University (North
Western Region)
Presentation Competition:
Manchester Metropolitan University
(North Western Region)
Design Excellence: Manchester
Metropolitan University (North
Western Region).
www.imeche.org/events/challenges/
design-challenge