Earlier this year, we joined students and staff at City, St George’s, University of London for the Grand Finals of Reshaping Engineering – a new pilot programme that took the structure from one of our global design challenges and placed it at the heart of an engineering degree course.
The challenge invited over 300 students from ‘The Engineer in Society’ module to reimagine what it means to be a globally responsible engineer. Across several weeks, students worked in teams to develop innovative solutions that tackled systemic issues, from access to education to community resilience.
Recognising the urgency to address our most pressing environmental challenges by 2030, the brief asked students to critically examine and rethink what “business as usual” means for the engineering profession. Participants were encouraged to consider how global responsibility could become a core value, rather than an afterthought, in the culture of engineering. In essence, Reshaping Engineering calls for bold, creative thinking that redefines engineering as a force for collective good.
Working in cross-disciplinary teams, students chose to tackle issues related to either education or practice, exercising their skills in systems thinking, human-centred design, and interdisciplinary collaboration.
From the 60 participating groups, three finalist teams were selected to present their ideas to a panel of expert judges. After much deliberation, Team 21 was awarded first place for their proposal to broaden access routes into higher education, garnering praise for their thoughtful, collaborative approach.
“Group 21’s ideas about broadening entry routes into higher education study were a great example of making the profession more inclusive,” reflected Colin Brown, Royal Academy of Engineering Visiting Professor at City St. George’s. “As a judge, I must commend all 60 of the Groups for how they embraced the spirit of the challenge to reshape engineering.”
Professor Rajkumar Roy, Executive Dean of the School of Science & Technology, added:
“I am very impressed with the teamwork students have demonstrated through 60 different groups.The quality of the ideas and realism of their implementations were very clear. Well done to Team 21 for the first prize, and the other two teams who were close too!”
Rayann El-Kachtoul, President of the Engineers Without Borders Chapter at City St. George’s, member of the judging panel and recent winner of the UK Chapter Design Challenge, added:
“Judging this competition felt surreal, it felt full circle to now be on the other side, as I was in their shoes not too long ago. Seeing the passion and creativity on display was genuinely inspiring. Group 21 really stood out – their vision felt personal, impactful, and necessary. Their project tackled systemic barriers in university admissions through offering implementable reforms. What impressed me the most was how they managed to align with the UN Sustainability Goal 4 by working on widening access to quality education.”.
Throughout the challenge students developed a deeper understanding of their responsibilities as future engineers – 73% of students agreed that as a result of participating in the challenge, their understanding of Global Responsibility had significantly improved.
Course Leader, Professor Ken Grattan commented more broadly on the Reshaping Engineering programme as an integral part of the second year of ‘The Engineer in Society’ module, helping students to develop better teamworking skills around topical areas of engineering today.
“The focus on SMART goals to provide clarity, focus and motivation and by making goals specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound helps students significantly to increase the likelihood of success” stated Ken, “They provide a clear road map toward set objectives, by breaking them down into manageable tasks – a key skill for engineers today.”
Initially developed as an international design challenge, Reshaping Engineering has now been successfully implemented in partnership with City, St. George’s as a credit-bearing course module. The pilot demonstrated how the programme can be embedded directly into the structure of engineering education, providing students with real academic value as they engage with issues of equity, sustainability, and global responsibility.
“Reshaping Engineering is one part of a four-year module we co-designed called ‘The Engineer in Society’, comments Tim Wilson, Universities and Partnerships Lead at Engineers Without Borders UK. “City St. George’s is committed to shaping their students as future leaders in engineering, and this module showcases how sound engineering ideas make a difference in the world.”
Professor Roy, expands further, “our engineering students are going to shape the future. It is necessary that our students learn their leadership role within society.”
We are proud to have partnered strategically with City, St. George’s, University of London for over four years. Throughout this collaboration, we’ve strengthened our shared commitment to shifting the needle in educating socially and globally responsible professionals. This partnership enables us to work closely with a university to drive change at all levels, from modular delivery and individual learning opportunities to faculty development, degree program influence, and ultimately, systemic transformation.
In 2022, we ran a bespoke team-building workshop for the City, St. George’s educator team with attendance from the Royal Academy of Engineering, which was a key precursor and contributor to the development of our Global Responsibility Competency Compass and Reimagined Degree Map.
We have also been a continued sponsor of City, St. George’s National Symposium on Developing Socially Responsible STEM professionals, a cross-disciplinary event open to all educators, discussing and sharing insights into the challenge of embedding social responsibility in education and practice, and the industrial commitment to social agendas.
This year, through our continued partnership with City, St. George’s, we have been able to showcase the potential of an Engineers Without Borders UK Chapter to advocate for globally responsible practise – from running an engineering hackathon to taking part in and winning our inaugural UK Chapter Design Challenge.
Reshaping Engineering and our broader partnership with City, St. George’s offer a glimpse of what’s possible when students are invited to ask deeper questions and design with global responsibility at the core. By embedding these conversations directly into academic curricula, we’re not just preparing students to graduate – we’re preparing them to lead change in their professions, their communities, and the systems they will shape.
Interested in partnering with us to deliver programmes at your university? Get in touch: [email protected].
