Last month, we ran the student Designathon for the third year in a row and ran a pilot of the professional design challenge, Reshaping Engineering. Both challenges were delivered in partnership with architecture charity AzuKo, and provided participants with a unique opportunity to reshape how engineering is taught and practiced to ensure a safe and just future for all.
During the final event on Monday 28 February, we announced the teams who the judges and public felt most effectively demonstrated global responsibility in their designs. The Reshaping Engineering People’s Prize winners were team RE22-005 with their design Moment for Change, a tool that allows employees of engineering companies to regularly receive a message or notification with a prompt inviting them to take a moment to step back, to think about responsibility, and to ask how they could make a difference. Learn more about the solution.
The Designathion People’s Prize winners were team D022-25 with their design, Climate Change Natural disaster Aid Map with the purpose to his map aims to predict what aid will be required before the disaster occurs so that the aid is already in place. Learn more about the solution.
The team that came in third place for Reshaping Engineering was RE22-013 with their idea, Promoting “Engineering Ethics”: Creating Engineers with Ethics (EwE). This solution is an open-source dashboard containing accessible summaries of auditing methodology, identifying weighting factors of non-financial criteria to calculate a single measurable index, and a database for engineers to share best practices. Learn more about the solution.
The team that came third place in the designathon was team D22-014 with their design, Re-Construct: an App to help Reclaim Construction Waste, a community-driven online platform facilitating the re-use of excess materials, helping to cultivate circular economic approaches within the construction industry. Learn more about the solution.
The team that came in second in Reshaping Engineering was team RS22-011 with their solution, Earth Source: A Communication and Mentoring Platform for Sustainable Choices, Practices and Solutions. Earth Source shall be a platform that hosts people from a wide, diverse range of disciplines, backgrounds, and cultures to ensure inclusivity. Diversity of opinion is known to be good when designing solutions, and Earth Source will optimise this through the provision of rich sources of sustainable design products, that are freely available for all to view. Learn more about the solution.
The team that came in second place for the Designathon was team D22-025 with the solution, Climate Change Natural Disaster Aid Map that also won the People’s Prize.
The team that came first in Reshaping Engineering was team RE11-001 with the design, A simple Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) tool for engineering design; covering the full supply chain and product lifecycle. This is a simple tool for engineers to document that they have considered the Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) impacts at all stages of a product’s life cycle and across the supply chain. Similar to a Risk Register or Quality Management Plan, this tool would become an embedded part of every design project and would promote more holistic thinking. The judges said the submission showed clear communication and collaboration and were impressed by the attention to detail and the amount of work the team presented. Learn more about the solution.
The team that came first in the Designathon was team D22-009 with their solution, Sustainable and Accessible Building Assessment (SABA) certification scheme. SABA will be set up as a non-governmental organisation with three layers of governance: a global team that will liaise with international organisations such as the United Nations to consider different needs and responsibilities of countries around the world; local teams based in regions or states that will handle the certification process; and national teams which will co-ordinate their respective local teams and communicate between the global and local teams. The judges said the team demonstrated a clear purpose, backed up by high-quality research. The team showed detailed considerations of the existing process and how it could be improved, and the impact this might have. Learn more about the solution.
Congratulations to all the teams who placed this year, and thank you to all who participated and supported the running of these events. We are excited to see where this inspiration takes those involved and hear how some of the designs evolve in practice.
