Rockets, artificial hearts, a Mars rover and vehicles including boats, jet-powered aircraft, cars, and motorcycles were among the creations on display at the University of Bath’s 60th Engineering Design and Project Exhibition.
Showcasing final year, individual, and group design projects of students in the Departments of Mechanical Engineering and Electronic & Electrical Engineering, the event highlighted the range of challenges Bath student projects seek to solve, from declining numbers of pollinators to drug delivery and sustainable urban mobility.
As one of the UK’s top places to study engineering, Bath’s Faculty of Engineering and Design consistently scores highly in rankings of student satisfaction and graduate prospects. Its research-led teaching, cutting-edge facilities and extra-curricular activities give students the chance to learn the latest techniques that meet the wider needs of industry, ensuring great graduate career opportunities.
Bath graduates The Washing Machine Project give keynote lecture
The exhibition’s Joseph Black keynote lecture was delivered by Bath graduates Navjot Sawhney and Hélène Verhaeghe, Founder and Design Engineer of social enterprise The Washing Machine Project.
Navjot founded The Washing Machine Project in 2019 while pursuing a Master’s in Humanitarianism, Conflict and Development at the University. Having noticed during a visit to India the amount of time and effort spent washing clothes, he created the Divya, a flat-packed, hand-operated washing machine. Simple to build, transport and use, the Divya reduces water use and washes clothes 75% faster than doing so by hand, reducing the physical strain on users and freeing up their time to do other things.
Now working with partners including the UNHCR, Oxfam and the Whirlpool Foundation, the Washing Machine Project has distributed Divya washing machines to 15 countries, impacting more than 46,000 lives.
Sawhney said: “It’s quite emotional to come back to where this journey started. Bath was crucial in helping me to develop the Washing Machine Project and work out how we could help alleviate the burden of hand washing clothes that 60% of people around the world face, a burden that predominantly affects women and girls.
“We will soon be building machines in India as well as in the UK and US. We hope The Washing Machine Project’s story inspires students to use their skills to solve real-world problems and shows where engineering can take you.”
Student teams continue to flourish
Many of the group projects on show at the exhibition focused on the work of Bath’s successful student engineering teams.
The Faculty of Engineering & Design is home to 13 teams, such as Team Bath Heart, creators of a total artificial heart and twice champions of the world Heart Hackathon, and Team Bath Racing Electric, who build and race an battery-powered racing car each year, competing in Formula Student events around Europe. Other teams include:
- Team Bath Autonomous Sailing – developing autonomous sailing vessels capable of producing sustainable energy
- Bath Biodevices without Borders – producing water quality testing devices
- Team Bath Human Powered – creating a competitive recumbent bicycle for women
- Team Bath Hydrobotics – creating remote-operated underwater vehicles
- Bath Rocket Team – competing in the European Rocketry Challenge
- Bath Hydrogen – adapting an internal combustion engine to run on hydrogen
- Green Bath Racing – producing an ultra-energy-efficient single-person vehicle
- Bath TT Zero – creating and racing a zero-emissions racing motorcycle
- Team Bath Drones – Europe’s top drones team in 2024
- Team Bath Roving – creating and competing with Mars and Lunar rover vehicles
- Machcelerate – aiming to create the world’s fastest jet-powered model aircraft
Wera Hobhouse, MP for Bath, attended the exhibition and presented a prize to Team Bath Heart for its equality, diversity and inclusivity efforts. She said: “I commend the Faculty of Engineering & Design for its world-beating work to create meaningful change, which was demonstrated so well through the Engineering Design and Project Exhibition. In a world facing immense challenges, from the climate crisis to inequality, it’s up to all of us to problem-solve our way out of it, and it is fantastic to see our very own engineers from the University leading the way.”
Professor Tim Ibell, Dean of the Faculty of Engineering & Design, said: “Our Engineering Design and Project Exhibition is always such a fantastic event. It is a celebration of student ingenuity, ideas which will change the world, collaboration, vision for our future, and sheer brilliance! Well done to all involved, and thank you to all visitors for taking the time to see some extraordinary engineering of the future.”
Taking place for the 60th time in 2025, the exhibition pre-dates the University of Bath itself, which will celebrate its own diamond anniversary in 2026. The first exhibition was held in 1965, one year before the University was officially created by Royal Charter.
