A University of Greenwich team has beaten tough competition from 8500 participants to win this year’s Engineering for People Design Challenge. George Mathieson, BEng Computer Engineering student, details his team’s journey.
Start your journey to success
This year’s Engineers Without Borders’ (EWB) Engineering for People design challenge was to come up with a solution to one or more of the socioeconomic problems that the deprived Glaswegian town of Govan is currently facing. After much thought, my team decided upon a concept – later dubbed HealthPod – that would tackle three key areas: Food, healthcare, and the built environment. It does so by reusing decommissioned shipping containers for a thermally closed-loop public space and indoor vertical farm hybrid, offering ease and affordability over the building of traditional facilities. This all helps to accelerate development of the area in the most environmentally friendly and energy-efficient way while allowing residents to get involved directly.
At this time, the project is awaiting further recognition from potential stakeholders before we can even begin to explore turning the idea into a viable business. Despite this, myself and other members of the team are looking into an evolution of HealthPod that we hope to enter into even bigger competitions over the next year or two. We’ll be sending an email out to engineering, science, and potentially business students inviting them to participate soon.
Get inspired by your module projects
The project was initially part of a Year One engineering module and we wanted to approach it in such a way that every member of the team would walk away with transferable skills that would be valuable in our careers post-graduation.
“Some members of the team developed their skills in using professional software packages; some dug into published research that they wouldn’t have explored otherwise, and others benefited most simply from the experience of working in a dynamic team pursuing a high standard of work,” said Mathieson.
Once we found out we’d made it through to the grand finals, we were thrilled with how the University of Greenwich supported our further efforts and participation – Senior Lecturers Nick Green and Deborah Sims were also incredibly supportive throughout the whole process. The best thing about it being so closely tied to our course modules was that we were able to document the whole process. The outcome just goes to prove how capable we were as a collective and, ultimately, how it was worth it in the end.
A lasting impact with the University of Greenwich
EWB was a brilliant organisation to work with. The sheer breadth of benefits from the experiences they enabled was beyond our expectations. The grand finals at the Strathclyde Technology and Innovation Centre in Glasgow were a unique opportunity to demonstrate public speaking, gain insight into the very industries we’ll be working in after university, obtain feedback and recognition for the work we had put so much time into, and make contacts that will prove to be invaluable in our careers.
“The whole experience was so positive that, going forward, we’ve all committed to grabbing every similar opportunity with both hands. We genuinely think this is going to have a lasting impact on our lives and, for that reason alone, we highly recommend that others actively seek such opportunities too, including those outside of the University,” added Mathieson.
The Engineering for People Design Challenge aims to inspire undergraduate students to create solutions to challenges while considering social, environmental, and economic implications. 8,500 participants from across the UK and Ireland took on this year’s challenge, with only 36 teams being invited to the Grand Finals to pitch their ideas to the judges. The University of Greenwich is hugely proud of George Mathieson, Imo Ekanem and Meghan Kelly-Hancock and we wish them every success on their next ventures.
