Last week the Reshaping Engineering design challenge came to a close as we celebrated the winning solutions submitted by the 2023 cohort. The challenge, delivered in partnership with architecture charity AzuKo, returned for a second year to provide over 200 participants with a unique opportunity to reshape how engineering is taught and practised.
Throughout February, student and professional teams came together from around the world to develop solutions that aim to make engineering more globally responsible. Using the design thinking process, the teams reflected on the key challenges faced by the sector and led projects that considered how advocacy, knowledge exchange, cultural change, education, entrepreneurship and research could transform practice to ensure a more safe and just future for all.
“Every year the Reshaping Engineering challenge unlocks new ideas and lights a fire within its participants. Together we can make a positive impact.”
During the celebration event on Thursday 9 March, we announced the teams who the judges and public felt most effectively demonstrated the core principles of global responsibility in their designs. Check out the winning designs below.
Top Student team and Overall Winner
Team RE23-S06‘s design aims to educate STEM students across all levels about ethical engineering and empower them to advocate for these issues as part of a comprehensive “Ethical Engineer’s Toolbox”. The judges were impressed with this evidence-based and easily implementable design, and were pleased to see the clear process of learning and self-reflection presented by the team, expressing that the team were real “agents of change”.
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Special mention: RE23-S17
The judges wanted to give a special mention to team RE23-S17‘s design, which aims to “address the culture of disengagement with ethics education”, feeling there was “something magical about how it could be implemented tomorrow with no funding”. They were also really impressed with how clearly communicated the design was and the research the team had carried out to support their decision-making.
Top Professional team
Team RE23-P01 created a geo-locating tool that aims to reshape society, entrepreneurship and practice by increasing awareness, connectivity and giving visibility/accessibility to sustainable buildings. Wowed by the team’s prototype, the judges thought this was a really interesting and innovative concept, and something they would personally use.
Special mention: RE23-P09
The judging panel also wanted to give a special mention to team RE23-P09. The team aimed to unleash the potential of digital workspaces by creating a human-focused, multi-community synthetic environment. In particular, the judges were impressed with how the design could improve inclusivity in the sector by reducing communications barriers across cultures and languages.
People’s Prize winner
The public were also invited to review and vote for their favourite designs on CrowdSolve. Team RE23-S14 claimed the People’s Prize by creating a framework that aims to integrate ‘design thinking’ into the curriculum, receiving 80 votes in total for their design.
Congratulations to all of the teams who participated, whose designs you can still explore on CrowdSolve. We look forward to seeing where this inspiration takes those involved and hearing how some of the designs evolve in practice.
We’d like to share a huge thank you to the volunteers who enabled this event to happen, as well as our sponsor, Jacobs.
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