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Grand Challenge – 2024

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The Grand Challenge is a three-week project where students work in cross-disciplinary and cross-year teams to conceptualise, design and produce a product (in line with CDIO). They produce a business case, and a promotional video and demonstrate their prototype at a trade show event to peers, staff and industry contacts. Each group is assigned a member of staff as a non-executive director, and there are industry talks, masterclasses on business and media, and a technical helpdesk available to support them.

Healthcare first place: Facilitas Systems A&E Self Service Kiosk

This innovation is a virtual receptionist to be located in hospital A&E departments to reduce waiting times. The patient is prompted with a set of pre-set questions, and a camera and temperature and pulse sensors take readings. Patients are ranked according to a severity score (higher severity is seen sooner) and data is sent to relevant departments ready for a doctor consultation.

Students:

  • Ben Keith – Biomedical Engineering
  • Stefan Bunder – Electronic and Electrical Engineering
  • Finley Millican – Mechanical Engineering
  • Josh Wood – Mechanical Engineering
  • Abdullah Tahir – Mechanical Engineering
  • Sohaib Farooq – Electronic and Electrical Engineering
  • Nissa Binte Haji Saiful Azmi – Biomedical Engineering
  • Kai Melia – Mechanical Engineering

Prize awarded: £600

Education and Industry first place: Peak Projections

Peak Projections’ ‘Path Pal’ is a product which helps ensure safety and allow for personalised coaching to improve rock climbing abilities. It enhances rock climbing proficiency through innovative projection technologies, and incorporates gloves with pressure sensors so that relative pressure can be found from the fingers to the feet, in order to prevent injury. Software tracks the climbers’ body and suggests a next handhold, graded by difficulty.

Students:

  • Ruaidhri Taylor – Biomedical Engineering
  • Aran Gnanendran – Electronic and Electrical Engineering
  • James Duffin – Mechanical Engineering
  • Hasan Fazal – Mechanical Engineering
  • Owen Menzies-White – Sport Engineering
  • Abdulmalik Adediwura Aderinto – Electronic and Electrical Engineering
  • Nijendra Bhandari – Biomedical Engineering
  • Jacob Windsor – Mechanical Engineering

Prize awarded: £600

Housing / Living first place: Level Up Garden

The Level Up Garden is a simple, space-saving gardening system that provides a fun and sustainable aspect to gardening. It’s a multi-level modular vertical gardening system utilising an Arduino and sensor inputs to gamify the gardening experience. It’s controlled using a ‘GardenIT’ app which allows the user to monitor plant health, access interactive games, and view a global leaderboard.

Students:

  • George Fisher – Sport Engineering
  • Mahmoud Eletreby – Electronic and Electrical Engineering
  • Yanis Ghrib – Mechanical Engineering
  • Alfie Gemmell – Mechanical Engineering
  • Zuhaib Waheed Aslam – Mechanical Engineering
  • David Oluyeye – Electronic and Electrical Engineering
  • Aiden Wymant – Mechanical Engineering
  • Safa Arfan – Biomedical Engineering
  • Kush Desai – Aerospace Engineering
  • Yousuf Salek – Mechanical Engineering

Prize awarded: £600

Search and rescue first place: Emberguard

Emberguard is an innovative wearable sensing technology designed to minimise the risk of heart problems seen in firefighters, specifically in wildfires. It comprises a compression shirt, PPG wristband, and flexible embedded PCB connected to sensors mounted on the shirt. It measures heart rate, blood oxygen, blood pressure and air quality to estimate risk. If a risk is detected, it identifies the nearest team members and medical facilities in order to expedite sending medical attention.

Students:

  • Fatima Ali – Biomedical Engineering
  • Fred Hamley – Electronic and Electrical Engineering
  • Ethan Geoghegan – Mechanical Engineering
  • Victor Zheng – Mechanical Engineering
  • Gorang Singh – Mechanical Engineering
  • Abdulla Mohammed Alnaimi – Electronic and Electrical Engineering
  • Reuben Adusei – Mechanical Engineering
  • Charlie Franks – Aerospace Engineering

Prize awarded: £600

Transport first place: Lainz

Lainz is a travel planning app which uses AI to optimise travel routes and incentivise sustainable choices. It factors in different potential modes of transport and provides environmental impact metrics, and personalises travel based on users’ previous habits and real-time data. Sustainable travel is rewarded by blocktrain tokens.

Students:

  • Ella Thompson – Biomedical Engineering
  • Aqeel Bello – Electronic and Electrical Engineering
  • Harry Speed – Mechanical Engineering
  • Aral Hakverdioglu – Mechanical Engineering
  • Mus’ab Abdurrahman Abdullah – Mechanical Engineering
  • Noor Saleh – Mechanical Engineering
  • Dan Durham – Aerospace Engineering
  • John Camara – Mechanical Engineering
  • Mo Sawo – Electronic and Electrical Engineering

Prize awarded: £600