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NTU Engineering Grand Challenge 2023

After the success of last year's Grand Challenge, our Engineering Heritage 2023 Grand Challenge was launched to first and second year Engineering students on Monday 27 March in the University Hall.

    Image of Aeroplane

    The Grand Challenge was launched by the Head of the Engineering Department, Professor Neil Mansfield:

    “Grand Challenge is a 3-week full-time project where teams of students conceive, design, and demonstrate a concept technical solution to an industry challenge. It encourages students to think creatively and solve problems using skills they have learned through the year. It is designed to be a challenge for everyone involved, but it is also designed to be fun, and it always delivers some inspiring and original ideas.”

    This year’s theme of Engineering Heritage fell under the Universities research theme of Global Heritage. The theme is divided into several sub themes:

    1. Discovering Historical Artefacts

    2. Analysis and Interpretation of Historical Finds

    3. Heritage Preservation

    4. Interactive Technologies to Enhance Heritage Sites

    5. Condition Monitoring

    As part of the Grand Challenge the students visited:

    • British Motor Museum, Warwickshire
    • Trent Bridge Cricket Ground, Nottinghamshire
    • Clumber Park National Trust, Nottinghamshire
    • Great Central Railway, Leicestershire

    The three-week challenge involved the students Identifying a current or future heritage need in the sub-theme then defining the problem and developing a solution. They were asked to develop and evaluate a detailed concept and build a working demonstrator then present their solution at the Tradeshow on Friday 28 April. In total 42 groups presented the work they completed, including a working demonstrator, a business canvas, and promotional company video over the previous three weeks. The tradeshow event was also attended by Industrial/Research partners.

    The calibre of talent amongst NTU students was extremely high, with Engineering staff coming together to award a number of teams for their outstanding effort and innovative designs across all the sub themes.

    This year’s winners were:

    Discovering Historical Artefacts

    The Lorelei team: Priya Chandarana, Amy Lukomiak, Ethan Crump, Chloe Wang, Dom Bower, Samuel Adebayo, Ruaidhri Taylor, Nicholas Nuamah-Darkwah, Joe Burch. Professor Neil Mansfield.

    Image of prize winners

    Analysis And Interpretation Of Historical Finds

    Digital heritage team: Isabel Ray, James Bates, Faek Afzal Saddique, Raahim Nauman, Kacper Wojkowski, Oswin Sibu Sam, Taofeeq Gbadamosi, Favour Osasuyi, Will Davison. Professor Neil Mansfield.

    Image of prize winners

    Heritage Preservation

    The Smartefact team: Lucy Cole Ibraheem Iqbal, Beth Russell, Enzo Timarchi, Henry Saint, Joe Bobba, Daniel Driver, Will Lawson, James Behling. Professor Neil Mansfield.

    Image of prize winners

    Interactive Technologies To Enhance Heritage Sites

    The Holo-X team:  Luke Jones, Mouad Gadaur, Ashwin Warnakulasuriya, Zain Ul Abideen, Ras-Prince Tim, Justin Jai, Muzingaye Moyo, Jaigo Davis. Professor Neil Mansfield.

    Image of prize winners

    Condition Monitoring

    The Sixth Sensor team: Fraser Robinson, Samuel Davidson, Dylan Hacking, Youssouf Barkay Molimi, Emmanuel Parker, Dennis Stroud, James Harbottle, Hassan Haseeb, Oliver Wright. Professor Neil Mansfield.

    Image of prize winners

    The Engineering Grand Challenge is now in its sixth year and has involved over 1500 students completing nearly 200 projects. The success of the Grand Challenge event would not be possible without the dedication of the students, lab technicians and the academic staff. Find out more about our Department of Engineering.

    Published on 12 May 2023
    • Subject area: Computing, engineering, maths and other technologies
    • Category: Press office; Research; School of Science and Technology