Scott, Tom, Elliot and Richard with the cup
A team of students from the University of Liverpool’s School of Engineering has won the Rethink Cities Challenge for their idea to develop bio-luminescent plant life for urban lighting.
The Rethink Cities Challenge is an international engineering innovation competition which invites students to present their ideas for solving the challenges facing megacities of the future, and to enable a sustainable urban life.
More than 400 ideas were submitted to the first stage of the competition, an online market place. The Liverpool students – Elliot Carty, Scott Barrett, Tom Williams and Richard Maunder – made up one of 25 teams who were selected to attend a four-day Innovation Camp at the Danish Technical University in Copenhagen.
The Innovation Camp gave participants the opportunity to learn about the innovation process from industry professionals which helped them to develop and refine their business case. The business cases were evaluated by the CEOs and Research Directors of the competition’s sponsors, Velux, IBM, Grundfos and Novozymes.
Professor Ken Badcock, Head of the School, said: “Students at the School of Engineering are taught how to work in a team, build products, and find out how ideas and designs work. Winning the Rethink Cities Challenge demonstrates the creativity, innovation and design skills of these students, all of which will prove invaluable for their future engineering careers.”