Engineering for Change (E4C), in collaboration with Siemens, has announced a design challenge for clean water and zero hunger technology solutions.
Applications for the competition, dubbed Innovate for Impact: Siemens Design Challenge, will open on March 4th 2020. The competition gives individuals the opportunity to develop solutions to address fundamental human needs for clean water and adequate food supply. The winning solutions will be awarded with $10,000 each. Interested participants can learn more about the issues, access online training, review best practices, case studies in human centered design, and submission criteria for the Challenge here engineeringforchange.org/siemenschallenge.
E4C will coordinate the application and evaluation process, share human-centered design principles and a variety of other tools and resources with applicants. Siemens will provide free access to and training on cutting-edge technology tools for digital design and engineering, including Solid Edge software. They will also a provide a new co-creation platform developed with Siemens’ Mendix platform for low-code application development.
The co-creation platform and application for the challenge will open on March 4th, which is the World Engineering Day for Sustainable Development. During the “plan and learn” pre-application phase of the challenge, prospective applicants can review and consider participation in one of two tracks: zero hunger and clean water. They can either design a post harvest off-grid preservation technology to reduce farm-to-table food loss in lower resource settings that lack electricity. Applicants may choose to design a very low-cost, energy-efficient, scalable technology for desalinating brackish water.
Once they have decided on a track, familiarized themselves with available resources, and submitted an application with their proposed solution, accepted applicants will enter the design phase of the challenge. The deadline for applications is Friday, April 3, 2020. Over the course of the challenge, participants will be asked to:
- Submit a 30-second video introducing their team and product concept
- Research and explore the needs of their end user
- Design their concept in 3D CAD software
- Iterate their design based on their research and provide justification for decisions
- Simulate how their product works
- Submit a video pitching their product concept.
Winners will be announced in July 2020.