Students studying at City, University of London, have come together to present their vision for the future of engineering during the City Engineering Hackathon 2021.
The event, which lastest three days, was run by Hackathons UK and saw 200 Engineering students present their ideas of how engineering might look 30 years from now.
The Hackathon divided the students across 37 teams of 6 and challenge them to put together ideas around –
- Energy – how we consume energy in the home and how will it achieve net-zero emission
- Road Networks – how can roads change to effectively operate using smart cars
- Fridges – how future fridges in the home might work
- Healthcare Wearables – how future wearables could increase our quality of life
- Drones – how drone tech might change for the greater good
Key ideas from the event finalists included neonatal blankets to detect disease; drones being used to prevent collisions; pollination drones using biomimicry; and dental wear to measure our calorific intake
The winners of the event were the team behind the Picard drone – an imagined hive of nanobots which can break apart and reattach to explore the ocean. The team wanted to overcome the current limits of communication between drone networks by placing individual drones with antennas on top of mountains within the ocean to act as relays for the hive.
Professor Rajkumar Roy, Dean of the School of Mathematics, Computer Science & Engineering, praised the students saying “It is wonderful to see how many new ideas our students have been able to come up with for the future of engineering. Every idea uses technology to create social good which helps tackle or prepare us for the problems we may face in 2050. Each team should be proud of their work and I would like to thank everyone who has been a part of this innovative event”.
