NEWS | ENGINEERING GRADUATES FROM IMPERIAL COLLEGE LONDON MAKE IT TO THE FINAL OF THE ENGINEERS IN BUSINESS 2022 INNOVATION COMPETITION

Led by twenty-year-old Design Engineering graduate Megan Hale, a team of engineering students from Imperial College London has secured a place in the final of the Engineers in Business Champion of Champions innovation competition, which will be hosted by TV presenter Rob Bell at the Royal Academy of Engineering on 28 October 2022.

Megan and her teammates, Anais Engelmann, Oscar Jones, Patrick McGuckian, and Oliver Colebourne. all of whom are Design Engineering Graduates, invented ‘Team Repair’, the first sustainable subscription service that teaches children science, technology, and the life skill of repairing things. Megan, Anais, Oscar, Patrick and Oliver will be pitching their innovation against nine other teams of student innovators in the national final. A sum of £15,000 is up for grabs, providing vital seed money to help the winners develop their innovation.

The winners will also receive mentoring from business leaders who are members of the Sainsbury Management Fellows (SMF) network, plus CV packages from PurpleCV and entrepreneurial books from Cambridge University Press.

The competition is organised by the registered charity, Engineers in Business Fellowship which champions business education for engineers and supports universities by giving them grants to award prizes to engineering students who develop ideas that can make a positive impact on society. The grants enable universities to inspire more engineering and technology students to participate in innovation and entrepreneurship, skills that they take into their careers.

Team Repair - Teaching children science, technology, and the life skill of repairing things.

Every month, children are sent an electronic gadget with carefully planned faults, and all the tools needed to fix it. Guided by an app, they learn key repair skills as well as the concepts behind core components like microprocessors. Once they finish the repair, they send the gadget back to Team Repair but keep the tools. In this way, they will build a complete toolbox across the 12-month fix-it programme.

Team Repair differs from other STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths) kits thanks to its three key unique features Firstly, it teaches science and technology using real-world products, which creates a far more engaging experience for the children. Secondly, the children are taught the life skill of repair, which is key to enabling children to live more sustainably by developing a repairing mindset. Finally, the subscription is entirely sustainable with zero waste.

The concept of Team Repair originated from the lack of diversity in the STEM workplace, where women make up just over a quarter of STEM professionals, a fact that contributes to the STEM skill shortage which, according to the IET, is currently costing the UK an estimated £1.5 billion a year. Team Repair will also help address the issue of e-waste, where in London alone, over 500,000 kg of electronic waste is created every single day. With Team Repair, the founders aim to inspire a new generation of diverse engineers and scientists and encourage the next generation to repair rather than dispose of their broken electronics.

The Engineers in Business competition is designed to inspire engineers to study business and innovation. Explains Megan, “It’s important for engineers to think about the commercial viability of the technology they develop. Teaching business will encourage engineers to think about the whole ‘system’ that their technology needs to fit into.”

The dragons’ den style competition will be compered by TV presenter, Rob Bell. Competing against nine other teams, Megan and her team will have six minutes to convince the judges, through their presentation and Q&A session, that they should be crowned a Champion of Champions and take home a cash prize. Amongst other criteria, the judges will be assessing the impact of Team Repair on the STEM skill shortage and e-waste.

The members of the judging panel are:

• SMF Caroline Cake, Entrepreneur in Residence at Oxford Science Enterprises

• Dr Terri Holloway, Ingenuity Lab Manager, Entrepreneur in Residence, University of Nottingham

• SMF Kwok Ng, Strategy Programme Manager, The Crown Estate

• SMF Chris Shelley, Chief Executive Officer, SolarBotanic Trees

Commenting on reaching the Engineers in Business Champion of Champions Final, Megan said, “Our participation in the Engineers in Business Champion of Champions Competition allows us to extend our reach, spreading the word about what we are doing as a company.”

Megan and her team will be competing for an Engineers in Business Champion of Champions title against nine other teams from the University of Birmingham (two finalists), University of Greenwich, University of Oxford, University of Southampton (two finalists), Lancaster University, University of Nottingham, and Queen’s University Belfast.