First- and second-year students from University College London have secured victory in the Design Challenge National Final, which took place on 7 October 2022 at One Birdcage Walk, London.

The purpose of the Design Challenge is to simulate the requirements of a professional engineer so that students are exposed to the real world of engineering where they must think for themselves and apply a systematic approach to solve an engineering requirement.

This year teams were tasked to design, build, and test a device to simulate a line launcher from a precise project specification. The challenge is for teams to produce a small-scale indoor device, to fire a squash ball attached to a line, at a vertical target, from various distances.

Throughout 2022, first- and second-year undergraduate teams competed against their peers in Regional Heats, going on to take part in Regional Finals with the aim of qualifying for the National Final of the Challenge.

At the Final, teams delivered presentations in front of our judging panel who also reviewed their computer aided designs before moving onto the main challenge where teams tested their line launchers. They were scored in the following categories: poster competition, presentation competition, design competition, design excellence and main challenge.

Well done to all of the teams who took part in the 2022 Design Challenge and thank you to our sponsors Autodesk, Mercedes AMG High Performance Powertrains and Mashoom.

The full list of Design Challenge 2022 competition category winners are listed as follows:

1st year winners

National Champions: Team A – University College London (Greater London Region)

Runner up: Future Robot Wars Winners – Bournemouth University (Wessex Region)

Third place: Zigzag McQueen – Durham University (North Eastern Region)

Poster Competition: Joint winners Team A – Lancaster University (North Western Region) and Zigzag McQueen – Durham University (North Eastern Region)

Presentation Competition: Zigzag McQueen – Durham University (North Eastern Region)

Design Competition: Future Robot Wars Winners – Bournemouth University (Wessex Region)

Design Excellence: Future Robot Wars Winners – Bournemouth University (Wessex Region)

Main Challenge: Team A – University College London (Greater London Region)

2nd year winner

National Champions: Team D – University College London (Greater London Region)