Student teams from Plymouth University and Brunel University London have been crowned champions of this year’s Design Challenge, organised by the Institution of Mechanical Engineers to encourage young engineers to develop their technical and design skills.

Around 3,500 engineering undergraduates from across the UK take part in this annual competition, which aims to give participants a taste of the ‘real world’ of engineering.

Teams of up to five students are tasked to design, build, test and present a mechanical device, following a set technical specification.

Open to first- and second-year students, the Design Challenge is intended to complement the academic curriculum and give participants the opportunity to demonstrate their design skills and innovative ideas outside the regular studying environment.

Colin Brown, chief executive of the IMechE (www.imeche.org), said: “By creating the Design Challenge, we wanted to show students that their university studies have real-life practical applications.

"We want to encourage their academic interest in the engineering industry, and subsequently their progress to a career in mechanical engineering.

"The standard and the enthusiasm we have seen in this year’s teams give us great confidence in the future of the engineering profession in the UK.”

Design Challenge judge Alan Moss said: “Universities should take part in this competition, because it challenges their students to do exactly the kind of thing that they need to be able to do when they graduate and move into industry.

"They need to be able to work together with people, project-manage, overcome difficulties around design, build prototypes and — ultimately — iterate their way to a working solution.”