Siemens has uncovered engineering, technology and business talent through a competition to design ‘the smart and sustainable transport system of the future’. SustainaCity Racer challenged 50 students and graduates from 15 universities throughout the UK to design ‘an intelligent, sustainable and interconnected network for a fictional city region, using a variety of transport types for citizens living in different environments’.
At the end of the two-day hackathon-style event 22 of the participants were offered access to early career opportunities with Siemens’ Digital Industries, Smart Infrastructure, and Mobility businesses.
For the second year running SustainaCity Racer participants were put into hybrid, multidisciplinary teams and challenged to apply engineering, digital and commercial elements to their designs. The winning group, Eco Made Easy, proposed using a hyperloop tunnel and hydrofoil water vessel as the main transport, an app using real-time transport data and AI to map fastest, cheapest and most sustainable journeys, and an innovative POD transport that combines rail and bus.
Hannah Pope, 20, studying Computer Science at the University of York, said: “I believe sustainability is an important consideration for ensuring the quality of our future. Using aspects of my degree to explore and develop solutions regarding transport appealed to me. I enjoyed every moment, from the brainstorming to presenting our final solution. Before this competition, I was very focused on software engineering and pure computer science, but this competition has really opened my eyes to how other engineering disciplines fit together.”
Judges for competition included Thomas Edwards from Siemens Digital Industries, Nikhil Patel from Siemens Smart Infrastructure, and Sophie Marshall-Unit, Charbel Khalil, Hannah Surguy, Miles Moran and Ewan Bradley from Siemens Mobility.
Commenting on the event, Thomas Edwards — a graduate engineer at Siemens Digital Industries — said: “SustainaCity Racer was launched in 2020 as a way of bringing multi-disciplinary minds together to collaborate, come up with innovative solutions to real-life problems, and give students the opportunity to experience things that they may encounter if they worked at Siemens.
“We were extremely impressed with all 50 of the participants and the outstanding ideas they came up with to respond to the task of innovating in a new age of connected mobility that allows people to move more intelligently and sustainably.
“All the contestants showed exemplary collegiate behaviour and cooperated with their team members in the race to win the top spot. The winners clearly demonstrated superb teamwork, and we were particularly impressed with the creation of user stories, which meant the needs of passengers were always at the forefront of decision making, leading them to an innovative yet realistic solution that worked for everyone. Their wildcard proposition of a train/pod solution captivated all of the judges.”
There were two runners-up groups, who also won opportunities to apply for internships and graduate roles at Siemens. Details on all Siemens’ early careers opportunities — including internships, apprenticeships and graduate schemes — can be found at the website (
www.siemens.co.uk/earlycareers).