“If you like finding solution to a problems or to build something new as a solution while working as a team I would recommend the ChallengeWeek040 to you” Aarrav Anil, student studying Electrical Engineering at the TU/e who participated at the ChallengeWeek040 said about the event. His sentiments were reflected by all the enthusiastic participants that were present at the Expo of the event held on the TU/e campus on the 12th of September.
Students went through a quick interactive kickoff to the event, where they had to match puzzle pieces to find their team. Each team could choose from three challenges: Future proof buildings, Popup kitchens and Public play spaces. At the Expo of ChallengeWeek040, all projects were presented and evaluated by an esteem panel of jury members. One of the jury members was Robert Strijk, alderman of the municipality of Eindhoven. In his speech at the awards ceremony he mentioned that he was very was impressed by the diverse talent and strong group dynamics. He was confident that the kind of diversity and collaboration that he saw from the students from three educational institutions is exactly what is needed to tackle the challenges of today and tomorrow in this region.
Elaborating on the behind the scenes organization of the ChallengeWeek040, Lianne de Jong, project manager from TU/e who initiated the process in 2022 as part of the Collider project for the EuroTeQ Engineering University said ‘Working together across institutions always comes with challenges on an organisation and people level. Throughout CW040 I have seen groups of diverse student talking different languages, Dutch vs. English, in words or in visuals, comfortable in drawing or in programming, thinking conceptual or trough making. Brining these perspectives together and facilitating them through a process in which they tackle some of the challenges we are facing here in the Brainport region is of great added value. Seeing tangible prototypes and ideas but more importantly individual student that became part of a team, proud of the solution they are presenting, that is what matter to me. You can just feel the energy and enthusiasm during this final expo moment’
All participating students from TU/e, Fontys Pulse Academy, and Summa Engineering embraced the challenges and the dynamic way of working and immersed themselves in the experience. “We went to the playground, which had a lot of trees and greenery. We thought we could use that environment for our project. The process was quite intense. We took the feedback from all stakeholders very seriously and worked on our project to incorporate the feedback late into the night because we were so invested in it. ” Shared Maud Wijen and Kevin van dee Vliet, students at Summa Engineering and Fontys Pulsed who were also part of the team Bob de Bower that won the prize in the category Public Play Spaces.
The results:
- Future Proof Building: Fantastic Four
- Pop-up Kitchen: The Lazy Lasagnas
- Public play spaces: Bob the Builders
- Audience Award: CMGE**
