Six university undergraduates have just been announced as finalists in this year’s Design Innovation in Plastics competition – and have already proved they are game for a challenge.

 

This year’s competition asked students to create a game, which could be played indoors or outdoors, be educational or just plain fun. The final six, representing Aston University, Brunel University, Coventry University, and Nottingham Trent University, will now present their prototype products to the judging panel in London on May 08.

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The competition’s chairman of judges, Richard Brown said the top candidates had done well to consider the demographics and diverse learning styles of their target audience, thereby ensuring their products were accessible to a wide range of people. He said: “Developing a game is challenging especially if you want it to be educational as well as being engaging and fun.  We were impressed that many of the top students achieved this.  They avoided vague or unfocused goals, and a number even measured the learning content of the game.  The purpose of the game was generally clear, with the best of the entries providing good instructions and visually logical paths, as well as a balance between luck and difficulty versus fun. “We felt they’d risen well to the challenge and it will be interesting to see how our six finalists develop their ideas, having received feedback from the judges at this preliminary stage.”

 

As part of their prize, all finalists have been invited to attend a four-day process engineering course hosted by Fanuc UK Ltd, a world market leader in factory automation, and run by Sierra 57 Consult, a leading training provider to the UK plastics industry.  This accredited course will give them a basic understanding of injection moulding and other processing methods which will also help them to further refine their products for presentation at the final judging session in May.

 

Design Innovation in Plastics is the longest running plastics competition of its kind in Europe, having been established in 1985. It is supported by the Institute of Materials, Minerals and Mining, the Worshipful Company of Horners, and sponsored by leading design and plastics organisations, including Covestro  www.designinnovationplastics.org., Brightworks, Innovate Design, PDD, Fanuc UK and Sierra 57 Consult..

 

This year’s finalists and products:

• Daniel Brown – Brunel University -  Mad Dash Escalation, a tabletop board game involving forward thinking and strategy, involving two or four players.

• Joanne Chartouni – Nottingham Trent University – Steady Stacks, an indoor or outdoor game tailored to children with ADHD to encourage social interaction and mental stimulation

• Isaac Faruque – Brunel University - Cross Connect, a unique two-player strategy path game with wide age range appeal.

• Aidan Jones – Nottingham Trent University – Lollipop Lane, an indoor or outdoor board game which teaches children road safety rules.

• Yushu Li – Coventry University – Munchie Monster, a physical learning game designed for children aged 4-6 to educate them about sugar awareness

• Maya Pai – Aston University – Honeycombe Havoc, a fast-paced strategy board game for people of all ages, designed to build predictive skills

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