Announcing the 2019 Create the Trophy finalists!

After thousands of entries and record engagement from over 50 countries around the world, the 10 finalists for the 2019 Create the Trophy competition have now been decided. Our panel of judges, chaired by Ian Blatchford, Director of the Science Museum Group, and including Dr Zoe Laughlin, Director of the Institute of Making, Roma Agrawal, a structural engineer at Interserve, and Rebeca Ramos, a designer at Heatherwick Studio, will now assess the finalists and select the winning trophy.

The top entry will be unveiled shortly on 12 February alongside the winner(s) of the 2019 Queen Elizabeth Prize for Engineering. We will then 3D-print the design into an iconic QEPrize trophy to be presented to the QEPrize winner(s) later in the year.

Given the unique scale at which the QEPrize winners impact society, the achievements should be recognised and celebrated with equally unique and innovate trophy designs. Submitting the top entries this year were Hannah Goldsmith from the UK; Clay Berg from the USA; Jack Jiang from Hong Kong; Enoo Rasmussen from Sweden; Rodosthenis Charalampous from Cyprus; Andrew Park from the USA; Elijah Haider from Germany; Harvey Williams from the UK; Jaco Botha from South Africa; and Khushi Patel from the USA.

Varied Designs

Evident in the finalists’ submissions is the multitude of ways to capture the essence and wonder of engineering – whether it be directly or subtly; literal or metaphorical. Each design also reflected the entrants’ unique situations around the world. Enoo’s ring-shaped design, for instance, reflects her desire to become an architect – juxtaposing shape and scale to compose a circular structure using non-cylindrical units. Jack, meanwhile, alludes to both his interest in architectural engineering and his passion for sustainability, creating an intricate design that is, from above, emblematic of a wind turbine.

Jaco, from South Africa, leveraged his skills in graphic design to link engineering to memories of his childhood – building a treehouse with his brother at age eight (and then falling out of it) and helping his father with woodwork and electrical projects when he was older. Jaco created the base to symbolise the foundational position that engineering lies in society; he included triangles to represent the importance of structural integrity, which he learnt from falling out the treehouse; and he composed the curving segments around the triangles to represent both electrical engineering and the time spent working with his father.

An interest in engineering

Despite their various backgrounds, a common theme amongst the participants was their interest in engineering. Elijah, for instance, whose chequered design embodies the seemingly–asymmetrical yet stable reality that we live in, has an interest in aerospace engineering. “You have the privilege to work on some of the most cutting-edge technology in aerodynamics, propulsion, communications, and advanced materials – it’s exciting”, said Elijah.

Khushi, meanwhile, finds a range of engineering disciplines fascinating and noted that the competition changed her perception of the industry – broadening her mind to the plethora of projects that engineers take on. Her spiralling design depicts how engineering innovation shapes the development of society. Similarly, the finalists believe that engineering is the key to solving the world’s future challenges.

Rodosthenis, an engineer himself, sees AI and bioengineering as fields that “will benefit society the most”. “AI allows us to create systems with enhanced efficiency and throughput. Moreover, it enables us to develop methods for solving complex social and business problems by analysing large datasets. “I am also very confident that in the next few years, engineers will solve a lot of challenges in the field of bioengineering. With an ageing population and a growing focus on healthcare, sophisticated medical equipment and revolutionary procedures are in great demand. I hope that these advances allow us to treat and diagnose illnesses more effectively, and eradicate infectious diseases.”

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