One of the biggest problems that engineers face is how to make their products successful and sustainable. Ethical engineering entrepreneurs lack the opportunities to grow, while engineering in practice requires multidisciplinary change.
Entrepreneurship
We propose a new start-up incubator, to amplify the voices of entrepreneurs looking to develop environmentally and ethically beneficial engineering projects. The incubator would provide a centralised office space in which members could work collaboratively, and make use of provided equipment, administrative services, and mentoring. The scheme could also provide a small amount of funding to the enterprises. This program would not only help new businesses negotiate the challenges of turning an idea into a fully functioning company, but would help train the next generation of engineering professionals to think deeply about every impact their work has, during their time in the incubator and beyond.
Engineering practice
Motivated by the climate emergency and the need for urgent, collaborative action, we propose a parallel currency that evaluates the environmental, ethical, and social impacts of engineering projects. Due to centuries of reliance on supply and demand as the main mechanism for resource allocation, influencing the price of a good, we recognise that the nature of the planet, and our future on it, depends on so much more. Departing from purely financial incentives, this global currency seeks to be enforced at the government level, encouraging the pursuit of sustainable development by all. This will require a multidisciplinary network of academics working alongside economists and mathematicians to quantify the impact of each input reflecting these parameters. For government tendered projects, this currency should supersede the financial cost of proposed projects, if government promises for sustainability are to materialise. This will set a new precedent where the engineering projects that win the bid are the most globally responsible in the parameters.
Hi team, to introduce myself, my name is Kate, I am a Chemical Engineering student at the University of Sheffield and your mentor for the Designathon challenge. I hope that you are all well and enjoying your project so far! I would just like to say that I think that your idea is fantastic and a unique approach to engineering collaboration. I genuinely believe that ideas like this have so much potential to facilitate opportunities and provide pathways for forward-thinking engineers to develop projects that could go onto have huge impacts. The way that you position the incubator as a link between individuals and other professionals shows that you are thinking about how to minimise current barriers to innovation.
My key suggestion to you would be to think about how you can better communicate your ideas and the link between them, perhaps a video could be a good way to communicate the context and need for the project throughout in a visual manner - it could help to think of this as a storytelling process. I would like to know more about how the membership would work. Is it full/part time or is it more of a rentable space for specific projects? Is this a physical space (in which case how can you ensure the most access), or an online space? You mention training, what sort of things would this include and how would it be provided? Maybe consider a problem-based approach to encourage thinking about current issues. Another question would be regarding funding, is there a membership fee/where does the money come from? It would be great to hear your ideas about how to develop this idea further.
I really like your idea about an alternative currency and would love to see it developed further. How would this link to real money? I would suggest doing research into suggestions to re-evaluate the tax system to create a financial incentive for more environmentally friendly choices through a carbon footprint based system, as this may be of interest when considering your currency. This article might be of use: https://www.thebalance.com/carbon-tax-definition-how-it-works-4158043
It's an interesting idea as often decisions are primarily financially motivated. Is it more of a prompt to encourage more informed decisions? Consider this example: labelling food packaging with its carbon footprint similarly to how nutritional content is presented to encourage better choices, compared to a financial incentive such as a sugar tax to make healthier choices financially logical. Or is it a currency by its standard definition in which items can be bought or sold?
Most importantly, what is the problem you are trying to solve? It might help to focus on a specific issue. I like the way that you have structured your proposal with a problems focussed introduction followed by your solutions. Is there any way that you can link the two ideas? I understand that there is a lot here but I think you really have a fantastic idea which is complex enough, it needs to be sold well and I think you are so almost there! I hope that I have given you a few things to think about and I am excited to see what you do next! Happy to provide more help at any point if you need more, I will see any posts but keep this excellent work up!
Kate
Hi Kate, thank you for getting back to us and providing us feedback. We are having a zoom meeting tomorrow and, if your schedule allows it, we would really appreciate if you could join us? If not, please let us know your availability. Thank you. :)
I'd love to come. I'm only avaliable after 4pm if that is any good for you? Otherwise if your meeting is earlier in the day (between 11am and 1pm) I could drop in quickly. Looking forward to hearing how you're getting on!
Hi Kate, we're so glad you can join us! We are having our meeting at 5:30pm on zoom. I've just attached the link:
And just in case the Meeting ID: 316 482 6886 and Password: 228888
Really looking forward to meeting you!
Perfect! Looking forward to seeing you then!
Thought I'd share this with you to, just a reminder that the calculations, if you do any, are not included in the word count.
'22nd February:
Submit your final idea with a 3-minute video, a 500 word description, and any supporting documentation (diagrams, photos, calculations, data etc.).'
Excited to see your proposal!
I've had the following response to your question about balancing your pitch between the video and written proposal:
That's a good question, it's definitely going to be tough for teams to fit it all in to a pretty strict submission limit. I would encourage them to focus on the video as the "pitch" for the idea, so being able to tell a story about how they decided on the idea, what it's impact would be etc. And then save the less impactful, but still important, ideas for the accompanying note.
Do you know if they attended the Storytelling Workshop? I think that was very instructive on how to pitch an idea and therefore what ought to be included in their video.
If you didn't attend the storytelling workshop and think that you would find it useful, please let me know and I will see if there is a recording available. Hope this makes things clearer.
Kate