Oil and Energy Industry
Shell Renewables sponsors wind turbine design competition to attract young women to engineering
By Press
Royal Dutch/Shell Group of Companies
Jul 2, 2003, 8:41am

Shell Renewables has sponsored the first annual Green Design Challenge, a competition organised by Imperial College London that aims to raise the profile of engineering among young women. The competition concluded today, with a team comprising Susanna Fragoso (Bhasvik, Brighton and Hove Sixth Form College), Marie Harris (Newstead Wood School for Girls, Orpington), Philippa Walters (St. Helens School, London) and Huong Trinh (Our Lady’s Convent High School, London) emerging as the overall winners.

The winning team beat seven others in the competition. In its first year the competition focused on schools in the London area but the organisers plan to take the competition nationwide in future years.

The Challenge was aimed at female sixth form students with an interest in maths and science. Some 32 students took part. Divided into teams of four, they competed to design and build a wind turbine capable of charging the battery to power a small hospital fridge from a selection of recycled and more expensive purpose-bought materials. The turbines were tested for performance by an Imperial wind machine and judged on power efficiency, cost and the ingenuity and elegance of the design.

The winning team will have the opportunity to attend a two-day programme in Wales designed and run by the Centre for Alternative Technology, gaining hands-on engineering experience in the day-to-day running of renewable energy such as wind-power and hydro-electric power schemes. Prizes for the lowest cost scheme, and the most ingenious and elegant design solution, were provided by Shell Renewables.

Karen De Segundo, Chief Executive Officer of Shell Renewables said: “We expect renewable sources of energy to become increasingly important as the world addresses the problems of climate change and energy security. Meeting the engineering challenges of developing renewables requires the best female minds, as well as the best male ones. I hope that the competition has highlighted to these promising girls that through engineering they can play a crucial part in resolving fundamental issues facing our society.”

Ruth Graham, a Research Fellow in Imperial's Department of Mechanical Engineering, who is overseeing the Green Design Challenge, said: “The whole event has been a great success. We have really challenged some traditional stereotypes of engineering, and allowed the young women to see the impact a professional engineer can have in areas such as sustainable development or in projects in the developing world.”

The winners were announced by Sir Richard Sykes, Rector of Imperial College London. Judging the competition were Dr Eileen Buttle, Deputy Chair of Imperial Council and Non-Executive Director of Shell Transport and Trading; David Jones, Executive Vice President, Shell Wind Energy; and Professor Mike Graham, Head of the Department of Aeronautics at Imperial.

Shell Renewables sponsorship of the Green Design Challenge is the latest facet of an existing relationship between the Royal Dutch/Shell Group of Companies (Shell) and Imperial College. Shell funds the Shell Chair in Sustainable Development in Energy at Imperial College and the Shell Chair in Petroleum Geology. Shell and Imperial College also conduct joint research and the secondment of staff between the two organisations. Six graduates from Imperial College joined Shell companies in 2002.

Shell Renewables is a core businesses of Shell and was established in 1997 to pursue commercial opportunities in renewable energy. It is active in over 90 countries around the world.

© Copyright 1998 - 2005 The Industry Pages Network