Empowering education and sustainable innovation: highlights from the Student Sustainability Design Hack at Realize LIVE 2024
At Realize LIVE 2024, Siemens showcased how our academic and industry partnerships are transforming the future workforce. From preparing students for the industrial demands of tomorrow to inspiring sustainable innovation in engineering, there was no shortage of excitement at both Realize LIVE Americas and Realize Live Europe.
The Student Sustainability Design Hack was just one example of how Siemens is helping to empower students and prepare them for the future of engineering and manufacturing. The goal of this competition was to help students connect the dots between theory and practice while gaining relevant, in-demand experience.
Read on to learn more about the students’ experience, winning teams and how to get involved in future opportunities.
Student Sustainability Design Hack with NX CAD and CAM software from Siemens
Presented by Microsoft, designed by Andretti Global and with teams sponsored by Deloitte, students had 48 hours to design a new portable scale pad system using NX software. Teams from the Americas participated and presented their solution to an expert jury at Realize LIVE in Las Vegas from 13-15 May 2024, while teams from Europe and the Middle East competed at Realize LIVE in Munich from 3-5 June 2024.
“The Design Hack gives students a chance to take on a real-world challenge. Students have to work together with each other as well as with our customers, getting feedback from them, and they learn so much in the process. They develop a really unique skill set that’s going to be really helpful for them in the future.”
Dora Smith, Senior Director, Global Education & Startup Strategy, Siemens Digital Industries Software
In designing a new scale pad system, students were asked to develop innovative and sustainable solutions to improve the set up and teardown process, reduce weight, enhance electronic data transfer capability and create more reliable placement of rollup onto wheel pads.
Supported by technical coaches, mentors and industry professionals, teams used tools within NX to evaluate each step of design and production from a sustainability perspective. Judges evaluated the solutions based on their sustainability, feasibility, business value and innovation, among other criteria.
Design Hack: Americas
Five student teams competed at Realize LIVE Americas: BAM & Spartan Green Machine from Michigan State University, Team Seneca from Seneca Polytechnic, Cincy CAD Cats from University of Cincinnati and 313WomenInStem from Wayne State University.
Team Seneca, who were represented on site by Matt Moulds and Karandeep Singh Sarpal and online by Andres Pinto Baute, were crowned as champions on the final day. Their design included two separate but integrated modules made from machined aluminum, which is both easy to manufacture and source as well as relatively lightweight. Due to the smaller physical footprint, it is easier to assemble, disassemble and transport. It is also equipped with inclinometers and other sensors on both sides that ensure that all the scale pads are coplaner within the specified limits. For accurate measurement, the scale pads self-compensate the sideways errors along with indents on all four sides to ensure that car always rolls on the same spot. Data is transmitted with the help of a programmable logic controller (PLC) along with a printed circuit board (PCB) and Internet of Things (IOT) interface to collect and read data via a wired or wireless connection.
The jury comprising representatives from Microsoft, Andretti Global, Deloitte, Ford, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, University of Colorado-Boulder and Siemens Digital Industries Software were extremely impressed by all of the solutions presented by the teams.
Design Hack: Europe
Four student teams competed at Realize LIVE Europe: UCB Designers from Umwelt-Campus Birkenfeld, HWRacing from Heriot-Watt University (Dubai Campus), FAU Siemens NX Crashers from FAU Erlangen-Nürnberg and The Compile Squad from Manchester Metropolitan University.
On the final day, UCB Makers were selected as the winning team. This team was represented on site by Christopher Reinsch and Bruno Gallace in-person and their online teammates Johannes Becker, Jonas Schöpfer and Michael Sauer. Their solution utilized automatic laser dot levelling and Wi-Fi connectivity for scale pads and an innovative ramp and connecting rails system. The ramps and connection rails were optimized with NX topology optimization. These ramps and rails can be 3D printed using recycled PA12 Nylon and are easily assembled with a push-in design. Their results highlighted a 10% weight reduction, a simplified teardown process, more reliable wheel placement and the possibility for data evaluation and saving by Wi-Fi.
What did the students get from this experience?
In addition to the opportunity to attend Realize LIVE and present their solution to industry experts, every competitor received an exclusive digital badge and competition package from Siemens Digital Industries Software. Winning team members each received a Samsung Galaxy Tab A9 and were invited to join a workshop with Siemens talent acquisition. Andretti and Siemens will continue working with the winning teams to potentially implement their solutions.
Thank you to everyone who got involved and a special thanks to Microsoft, Andretti Global, and Deloitte for supporting this year’s Student Sustainability Design Hack.
To learn more about how Siemens is working to help students enter the workforce as day-one-ready engineers, click here.
