World Engineering Day: Closing the skills gap for a sustainable future
The World Engineering Day 2025 theme is sustainability – and it couldn’t be timelier.
In a 2024 survey of 2,000 people across 20 different countries, Deloitte found that 63% of respondents believed their employers weren’t doing enough to address climate change and sustainability.
The good news is that engineers have the power to make a difference.
But to make that happen, industry and academia need to come together to support learners at all career stages – from students and early-career professionals to seasoned engineers – in developing the skills needed to design a more sustainable future.
Through the Siemens Academic and Future Workforce Program, we’re providing hands-on learning, cutting-edge technology and real-world experiences to make sustainability a core competency for engineers.
Tackling real-world challenges in the Student Sustainability Design Hack at Realize LIVE
Every year at Realize LIVE, top engineering students come together to solve real sustainability problems in the Student Sustainability Design Hack.
Last year, in a challenge 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.
It’s fast-paced, creative and a glimpse into how the next generation of engineers can make an impact.
More than just a competition, it’s a chance for students to sharpen their skills, collaborate with peers and build confidence in tackling modern sustainability challenges. And for industry professionals, it’s an opportunity to see emerging engineering talent firsthand.
Collaborating with Sony to challenge students worldwide to imagine sustainable design
With the Immersive Design Challenge, we invited students worldwide to rethink what’s possible by combining Siemens’ engineering tools with Sony’s cutting-edge virtual reality tech.
Leading businesses are already leveraging this technology to reduce costs, speed up decision-making and offer customers a virtual experience of products before they are even manufactured.
Together, we invited students to submit proposals answering the following: how would you use immersive design to make a product of your choice more sustainable?
Over 900 students have participated across 82 teams, representing 230 universities worldwide. Forty teams were recently selected for round two, within which they will submit an NX design prototype alongside a short video explaining their design.
To get to the final round, participants will need to show us how they’ve integrated sustainability into their product or idea, and that they’ve understood how to use the Sony XR head-mounted display and NX Immersive Designer in the most creative way possible.
With this, students are gaining first-hand experience with immersive engineering technology so they can enter the workforce ready to create more sustainable designs from day one.
Increasing access to industry-leading software, skills-based training and marketable credentials
We believe every aspiring engineer should have access to the best tools and knowledge. That’s why we offer free software downloads to students, in-depth training materials on our software and a range of free courses on Coursera covering sustainability, digital transformation and more.
Learn more about how Siemens is bringing industry to academia on our academic site.
