Five student finalists have presented their newly created products on a theme of enhancing health and wellbeing to a panel of judges at the finals of the Design Innovation in Plastics (DIP) 2019 competition.
The competition, for which Covestro is the headline sponsor, and the longest running student plastics design competition of its type, is held every year to encourage university students to come up with brand new products made primarily from plastics.
Competition organisers IOM3 and the Worshipful Company of Horners set the challenging brief of Healthy Body – Healthy World, looking for a product which promotes wellbeing and has the qualities of longevity and sustainability.
The five finalists, Louis Farnsworth and Christopher Kay, both from De Montfort University, Namgyun Ryu and Kai Wang, both from Brunei University, and Daniella Kaligorsky, from Technological University Dublin, were chosen from an original field of 149 entries.
They were then given several weeks to refine their products, based on the judges’ recommendations, before appearing before them in person to present their entries.
Chairman of the judges, Richard Brown, from RJG Technologies, said: “We were encouraged to see that this year all the finalists had fully taken in board the guidance and feedback offered by the judges after the preliminary round, back in April.”
“They clearly focused on areas we felt needed attention before their final presentation, and this resulted in improved entries. The content of their presentations and the very high level of professionalism, made it a difficult task to choose the winner.”
“There are no losers at this stage of the competition, but there can only be one winner, and I am sure when all the finalists present their products on July 5th and the winner is announced, it will be evident why this competition continues to be highly regarded by the students and universities that take part.”
The final awards ceremony is being held in London on July 5th, and the winner will receive a trip to Germany to visit Covestro, along with a cash prize.