100 teams selected for Round Two of the Fly Your Ideas global student challenge
© AIBUS S.A.S 2013 - photo by e*m company/ P. Pigeyre 2013 Finalists visit AIRBUS headquarters during the final.
After a thorough evaluation process by over 50 Airbus experts and innovators judging more than 500 ideas, Airbus has selected the 100 teams that have made it into Round Two of the fourth edition of the global student competition Fly Your Ideas organised in partnership with UNESCO.
The 100 teams comprise of 413 students representing 48 different nationalities. The competition is dominated by teams registered in India (17 teams), UK (10), USA (8), France (7), as well as China (6) and Australia (5). Thanks to a strong drive from Airbus to encourage more diversity, 71% of teams are made up of a mix of students from different countries, studying different subjects, or male and female, all of which Airbus sees as essential ingredients for innovation.
“I am impressed by the diversity of the teams that have made it through to Round Two this year,” said Charles Champion, Airbus Executive Vice President Engineering. “It is very telling of a generation who no longer thinks in silos but instead aspires to collaborate across traditional boundaries such as gender, nationality and discipline. This reflects Airbus’ ambition to work with greater agility across the company, and I hear our Airbus mentors and experts are very excited about the fresh way of thinking they are getting during these100 days before the next round.” He adds: “Now the race has started – best of luck to all!”
"The diversity of these students’ ideas is an inspiration. They remind us of the need to train more engineers to develop the skills needed to put science into practice”, said Irina Bokova, Director-General of UNESCO, reflecting on the wealth of ideas submitted from over 11 000 students in 100 countries for previous editions of Fly Your Ideas.
Each of the teams has been attributed an Airbus mentor and an Airbus expert to help take their ideas further and share their insights of real-life aviation constraints over a 100 day period. Just the top five teams will make it to the final and present their ideas at a live event at Airbus facilities in May 2015. The winning team will receive a €30,000 prize, the runner up team €15,000.
Supported by UNESCO, Airbus Fly Your Ideas is a biennial competition which challenges students worldwide to develop ideas for a more sustainable aviation industry. What sets Fly Your Ideas apart from other global student competitions is the deep and company-wide engagement of the Airbus teams. The mentors and experts are drawn from right across the business, and include non-technical professionals as well as engineers and aviation experts.
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