© Airbus Fly Your Ideas
Airbus and UNESCO challenge youth to create sustainable solutions for global problems
13 September 2018
The next generation of innovators can now submit their proposals tackling one of the six challenges set out by Airbus for its sixth global Fly Your Ideas competition (Electrification, Data Services, Cyber Security, Internet of Things, Artificial Intelligence and Mixed Reality). The biennal competition is a celebration of creativity and innovation to solve real industry challenges. Open to university teams from across the world, including all disciplines from engineering and information technology to marketing and design, the competition is an opportunity for students to unleash their pioneering spirit, working at the cutting edge of digital technology alongside industry experts. Sharing Airbus’ ambition to inspire young people about sustainable innovation and engineering, UNESCO granted patronage to Fly Your Ideas in 2012.
"Fly Your Ideas is an inspirational endeavour for students around the world and UNESCO is proud to be a part of this initiative” said Audrey Azoulay, Director-General of UNESCO. “The new challenges will allow students to think outside the box and come up with sustainable solutions for global problems beyond aerospace - exactly what the world needs from our future generations!"
With over 2,000 already registered, students can now access the digital competition platform in order to upload their idea in Round 1 of the competition. To participate, students need to fill an online questionnaire about their idea, highlighting the technology behind it, market analysis, originality, added value and potential obstacles by 16 November 2018. In order to visualize the idea, the teams must also submit a simple sketch.
The Round 1 submission phase ends on 16 November 2018 and is followed by an online assessment where a team of Airbus specialists recruited from across the business will review and evaluate all submitted ideas. The live final of Fly Your Ideas will be held in 2019, where students will have the opportunity to showcase their ideas to an audience of industry experts. Airbus is seeking ideas that could change aerospace in the decades to come and create a safer, cleaner and better-connected world. The competition is an opportunity for students to build valuable employment skills including teamwork, project management and presentation skills and to apply their classroom learning to real-world challenges. As well as joining Airbus on site to further develop their ideas, up to six finalist teams will compete to share a prize fund of € 45,000 and the chance to take their idea forward within the industry.