Designs of IET Faraday Challenge finalists to be made into real tools to help children in hospital

The Faraday Challenge Days are part of the IET’s wider education programme and gives teams of students the opportunity to research, design and make prototype solutions to real-world engineering problems.

Through our partnership with the Institute of Healthcare Engineering and Estates Management (IHEEM), the 2021-22 season’s challenge was set around healthcare engineering with school teams being asked to design a prototype to support children in long-term care in hospital.

Now, made possible through a partnership with the New Hospital Programme, the season’s finalists will work with designers and engineers to turn their brilliant ideas into practice.

The New Hospital Programme is the biggest hospital building programme in a generation, working with NHS Trusts and the government to build 48 new hospitals and major improvements across England by 2030.

The five finalists are: Berkhamsted Girls School in Hertfordshire; Egglescliffe School and Sixth Form College in Stock-on-Tees; Fulford School in York; St Edmund’s Catholic School in Portsmouth; and St Aidan’s High School in North Lanarkshire.

Morag Stuart, Programme Director of the New Hospital Programme, said: “We were hugely impressed by what these young teams achieved and their creativity in responding to a real-world challenge. We are delighted to be able to offer the students an opportunity to continue to develop their ideas and meet some of the New Hospital Programme team.

It’s important that we show young people the breadth of opportunities available within engineering, which includes fascinating opportunities within healthcare. I’m looking forward to working with the Institution of Engineering and Technology, the Institute of Healthcare Engineering and Estates Management and the students and finding ways to engage more young people in healthcare engineering and design.”

The New Hospital Programme will see new hospitals designed with patients, staff, and visitors front-of-mind, building state-of-the-art facilities that will help to create an experience that is as simple and stress-free as possible.  

It includes four new hospitals for children and young people’s services: a new women and children’s hospital in Milton Keynes; a new Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS) Unit on the St. Ann’s site in Poole; a new Women and Children’s Hospital in the centre of the Royal Cornwall Hospital site in Truro; and a large new build centralising children’s and adult services as part of the Leeds General Infirmary site.

To find out more about the IET Faraday Challenge Days, please visit our website.