New format for RED Engineers Challenge

Participating students from the 6th  grade of the so called “Basisschool” (primary school) up to and including students from the 2nd grade of the high school attended two guest lectures at the end of May and in the beginning of July which had the topics sustainability, sustainable solutions and design. With this special education plan, students from the Saxion University of Applied Sciences and the University of Twente in cooperation with lecturers triggered the children to think of the most innovative idea of the Netherlands. At the time of the RED Engineers Challenge on 9th July, these ideas, which are supposed to make the world a bit greener, are presented to the GreenTech jury. The four teams that have the best ideas are invited to the GreenTech TV show and have to design a prototype in the studio. The teams shall represent Twente in the national TV after the summer holidays.

In every episode of GreenTech three candidate teams work, in cooperation with an own GreenCoach, on their own prototype or their true to scale model of their idea. At the end of the episode the candidates present their idea to an expert jury, which then provides feedback and decides which group will be send into the final. The four teams from Twente compete with teams from the regions around Groningen and Rotterdam. The final price is a 3D printer. One of the episodes of GreenTech is being filmed in Enschede, in the Designlab of the University of Twente.

The RED Engineers Challenge is organized by Twente Branding, the program Bètatechiek from Saxion and the Pre-University College of the University of Twente and is sponsored, among others, from the airplane fabricant Boeing. The aim is to stimulate the development of a so-called 21st century communication ability of children and to support the enthusiasm for technology and the societal challenges. The event is part of a bigger project which has the long-term goal to stimulate the interest of young people in technology, to develop the societal meaning as well as the broader perspective for potential follow-up studies. That is more than necessary, due to the growing demand for well-educated technicians in the future, not only in Twente but also worldwide.