WMG success at regional heat

A team of Engineering Doctorate students from Warwick Manufacturing Group has taken first place in the regional heat of the Engineering Young Entrepreneurs Scheme (Engineering YES).

This success at regional level saw the team win a combined £500, as well as securing a place in the final in Birmingham on June 20.

The Engineering YES programme is in its fourth year and is a competition for UK-based postgraduate students and post-doctoral researchers. The team from WMG spent three days at the event where they attended talks from academics and industry experts before ultimately having to plan and present a business plan for an imaginary start-up company to a group of investors and industry experts.

The WMG team, consisting of Claire White, Courtney Thornberry, Matthew Pitts, and Nicholas Higgins, all in the first year of their International Engineering Doctorate program through WMG, were declared the overall winners thanks to their ‘H2GO’ idea.

This idea was based around the concept of a hydrogen modular fuelling station which was to integrate into the petrol station market in the UK, coinciding with the release of several hydrogen powered fuel cell vehicles that are set to be released in 2015.

The team competed against six other teams from Loughborough University, University College London, Lincoln, Leicester, Huddersfield, and the University of Birmingham. There were three separate heats and in each the winning team and the team finishing runner-up progressed to the final. In the finals the WMG team will be competing against five other teams once again.

Courtney Thornberry, member of the WMG team, told the Boar: “At the final we will present our idea again – but we are working on improving it based on the judges’ feedback from the competition. We plan to address a few more issues in greater detail and clean up the presentation as well.”

Thornberry explained the importance of the competition for the team’s studies: “The group project requirement helps us to work on team building and working together, as well as building our entrepreneurial skills.”

There will be several different prizes in the finals in Birmingham on June 20, worth up to £2,000.