SAMPE Europe extends deadline for Young Engineer’s Challenge

SAMPE Europe is calling all young engineers in advanced materials, processing and manufacturing disciplines to participate in JEC World 2025’s Young Engineer’s Challenge to put their composites experience into action and represent their university/company in this event.

Developing sustainable composite materials and manufacturing processes for next-generation products has become a key industry initiative. The Young Engineer’s Challenge challenges participants to demonstrate an improvement in the sustainability of an existing product or component, reducing the overall environmental impact while ensuring it is economically viable and fit for purpose. 

To apply, participants must form a team of two to four people and pick a component of choice. Teams may select an existing component and seek to reduce waste, embodied energy or think about facilitating a more circular economy for composite materials, including disassembly and fiber recovery. Alternatively, teams may consider lightweighting the component to reduce energy during the use phase, or reduce maintenance and extend service life by improving durability. The challenge entry should consist of a two-minute video outlining the team’s proposal, including the design, explaining the modifications made to the chosen component/product and the likely impact this will have on the environment.

The competition will be judged over two rounds. Initial selected teams will be chosen to move forward to the second round, in which teams will be offered an impartial, industrial mentor supplied by SAMPE Europe to help prepare the presentation for the live final event. Final judging will take place on Wed., March 5, 2025 in the Agora at JEC World 25 in Paris, France.

Cash prizes will be awarded to the winning team, kindly provided by sponsors. All participants that progress to the final round will receive a free annual membership from their local SAMPE chapter as well.

Teams must register and submit their video entry using this form on SAMPE Europe’s website no later than Dec. 20, 2024. Contact Charlotte Salaün, YEC coordinator for questions about the submission process.

All participants must meet the following criteria:

• Participants must be within 10 years of completing their undergraduate degree
• Teams should consist of at least two members, up to a maximum of four
• Teams may contain undergraduate, postgraduate/postdoctoral researchers and early career engineers working in industry
• Only one entry per team. However, universities/companies are welcome to enter multiple teams if they wish

Additional rules for the Young Engineer’s Challenge include:

• Participants are responsible for ensuring there are no breaches of intellectual property rights belonging to their institution/company or partner institutions/companies
• Cited works should not make up any significant portion of the project. References and citations may be discussed during the video or final presentation, or shown as text to justify design choices and to disclose any non-original materials. Cited works should be clearly declared so that the judging panel can assess the originality of the idea.
• Submissions must be created entirely by the participants and cannot be generated, in whole or in part, by AI

• The idea must be a new innovation or solution based on the team’s own original idea