At this year’s Farnborough Friday during the virtual Farnborough International Airshow, Dassault Systèmes launched a new Sustainable Aviation competition for university students.

The UK aerospace industry is committed to inspiring and engaging with young people who are interested in the sector, even when facing tough times as it is currently with the impacts of COVID-19. We remain committed to building the future skills base that will be needed to achieve sustainable aviation and Net Zero by 2050.

This new competition invites student and apprentice teams to innovate and develop creative solutions around “the Future of Propulsion in Aviation”. Bringing together future leaders in aerospace innovation to gain practical experience in working with other collaborators in a design, modelling and simulation project, teams will also enhance their computer simulation skills by using state‐of‐the‐art software to bring their ideas to life in cooperation with industry and academic experts.

If you know anyone who might be interested in applying, the call for team registration closes on 11th September and the competition will run between 5th ‐26th October 2020. The challenge should take no more than three working days to complete.

Teams will gain access to a suite of Dassault Systèmes’ software applications on the 3DEXPERIENCE platform on the cloud to perform their challenge, with training provided to them in advance.

For teams who compete there are prizes to be won of: £100 online vouchers (per team member); Certification to recognise skills gained; mentoring sessions with Dassault Systèmes’ experts; media coverage (via FINN, the aviation industry hub).

John Kitchingman, Dassault Systèmes Managing Director for Northern Europe said:

“By putting digital technology in the hands of young people, students can transform ideas into reality and have their innovations brought to life. Digital technology closes the gap between experimentation and learning so that young people can imagine new ways of seeing the word, of inventing, learning, producing and doing business in a more sustainable way.”

Sameer Savani, Head of Innovation and Engineering at ADS, will be one of the judges for the competition. He said:

“Encouraging young people to build the right skills for the future of our sectors remains incredibly important focus for us. Being able to utilise digital programmes such as the 3DEXPERIENCE platform will help students envisage their innovative ideas and build on their digital skills, giving them invaluable experience for when they enter the industry.”

Students and apprentices can apply by following this link: https://events.3ds.com/sustainable-aviation-competition