Mechanical engineering students claim top awards at industry competition
Mechanical engineering students at London South Bank University (LSBU) have won an engineering industry design award, recognising the quality and maturity of their design process.
The team triumphed in the Design Competition Award and finished second overall at the Greater London Region Finals of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers (IMechE) Design Challenge 2026.
The competition, which took place at the University of Hertfordshire, saw student teams design, build and test a self-contained autonomous device in response to a real-world engineering brief. This year's challenge tasked students with developing an external pipe-climbing device capable of ascending a vertical pipe autonomously, within strict design, safety and performance requirements.
LSBU entered two teams from its School of Engineering and Design. The Advanced team, LSBU 2, competed in the Advanced category, which required students to design and build their autonomous device with programmable elements in response to a more complex mission profile.
The team — Alexandru Timofti, Luca Tombolesi, Jervane Douse-Bell and Walee Jawahir — took the Design Competition Award, which recognised the quality of the design process behind the device, including design thinking, responsible use of materials, 3D modelling, technical decision-making and budget management. The team also finished second overall in the Advanced category.
The IMechE Design Challenge is a national extracurricular competition in which student teams apply practical engineering, problem-solving, prototyping and communication skills under competitive conditions.
LSBU students are encouraged to take part in the challenge every year as part of the School of Engineering’s wider engagement with professional engineering activities.
Elisa Puccinelli, a lecturer in engineering and product design who runs participation in the competition as an extracurricular project, said: "This is a fantastic achievement and a strong recognition of the students' creativity, technical ability and commitment. It reflects not only the device's performance but also the strength and maturity of the design process behind it, as well as the students' ability to respond to a real-life engineering brief and work within budget constraints."
This year's results follow the success of LSBU students at last year's competition, where two teams won awards for best presentation, peer review and poster design, with one team finishing third in the Advanced category.