Teesside University Students Complete Fifth Annual Engineering Competition

[Students at Teesside University have successfully completed this year’s engineering competition, earning high praise from RWE judges and the university’s teaching staff.]

The competition, in its fifth and final year, has been running since January 2026 and forms part of the students’ assessed coursework for the year.

The launch event for the competition took place in January, at which the students, in groups, were asked to adopt the role of new start-up companies, specialising in noise suppression innovations for the offshore wind industry. The groups were then given a full academic term to create their own innovative solutions for reducing the impact on the environment resulting from noise during construction. For the first time, the students were encouraged to use AI tools to support, for example, brainstorming, background research or concept development.

The competition ran from late January through to early May. During this time the students had their solutions reviewed by Sofia team members, and an opportunity to visit the Siemens Gamesa blade fabrication facility in Hull, where all of the turbine blades for Sofia have been fabricated.

At a presentation day held in the Stephenson Building at Teesside University, sixteen groups of students presented their solutions to a panel of judges, comprised of RWE staff members from the Sofia project. With cash prizes of £150 per team member for first place, and £50 per team member for second, there was additional incentive for the students.

Judges heard suggestions including hydro-jets, modular designs, polyurethane cones with evidence of students using AI programmes and 3D-printing to create and test their models.

Presenting the awards to the students, the Sofia STEM lead, Mike Cargill, congratulated the students on the highest standard of work produced to date on the competition. With a particular emphasis on the quality of the posters produced, saying that the students had ‘risen to the occasion beautifully’. Head of the School of Engineering, Dr Adam Adgar, said that the students’ work ‘summed up engineering as a vocational form of work, not just about the kinds of skills they would develop over their courses, but the application of those skills in their careers’, helping to solve real-world problems.

The students themselves said that they had taken a great deal of benefit from the project. Examples given included the opportunity to design their own ideas and have them scrutinised by industry professionals, improving skills that would help them in their future studies, and learning important principles of time management and teamwork.

Reflecting upon the successes of the MOU between Teesside University and the project, Sofia communications and stakeholder manager Jonny Brownsteen said: “We’re delighted with how the MOU has progressed, which has delivered opportunities to students here at Teesside such as a range of scholarships, guest lectures, attendances at careers fairs and this flagship competition each year. RWE is playing its part in developing talent pipelines here on the ground, while at once developing and preparing to construct the next generation of offshore wind farms.”