Competing against teams from other UK universities and colleges, Sheffield Hallam’s team were crowned national champions in the challenge’s Advanced category, successfully defending the title won by Sheffield Hallam’s ‘Team AFFinity” in 2025.
This year’s challenge required teams to design, build and present an autonomous vehicle to complete a complex, multi-stage mission whilst climbing and descending a vertical pipe.
The winners of the Advanced category built an autonomous vehicle which completed the mission using programmable electronics, demonstrating a high level of systems integration and control. The team comprised Isaac Haslam, Alexander Brown-Roche, Haydn Blakemore and Jack White, who all study BEng Mechanical Engineering.
Jack White, Advanced student team engineer, said: “The competition itself was quite intense, especially when the device had an electrical fault during the heats. We had to repair the issue whilst the competition was still taking place, making our victory even more rewarding. One of the biggest highlights for me was receiving positive feedback from David Ball, the founder of the challenge, who praised our two-wheel design concept.”
Sheffield Hallam’s Foundation category team, made up of BEng Mechanical Engineering students Harry Milburn, Sam Yates, Jayden Jordan-Wells and Alex Steer, also performed well in the national final. Their entry, which was required to complete a different mission using only analogue electronics, won the Foundation category’s presentation competition.
The teams were supervised by Dr Jonathan Scholey, Dr Stephen Agha and Dr Megan Kendall.
Dr Jonathan Scholey, Senior Lecturer in Mechanical Engineering at Sheffield Hallam University, said: “With over 60 teams entering the IMechE Design Challenge this year, to get two teams performing so well in the national final is a fantastic achievement. The performance is testament to the hard work and professionalism demonstrated by both teams, and the support provided by academic and technical support colleagues.”
Isaac Haslam, Advanced student team manager, said: “I highly recommend the Design Challenge to any aspiring engineer. From start to finish, the experience and feedback we received had a direct impact on my professional development, opening opportunities and experiences that I would not otherwise have had access to.”
The IMechE Design Challenge gives students from universities and University Technical Colleges (UTCs) a taste of real-world engineering. Teams are challenged to design, build, present and operate a device to a strict technical specification within a defined timeframe. The challenge is designed to complement the academic curriculum, helping students to develop:
• practical engineering competence
• realistic industry experience
• employability, business and people skills
