The IMechE Design Challenge gives students a taste of ‘real world’ engineering, challenging them to design, create, present and run a device to a strict technical specification. It enables participants to gain realistic industry experience, practical employability skills, and enhanced business and people skills, all within a set time frame.
From the initial 75 student teams who entered the challenge this year, Sheffield Hallam’s ‘Team AFFinitY’, made up of students from the MEng/BEng (Hons) Mechanical Engineering and BEng (Hons) Software Engineering courses, accumulated the most points from all competition activities in the advanced category and were crowned 2025 national champions.
The team of students was led by Farhan Mohd Fuad, and was made up of Yusuf Riaz, Faris Najwan, Muhammad Fauzamsaari and Luis Rodriguez.
Farhan Mohd Fuad, BEng (Hons) Mechanical Engineering student, said: “Winning the IMechE Design Challenge has been one of the most transformative experiences of my time at Sheffield Hallam. Leading our team of five passionate engineers through months of design, testing, and problem solving has shown me what can be achieved through determination and teamwork.
“The support and encouragement from our lecturers kept us motivated and helped us turn ambitious concepts into a working reality. This challenge pushed me to grow, not just as an engineer but also as a leader, learning how to inspire others, stay resilient in setbacks, and celebrate our success.”
As part of the challenge, the device was required to travel autonomously along a straight track, connecting with simulated charging points positioned up to four metres away. It then returned to its starting position before repeating the full sequence and finishing at a designated end point.
Teams were awarded marks for successfully reaching the charging stations, maintaining contact for specific durations, and demonstrating precision in returning to both the start and end locations. Crucially, the vehicle operated entirely autonomously and once activated, it completed the full series of movements without any external control or human input. Teams were also tasked with creating a poster, presentation and computer model showcasing their design.
Dr Jonathan Scholey, senior lecturer in mechanical engineering, said: “It was fantastic to see Team AFFinitY’s hard work rewarded in the IMechE Design Challenge National Final. The team did very well in their presentation and this, coupled with their confident and consistently great performance in other areas of the competition, contributed to them being crowned 2025 national champions in the advanced category.”
Sheffield Hallam’s inaugural entry into the IMechE Design Challenge was in 2024, where its team won the Yorkshire Regional Final and finished 3rd overall nationally in the Foundation category.
