And the winner is...

Prizes are enduring tools that remain surprisingly powerful in their ability to benefit society. They often drive change and are often the singular spur that produces revolutionary solutions.

In 1714, the British Parliament established the Longitude Prize that inspired Yorkshire clockmaker John Harrison to develop the marine chronometer, an instrument that solved the age-old problem of measuring longitude at sea, while the Orteig Prize for the first non-stop New York-Paris flight - claimed by Charles Lindbergh - sparked huge public interest in air travel that led to aviation stocks soaring.

There is little doubt that by identifying excellence, prizes can help shape goals, highlight exemplars and create powerful motivation to excel regardless of the field of endeavour.

© Tim Bicheno-Brown/Flight International The University of Sheffield's Wi-Cro concept uses wireless microwave energy transmission from satellites or ground station for primary power

Blue-blooded management consultant McKinsey in its recent report And The Winner Is ...Capturing the Promise of Philanthropic Prizes believes such accolades can also educate the public, something that aviation, so often characterised as public enemy number one, desperately needs.

Aviation's challenge today centres on providing incentives for budding talent to come up with innovative ideas that could shape an eco-efficient future of aviation and this is at the heart of Airbus's first foray into the prize environment with its Fly Your Ideas contest.

Five teams battled it out at the grand finale at the Paris air show, the pick of more than 2,350 students from 82 countries who entered to develop creative ideas that could shape the future of aviation and reduce its environmental impact. The five finalist teams were:

• The "Big Bang Team" from Universidad Politécnica de Valencia for its windowless cabin proposal.
• "COz" from the University of Queensland for its use of bio-composite cabin materials.
• "Kometa Brno" from Brno University of Technology for electro-motor driven aircraft ground movements.
• "Solaire Voyager" from the National University of Singapore, selected for its onboard solar cell technology project integrating photovoltaic cells.
• "Stanford ADG" from Stanford University for its inverted V formation flight, proposal.

Airbus's Rachel Schroeder has managed the project and explains the airframer's motivation: "Airbus organised the competition essentially to encourage innovation, increase awareness of the importance of the environment, and to challenge and encourage a target group - students - to get involved."

JUDGING CRITERIA

Students, she says, were judged not only on the quality of their proposals, but also on the way in which they approached their subject and organised themselves.

The jury is also comprised of five internationally renowned independent experts and five Airbus representatives, specialised in fields such as engineering, the environment, human resources and marketing and headed by jury president Patrick Gavin, Airbus's executive vice-president of engineering.

Schroeder says the variety of judging talent was a key criterion, lending the contest credence. "Airbus has done some amazing things in terms of innovation, but has no problem admitting it does not have all the answers."

Not only that, but the prize system brings together powerful networks that enable members to share ideas approaches and best practices.

"Airbus has a huge need for engineering talent and anything we can do to encourage students to enter that field of expertise is of great benefit," Schroeder concedes. "There have already been many requests internally to see the various proposals, whether it is the subject area, university or individuals. In fact, one proposal is being discussed by Airbus to examine how we could apply it as a business proposal."

NEW TALENT

McKinsey acknowledges the ability of prizes to mobilise new talent, an important driver of innovation and concedes that the history of science is full of instances of outsiders proposing novel and ultimately revolutionary solutions to problems that persistently vexed insiders.

Boeing, too, has a long history of rewarding innovation. The US airframer sponsors the worldwide annual engineering student of the year award competition, which is held annually in association with Flight International.

Open to any full - or part-time engineering student pursuing a recognised academic degree, entries are evaluated and judged by a panel of former Boeing engineering chiefs. The winning student's work must be judged as likely to impact the future of aerospace engineering in such areas as new or enhanced systems, processes or tools; new levels of performance; improved lifecycle costs; and new capabilities.

This collaborative spirit underlines Boeing Research & Technology's central ethos too. It not only conducts its own development, but also works with top government, private and university research centres around the world to ensure that enabling technologies are ready when needed.

Aimed at encouraging students to pursue careers in aerospace-related engineering fields, last year's Boeing-sponsored award went to Agnes Blom. A Dutch doctoral student at the Delft University of Technology, Blom, 27, was the unanimous choice of the judges for her research in the development of advanced, variable-stiffness composite laminate.

The UK academic initiative Omega has also endeavoured to promote innovative thinking among aerospace engineering students on the long-term sustainability of air travel, with particular emphasis on propulsion systems, within UK universities.

"Gas turbines have now been around for over 60 years. Although they have been refined it has been a long time since there were any step changes in overall performance and most graphs show the improvements starting to level off.

"When this happens in most sectors disruptive technologies come along and displace the market leaders," explains Dr Tim Dolmansley of Sheffield University, who organised the contest.

The Omega Prize was designed therefore to reward the most disruptive and credible proposal. Ideas were encouraged that offered not simply evolutionary development of the existing technology base, but a complete paradigm shift to an entirely new method of operation. "Any new but extreme concept must of course satisfy certain basic parameters in order to be an acceptable strategy to society," says Dolmansley. Four teams proposed ideas presented as a poster and as a slide presentation and were judged by an independent panel of experienced researchers. They included:

• Electro-Hydrodynamic Thrusters: Queen Mary College, University of London.
• Electro Magnetic Propulsion: various university students on placement at General Electric in Caerphilly - which won the £1,000 presentation prize.
• Nuclear Propulsion System: Manchester University.
• Wi-Cro Wireless Cryogenic Propulsion: Sheffield University - which won the £500 ($800) poster prize.

Dolmansley says: "Each of the ideas had merit, although in some cases possible issues of applicability and public acceptance were acknowledged. All of the ideas were highly innovative, attempting to build on existing engineering knowledge and discussing the maturity of key technologies."

What clinched the GE victory was the credible nature of the team's proposition, allied to the students making a compelling case.

Source: Flight International