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Design Challenge - Your questions answered

Please note that the FAQs are subject to the rules and technical specification of their respective year as some FAQs are outdated or are no longer relevant due to the rules changes that occur each year. Please enquire to double check at designchallenge@imeche.org.

FAQs 2024

  • Q: Which educational institutions can take part in the Design Challenge?

    Answer:

    See Section 1 of IMechE Design Challenge - General Specification 2024: “Universities, colleges and other engineering sciences educational institutes run internal qualifiers to select up to two teams to progress to their respective Regional Finals. The winning team from each region progresses to the National Final.”

  • Q: Which competition level could my educational institution register my team from?

    Answer:

    See Appendix 3 of IMechE Design Challenge - General Specification 2024: “Any college plus the levels highlighted in green are considered the max threshold for competing in 4.17.1 Concept Challenge and 4.17.3 Foundation Challenge. Any team could compete in 4.17.5 Advanced Challenge, if desired.”

  • Q: Is there a direct equivalence between universities in the English and in the Scottish System?

    Answer:

    See Appendix 3 of IMechE Design Challenge - General Specification 2024:

    English System
    Level 3 - A Level
    Level 4 - Year 1
    Level 5 - Year 2
    Level 6 - Year 3 BEng (Hons)
    Level 7 - Year 4 MEng

    Scottish System
    SCQF Level 7 - Year 1 / AH at school
    SCQF Level 8 - Year 2 - Direct entry form A Levels or AH
    SCQF Level 9 - Year 3
    SCQF Level 10 - Year 4 BEng (Hons)
    SCQF Level 11 - Year 5 MEng

  • Q: What is the maximum voltage of the motor and battery I can use?

    Answer:

    See ### of IMechE Design Challenge - Project Specification and Rules 2024 - V1: 4.10 “A single main fuse shall be installed between the battery and any other wiring. If the maximum current draw cannot be proven, a maximum current fuse of 10A is permitted.”

  • Q: In the IMechE-Design-Challenge-General-Specification-2024-V1.1 file:

    At “1.6 Teams must compete and have a valid score in all sections of the competition to be crowned champions.” What happens if our team does not receive any valid peer review vote? Will we be disqualified?

    Answer:

    Rule 1.6 shall be interpreted as:
    Teams must compete and have a valid score in sections 1.5.1, 1.5.2, 1.5.3 and 1.5.6 * (* Not applicable to 4.17.1 – Concept). Zero score in 1.5.4 and / or 1.5.5 will not disqualify from determining who is the overall champion.

  • Q: What are the penalties for late submissions?

    Answer:

    Within 24 hours from the competition - 0%
    More than 24 hours form the competition - 50%