About GEC

The Global Engineering Challenge

What challenges will you face as an engineer? How will your decisions impact on the people around you and throughout the world? How will you promote your projects?

To tackle the engineering challenges of the 21st century. The Sheffield University Global Engineering Challenge (GEC) will introduce and develop transferable skills, which are highly valued by employers, through a cross-faculty group project.

Where do the projects come from?

In 2025, students will be working on projects based in Sheffield, focusing on neighbourhoods identified by Sheffield City Council as priorities for community-led improvement. Whatever project your team is assigned, your aim will be to understand the strengths of the local community and explore how engineering thinking can support residents, amplify local expertise, and create solutions that genuinely work for the people who live there.

These projects are developed in partnership with Sheffield City Council, drawing on real challenges identified through local data, community feedback, and ongoing regeneration programmes.

Your project may not fit neatly within a single engineering discipline. A key goal of GEC is to encourage collaboration across subject areas so teams can develop more holistic and resilient solutions. As with all engineering work, GEC projects share several key features:

• Engineering aims to improve people’s lives, so your ultimate goal is to meet the needs of the people who will use the solution.

• Projects must work within real-world constraints, such as cost, environment, time, resource availability, and relevant legislation.

• Engineering involves investigation, evaluation, and application of technical knowledge, analysis, judgement, and communication.

How do I choose my project?

You will select your preferred projects in advance of the project week. On the basis of this information and with the need to have multidisciplinary groups, you will be indicated your project and group before the challenge. When you first meet your group, you will be led through activities that help you to begin engineering a solution.

Read the project briefs and once you know what you want to work on, use the google form in your e-mail inbox to tell us your preferences.

Read the design areas (including the individual projects) and once you know what you want to work on, click here to tell us your preferences.

What work will I need to submit at the end of the week?

Through the week your team will compile a report. This will be marked by your facilitator. On Friday, every team will present their solution to the other students, the facilitator, and a staff member or alumnus associated with your hub. You will need to show that you:

• Have considered local strengths, needs, and perspectives to design a sustainable and inclusive solution that empowers the community;

• Have followed a suitable design process: identified design criteria, researched and identified a range of solutions, evaluated their suitability, and recommended the most appropriate solution;

• Have considered sustainable development requirements in your solution: both impacts and benefits in the social, environmental, and economic spheres;

• Engaged with MySkills;

• Can communicate your solutions effectively and appropriately to an audience.

The presentation will be assessed by peer review on:

• The effectiveness of your presentation

• The appropriateness of your proposed solution*

* It is not expected that groups will develop a full technical solution or design to ‘solve’ the problem as there will not be enough time in the week. Instead, you should research existing solutions and produce outline ideas/solutions showing consideration of, and adaptation to, the wider social, ethical and sustainability concerns of the community.