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As a key initiative of the 'Composites on Tour' project, the UK Centre for Materials Education is organising a student composites design competition and three inter-disciplinary workshops

Participants in the competition are invited to design and develop a consumer product that utilises composite materials in a novel and exemplary way and that is technically and artistically/aesthetically innovative. The final designs will be judged by a panel of professional designers, composite engineers and academics, in June at the 10th European Composites Society conference in Brugges. The winning designs from both the student competition and a parallel competition aimed at professional designers will be exhibited to the general public in Brussels during Autumn 2002.

The workshops are intended to promote inter-disciplinary working practices between engineers and designers and to support the student composites design competition - although attendance at the workshops is not a pre-requisite for entry into the competition.

The first workshop, for 26 engineering and industrial design students, was held on 6-8 March in the aerospace engineering department at the Technical University of Delft in The Netherlands. The aim of the two day workshop was to enable students to learn about composite materials, composites manufacture and the concepts of design. Day one consisted of a number of demonstrations of composite manufacturing techniques and some sessions on conceptualisation and visualisation. The rest of the workshop was spent in the laboratory, developing and producing an original design in small groups. By the end of the two days all the students had been involved in the development and realisation of a composite product, and they all had something to take home!

Two more workshops have been arranged, one in the University of Naples Federico II (20-22 March) and one at Rycotewood College, Oxfordshire (19-21 April). Participants at these workshops are only required to pay for their travel to the venue. Food and accommodation will be provided by the project.

  

Composites on Tour is an EU funded programme that aims to broaden the public awareness of composite materials across Europe. The project is composed of three major initiatives which will culminate during the European Science and Technology Week 2002, 4-11 November.

• The 'Composites on Tour' Mobile Exhibition housed in a large trailer (itself made out of composites) will tour throughout Europe during the summer. It will stop at motorway rest points, science museums etc, with the aim of encouraging the public to visit the exhibit as a break from their travels.
• The 'Composite Design Competition' described above.
• An Exhibition at the Design Museum, Gent, showing the milestones in the use of composite materials in the design of consumer goods.