✔ For students in years 7-11
✔ For students in years 12-13
The Ethical Innovation Award is sponsored by AtkinsRéalis.
We are delighted to announce we are launching a new category, Ethical Thinking supported by AtkinsRéalis, a world-class engineering services and nuclear organisation who tackle some of the world’s toughest challenges. create solutions that prioritize not just functionality and profitability but also social responsibility, environmental impact and safety
This is a very exciting category with criteria shaped by over 700 young people who have shared their thinking on ethical innovation. They have produced a Young Person’s Charter for Ethical Innovation which details considerations you can build into your design or idea.
We know TeenTech students have always demonstrated ethical principals in their project ideas, designing solutions to make life better, simpler, safer or more fun for everyone. We will now be recognising students who clearly demonstrate they have thought carefully about how their innovation or idea will be ethically principled and socially/environmentally responsible.
We want you to think out of the box, be as creative as possible and bring your inner entrepreneur to the table to create new ideas which embrace ethical innovation. Think about where you want to see progress in society and how we can achieve it through designing, building or project managing a solution.
Students may choose to develop a project for this specific category or indicate when they submit a project for a different category that their idea embodies ethical thinking.
You might consider how you will make sure your product is accessible to all, fair to workers involved in design, production and distribution, its impact on people and planet, data privacy, openness and transparency and the social and political impact
Sometimes you might need to make a ‘trade-off’ – so making a product inexpensively might mean lower pay for workers. How would you resolve this?
Want some inspiration for your project?
1. Ethical AI and Robotics
- Fair Algorithms: Developing algorithms that are designed to be unbiased and transparent helps prevent discrimination and ensures fair outcomes in applications like hiring and lending as well as the ‘weaponising’ of AI to spread misinformation or targeted societal disruption.
- Cybersecurity Measures: Implementing advanced cybersecurity protocols to protect nuclear facilities from cyber-attacks and potential threats.
2. Social Impact Engineering
- Affordable Housing: Designing cost-effective and sustainable housing solutions addresses housing shortages and supports low-income communities.
- Disaster-Resilient Infrastructure: Engineering buildings and infrastructure to withstand natural disasters helps protect communities and reduce the impact of such events.
3. Assistive Technologies
- Prosthetic limbs and wearable exoskeletons that can that operate without human intervention in dangerous working environment (like nuclear or near the operational rail, aviation or road network)
- Technologies designed for accessibility, such as voice-controlled automation systems, enhance the independence of people with various impairments.
4. Renewable Energy, Recycled Materials and Conservation
- Fusion Energy Development: Investing in research to develop nuclear fusion as a potential source of nearly limitless, clean energy.
- Advances in solar panel technology and wind turbine design to help reduce reliance on fossil fuels and decrease greenhouse gas emissions while minimizing the ecological footprint.
- The Circular Economy to support recycling and the reuse of materials like steel, glass and bamboo.
5. Green and Smart Building Design
- With a focus on energy efficiency, sustainable materials, natural heating, cooling, and lighting including things like living walls and storm water management as well as smart sensors to track environmental conditions, occupancy and energy consumption.
6. Modular and Prefabricated Construction
- Modular Buildings: Prefabricating building sections in a factory setting reduces construction waste, improves quality control, and shortens build times.
- 3D Printing: Utilizing 3D printing technology to create building components or even entire structures can lead to more efficient material use and lower construction costs.
7. Sustainable Transportation
- High Speed Rail, Electric Vehicles and battery technology that can help reduce carbon footprints.
These examples illustrate how ethical considerations can be integrated into engineering practices to create solutions that benefit society and the environment while advancing technology and innovation.
How will use ethically innovate to engineer a better future for our planet and it’s people?
Judging Criteria
You can find out more about the Young Person’s Charter For Ethical Innovation to see the issues which young people feel you should consider here:
We want to see submissions that show:
- What is the problem you’re trying to solve and why did you choose it?
- What is the solution?
- How does it promote ethics and integrity?
- How much will it cost and where will the funding come from?