2020/21 Efficiency for Access Design Challenge

Three of the TEA-LP’s partner universities will be participating in the 2020/21 Efficiency for Access Design Challenge. By bringing together and inspiring university students, this global competition aims to foster innovation in the off-grid appliances sector as well as forge beneficial partnerships between universities, researchers and industry partners at a global level.

Gulu University in Uganda, Mekelle University in Ethiopia and Moi University in Kenya will all be participating in the 2020/21 design challenge that seeks innovations in affordable, super-efficient appliances that can be used in an off-grid context.

At Moi, three teams are expected to participate in the competition and the university has integrated the design challenge into an existing postgraduate course on energy management offered in the School of Engineering, aligning it with their overall project-based learning approach. Two multidisciplinary teams of Gulu University’s third and fourth year students of Bachelor of Science in Biosystems Engineering will be participating. And at Mekelle up to three teams of BSc students from a range of schools including Mechanical and Industrial Engineering, Chemical Engineering, Electrical Engineering and other similar fields will be participating.

The preparations will start from September 2020 with international monitoring and networking for the teams involved.  This is a huge opportunity for both the students and the universities to get international experience, network and build capacity. The Grand Final will be in June 2021 and we wish their student teams the best of luck!