A team of final-year engineering students has won a national design award for a low-cost water-purification unit designed for use in remote communities, beating entries from more than forty universities.

The project began as a second-year research placement and grew into a full final-year capstone. The judges praised both the engineering and the team's attention to how the device would actually be used, maintained and repaired in the field.

From coursework to national recognition

The award reflects the way engineering is taught here — assessed through real projects rather than exams alone:

• Two terms of prototyping in the university's fabrication labs
• Field testing with an international development partner
• A design costed to be built and repaired locally
• Mentoring from staff who work in the sector

We were not designing for a lab bench. We were designing for a village with no mains power, and that changes every decision you make.

A member of the winning team

The team has been invited to develop the design further with the university's industry partners, and two members have accepted funded places to continue the work as postgraduate researchers.