Davidson Inventors Challenge - The Final 2025

Join us for the online final of our Davidson Inventors Challenge (DIC) 2025, the competition where Y11and Y12 students learn and apply STEM skills to tackle current global challenges, on Friday 28 March at 3pm.

More than 150 school teams across the UK entered this edition of the competition in September last year, marking a new milestone in growth as the competition goes from strength to strength, and it promises to come to an exciting conclusion in March with a number of innovative ideas from competitors.

Students must submit their final project reports on 28 February, and successful teams will then be shortlisted on 14 March.

Davidson Inventors Challenge Chair, Kamran Yunus, said: "We are truly impressed by the quality of entrants this year, every single team has brought intelligent and interesting ideas to the table. It is going to be very difficult to shortlist teams when we have such strong competition. Every person and every teacher should already be proud - it's going to be a great final!"

Our shortlisted teams will go ‘head-to-head’ in the two-hour online final on Friday 28 March (3pm - 5pm).

Teams will present the solutions they have been working on over the last few months with the help of our mentors, and tapping into our resources produced by chemical engineering experts in their fields. The task involved researching UN sustainable development goals, select a specific challenge or problem to work on, and develop a sustainable and innovative solution.

The finalist teams will showcase their inventions to our online audience of: judges and mentors, department members, and graduates in industry, as well as other participating students.

The schedule for the final

Date and time

Friday 28 March (3pm - 5pm).

Registration

Join our grand Finale on Microsoft Teams.

Programme

Chair: Dr Kamran Yunus, Associate Teaching Professor, University of Cambridge Department of Chemical Engineering and Biotechnology (CEB)

3pm Welcome and intro: Davidson Inventors Challenge, Sustainable Development Goals, and Chemical Engineering at Cambridge.

• Relevance of Chemical Engineering and Biotechnology to Sustainable Development Goals (Professor Geoff Moggridge, Professor of Chemical Product Design)

3.15pm - 4.15pm Presentations from the three shortlisted student teams

BREAK 4.15pm - 4.30 pm Judging Panel deliberations

4.30 - 4:50 pm Keynote speaker: Chemical Engineering alumna, Fiona Macleod (Erskine), Professor of Process Safety, University of Sheffield:
‘Engineer by day, writer by night’

4.50pm Nigel Hirst, former President of the Institution of Chemical Engineers (IChemE): ‘A note on Chemical Engineering of the future’

4.55pm Announcement of DIC 2025 winners and certificate e-award

5pm Closing remarks by DIC organising Team