Siemens’ academic and future workforce team initiated this new event to encourage engineering creativity and impactful designs.
Siemens Digital Industries Software, in collaboration with Sony, hosted its first Immersive Design Challenge, aiming to empower today’s students with the tools and skills needed for the future workforce. 900 participants representing more than 230 universities from 38 countries accepted the challenge to create impactful ideas, develop digital skills and learn how to combine sustainable design principles with immersive engineering technology.
“We’ve had an incredible global response to our first immersive design challenge,” said Dora Smith, senior director of Future Workforce and Academic Strategy at Siemens Digital Industries Software. “Students from around the world leveraged our microcredentials to master new domains. They brought creativity and critical thinking to develop sustainable solutions, addressing wicked challenges in food scarcity, healthcare and battery lifecycle management. The experience the teams have gained during the challenge helps prepare them to be real-world ready in the future workforce.”
The first round consisted of short questions about the students’ product or idea and their understanding of immersive engineering. The second round featured a short list of 40 teams that developed and visualized their ideas with support from Siemens experts and mentors using Siemens’ NX Student Edition. Alongside the learning and networking opportunities, all challenge participants earned digital badges to recognize their achievements.
Three finalist teams worked with Siemens’ NX Immersive Designer software and the Sony XR head-mounted display on campus to bring their ideas to life. The teams presented their concepts during a live online event and included teams from KTH Royal Institute of Technology in Sweden, Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology (RMIT) in Australia and Friedrich-Alexander University of Erlangen-Nuremberg (FAU), Germany. The projects included an immersive engineering-based digital twin of a Formula Student car, a simulation and visualization of a horticulture-focused lunar lander, and a project to increase recycling efficiency, improve battery performance and reduce waste in the automotive battery industry.
The judging panel, known as the jury, comprised representatives from Siemens alongside Hirohito Henry Kondo, general manager of New Contents Creation Business Unit, XR Business Division, at Sony Corporation, and Paloma Diaz, professor at Universidad Carlos III de Madrid, Spain and chair of the Global Engineering Deans Council.
The jury selected NextCycle from FAU Erlangen-Nürnberg in Germany as the team whose idea best addressed the challenge. They considered criteria such as level of innovation, quality of the business case, how well the team leveraged Siemens’ NX Immersive Designer and the Sony XR Headset, and the sustainability impact of the team’s idea. The NextCycle team impressed the jury with their innovative concept, “BatteryTwin XR: An Integrated Digital Twin for a Sustainable EV Battery Lifecycle,” demonstrating technical creativity and a clear commitment to sustainability and real-world impact.
“This challenge has been an incredibly rewarding experience for our team, pushing us to think creatively and collaborate effectively,” said Suavi Yildirim, NextCycle’s team leader, following the announcement. “A special thanks to our Siemens mentor, Buket Kurtulus, the entire Siemens team, and our university for their unwavering support. I truly believe all three finalist teams did an excellent job, and I look forward to the opportunity to continue collaborating and refining our solutions for real-world implementation in the future.”
The team members from NextCycle are invited to participate in Siemens’ Realize Live event later this year, and their university will receive a Sony XR head-mounted display and one year license for NX Immersive Designer.
To learn more about the challenge and the finalist teams, visit immersive-design-challenge.com.
