The six finalist in the Autocar-Courland Next Generation Awards have been announced. They will face a ‘Dragons Den’-style judging day on 7 November, where they will present to judges from Autocar, Jaguar Land Rover, McLaren Automotive, Peugeot, Toyota and Skoda.
The winner will be announced at the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders’ annual dinner on 27 November.
Autocar publisher Alastair Lewis said: “The 2012 contest has seen an unprecedented number of high quality entries from university students countrywide. The first and second round judges faced an extremely difficult task in carrying out their evaluations.
“We would like to thank all students and university lecturers and faculty heads for embracing the Autocar-Courland Next Generation Award and we look forward to working with them in 2013 as the contest grows and establishes itself on the academic calendar”.
This year’s winner will be rewarded with a work experience package comprising one month sessions at Jaguar Land Rover, McLaren Automotive, Peugeot, Skoda and Toyota, as well as £7500 cash.
The contest was launched in 2009 to offer entrants a unique chance to kick-start an automotive industry career.
The 2012 brief was: “In no more than 500 words, describe an improvement (be it an invention, innovation, a legislative change, a change to corporate policy or the adoption of a new convention) which you believe would be a worthwhile benefit to the UK automotive business. You will be expected to demonstrate an understanding of how such an improvement could be made viable and what the wider implications of it might be.”
The 2011 winner, Oliver Brunt, proposed a new kind of active head-up display, known as Social Heads-Up Display that uses sophisticated graphics to employ the whole of a car’s screen as its ‘canvas’. The SHUD system conveys real-time car-to-car communication to provide drivers with improved information, presented more attractively and without distraction.
The 2012 finalists, and their subject interests are:
Ross Hannah, Bath University, Automotive lifting system
Jonathan Maynard, Brunel University, Cooled EGR discharge
Edward Bannister, Coventry University, Acceleration actuated electronic forced aspiration
Niall McCann, Bath University, Interactive traffic management system
Roberto Antonio Pace, Kingston University, Cylindrical brake system
James Benson, Huddersfield University, Car theft prevention system
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