The excellent efforts of a team of first-year engineers have been rewarded, celebrating the creative solutions to real-world problems that young minds can produce.

A set of students from Flinders University’s School of Computer Science, Engineering and Mathematics has won the State final of the Engineers Without Borders Australia (EWB) Challenge, which tasked competitors with finding new ways to help people rebuild after disasters in undeveloped areas.

Students Michael Crame, Damian Goldney, Ben Hall, Keegan Hogarth, Bethany Kamitakahara and Frank Morrissey were awarded the prize for their concept to use a combined hemp and bamboo plantation in Timor-Leste for sustainable building applications.

The team proposed to propagate linked bamboo and hemp plantations in Codo, a small rural village in Timor-Leste which has been identified in the 2013 EWB Challenge as an area in need of sustainable development.

“Most of the infrastructure in Codo is of extremely poor quality, with houses traditionally made from rocks or bamboo because the more permanent building materials – cement and steel – are too expensive for most locals,” Dr Trent Lewis, the students’ topic coordinator and a lecturer in the School of Computer Science, Engineering and Mathematics, said.

“The proposed solution of a combined industrial hemp and bamboo plantation offers a sustainable, affordable building material, thereby providing local environmental benefits by reducing soil erosion, enhancing the local economy by providing a resource to sell or trade, providing employment opportunities and offering the opportunity for locals to learn new skills,” Dr Lewis said.

The students will present their award-winning concept to an audience of peers, academics, engineering professionals and community members at the EWB National Showcase in Melbourne today.

More information on the annual academic award is available here.