The Institution of Agricultural Engineers (IAgrE) in partnership with the Institution of Engineering and Technology (IET) have launched a suite of competitions designed to test the engineering and technical know-how of university students.

Three competitions, each with different challenges, require practical and viable solutions to tackle these real-life agricultural engineering issues.


One challenge involves developments in autonomous agricultural vehicles, drones and robots

A panel of judges from both IAgrE and IET will select the top three entries per challenge to go through to the final. Finalists will pitch ideas to a ‘Dragons Den’ style panel and the panel will decide ‘Best in Category’ with one person from each challenge selected as the category winner. There will be one winning finalist, selected from the three category winners. The final winner will receive a Macbook and piece of software.

Entry is free and open to all students under the age of 35 at UK universities and the deadline to submit entries is Tuesday 1st March 2016.

The Challenges:

1. Man or machine?

Living in an automated world. An ageing work-force and exodus from the land mean that the demand for agricultural workers will soon exceed availability. Can developments in autonomous vehicles, drones and robots alone meet the challenge?

2. Water, water but not everywhere . . .

Managing our precious soil and water resources. As population growth puts pressure on land resources we need to find soil free ways of farming. We also need to harness global water resources, transferring from drought-free areas to those in need. Help tackle this growing soil and water management issue to help improve the availability and management of resources.

3. Waste not, want not  . . .

Reducing food losses through better crop storage. Up to half the harvest of developing countries is ‘lost’ every year due to poor weather, storage, organisation and logistics, eroding already limited supplies. Help tackle this growing crop storage issue particularly where resource is limited and the populations are going hungry.

Entry application forms are available at www.theiet.org/iagre-competition