Young talents and their projects in the exciting finale at Motek

At this year's Motek, in addition to numerous new products, norelem once again provided a platform for young inventors and awarded the "Engineering Newcomer" prize for the 11th time. The winners were announced at an award ceremony and presented their projects to a wider audience.

On Wednesday, October 9 at 2 p.m., the time had finally come: after numerous spectators had joined in the countdown, the norelem Academy announced the winners of the Engineering Newcomer 2024. The selected teams presented themselves and their project and accepted their prizes to much applause.

This year, there were over 100 international participants and more than 20 project submissions from fields as diverse as renewable energies, disaster prevention, CNC, automation, smart living, thermoelectronics and e-mobility.

Competition for creative minds

The design competition offers pupils and students at universities, technical colleges or universities of applied sciences the opportunity to have their own engineering and development projects or final theses assessed by a top-class panel of experts. All ideas are assessed for their innovative and practical value, their market opportunities, the clever and cost-effective use of standard and purchased parts and their practical handling. The evaluation criteria also include the use of norelem's extensive CAD library, in which all relevant geometric and technical features of the components used are available for download. Last but not least, the technological implementation and professional presentation of the projects, for example in social media, also play a role.

There can only be three

The TAC-ROLL project from the Rudolf Diesel Technical College in Nuremberg, an automated, mobile hose winding system that allows fire hoses to be rolled up efficiently and gently after use, was particularly impressive this year.

Second place went to the vocational college Platz der Republik für Technik und Medien Mönchengladbach for their assembly and climbing technology project: a corrosion-resistant, non-slip wire rope unwinding device that can also be aligned on sloping roofs and ensures controlled unwinding of wire ropes.

3rd place went to the Munich Technical College with the FLEX UP mobile lifting platform.

Weighing just 330 kg, the car lift for private use requires no electricity, is mobile and can be dismantled into individual components for transportation and stowed away in the garage or workshop to save space.