Student project shortlisted for global competition

Team AirKroydon pitched carbon capture idea in the recent CleantechChallenge, a global competition organised by the London Business School and University College London.

The aim of the competition is to identify and reward innovative clean technology ideas. The team, AirKroydon, consisting of first year students Patrick Wilkinson, Pierre-Arnaud Cointin and Mohammad Saif had the opportunity to pitch their idea of capturing carbon and particulates using existing technology and infrastructure in an innovative and efficient way, but is also scalable worldwide.

The idea is to draw polluted air with a high concentration of CO2 from major towns, cities and roads into storm drainage systems and then into particle filtration and carbon capture modules. The team were extremely pleased when they found out they were shortlisted and got through to the final stage of the competition.

Our team had worked incredibly hard to get this far, and it was great to know the judges were impressed by our idea. 

Patrick Wilkinson

The final stage consisted of two business pitches and a final Q&A session with the CleanTech judges which was live streamed on YouTube. Although the team didn’t win the competition, they are certainly not dishearten, as they aim to do further research and continue to develop the idea. Patrick added, “It was a great experience. We've all learned a lot from it and we will come back even stronger next year.”

Dr Salma Al Arefi, the personal tutor for both Patrick and Mohammad said, “I had the pleasure to advise Patrick and Mohammad on their innovative project and I have been impressed throughout by their passion, commitment and work ethic.”

Patrick, Pierre-Arnaud and Mohammad are current first year students studying Electronics and Renewable Energy Systems MEng course. This course allows you to study electronic engineering alongside specialist topics in the field of renewable energy systems to meet global challenges.

Further information

The CleanTech Challenge is a student competition jointly hosted by London Business School and University College London, where students compete in cross-functional teams combining technical and business skills. The Challenge is open to all current university students (undergraduate, postgraduate and doctoral) at a recognised Higher Education Institution anywhere in the world.