MP visits University of Birmingham Students to celebrate Airbus’ Fly Your Ideas competition.

As the world’s leading aircraft manufacturer, Airbus is constantly looking ahead to anticipate the global needs of a more connected, more sustainable world and the Airbus’ Fly Your Ideas competition challenges students to develop new, eco-efficient ideas for the aviation industry of the future.

The competition, now in its fourth year, is open to students from around the world and the winning team is awarded 30,000 euros and given the chance to host an on-campus ‘innovation week’ run by the company.

Last Friday, Ms Stuart visited the team from the University of Birmingham, who made it through to the last few rounds of the competition along with six other UK universities. Over 600 teams from around the world entered Fly Your Ideas and the Birmingham team finished in the top 100.

Gisela Stuart: “I am extremely impressed by the innovative ideas that the University of Birmingham has come up with to improve energy efficiency and cleaner production. It highlights the fantastic work going on in my constituency as well as the contribution that Airbus make to vital skills in the UK.”

Simon Wadey, Airbus’ Research and Technology Partnerships Manager said: “We can be rightly proud of the British aerospace industry. It is everything that you could want it to be, high-value, high-tech and high-quality. The UK has the world’s second largest aviation sector and by encouraging the brightest and best students like these at the University of Birmingham we can ensure that the UK stays at the forefront of global aviation.”

While there, Ms Stuart learned more about the team’s project, which focussed on energy efficiency, cleaner production and the recycling of composites (E-COMP). She also met with their Airbus mentors and discussed the challenges of attracting engineering graduates away from the City and into high-tech manufacturing. The winner of the competition was announced in June.