Modern educational approaches strongly emphasise active learning based on projects and problems, underlining the idea that the learning process may occur at every location and at any time: in the classroom, on a field trip, in a museum, at home, on social media, etc. Learning may happen within one of these spaces but also across them. In this respect, science fairs are a way to overlap those learning spaces into one, encouraging young people to become involved in and excited by science and technology, acquiring communication skills, and the opportunity to interact with other students interested in science. However, those activities are not usually at the university level, where the traditional way of learning is still extended.

Objectives: This Challenge encourages students in Materials Science and Engineering to use their background, imagination, and wit. With ANSYS GRANTA EduPack (formerly CES EduPack) as an essential tool, participants must solve a materials selection project of their choice, it should be an original case of materials selection based on a market or intimate need or even on the forensic analysis of failures in service.

Participants: Participation is open to any colleage student group from Europe and the Americas.

How do they participate? To participate, each group of student must register and submit their proposal to the challenge online. Later, due to the high number of participants, ten finalists are selected to improve and complete their projects and present them in the finals, currently or online, at the Universidad Politécnica de Madrid (Spain). Entries will be evaluated by juries made up of international Materials Engineering education representatives from academia and ANSYS, Inc.

Until 2021, participation was limited to Spanish-speaking students, i.e Spain and Americas. However, due to the success of the Challenge, in 2022 it was extended to Portugal and Brazil. In 2023 we will incorporate European and American Universities as well, with their participation in English.

This contribution shows the most relevant results of this international collaborative experience in education.