Projects were selected for their feasibility, quality and creativity as well as for their relevance to the United Nations’ Millennium Goals. The jury also rewarded their ability to contribute to intercultural dialogue and the exchange of knowledge.

The short-listed teams will attend the Mondialogo Symposium from 7 to 10 December in Mumbai (India). It is there that the ten best teams will be honoured with the Engineering Award and a cash prize of €20,000 each. Another 20 teams will be given €5,000 each and Honourable Mention.

The short list was drawn from the ranks of the 3,200 engineering students from 89 countries who registered for the second edition of the Engineering Award.

The teams had six months in which to devise a technical solution that will have a direct practical benefit for the population of a developing country and help to improve their quality of life.

Partner teams generally cooperated via Mondialogo’s Internet Portal, where a virtual office is set up for every project team (www.mondialogo.org). But participants were free to use any channels of communication.


The selection of projects and teams was carried out by a seven-member international jury of leading scientists and engineers:


- Peggy Oti-Boateng (Ghana), Director of the Technology Consultancy Centre at the University of Kumasi, Ghana, and member of the UNESCO Working Group for Technology and Poverty Reduction

- Kamel Ayadi (Tunisia), President of the World Federation of Engineering Organizations

- Ali Uddin Ansari (India), Director of the Centre for Environment Studies and Socioresponsive Engineering

- Paul Jowitt (Scotland), Director of the Scottish Institute of Sustainable Technology

- Shirley M. Malcom (USA), Head of Education and Human Resources of the American Association for the Advancement of Science

- Walter Erdelen (Germany), Assistant Director-General for Natural Sciences at UNESCO

- Bharat Balasubramanian (Germany), Vice President Group Research & Advanced Engineering E/E, IT and Processes at DaimlerChrysler AG

The engineering contest is part of the initiative “Mondialogo - Intercultural Dialogue and Exchange”, launched by DaimlerChrysler and UNESCO in October 2003. The Engineering Award aims to promote intercultural dialogue, understanding, respect and tolerance, as well as knowledge transfer between engineering students on all continents. The contest is also designed to foster sustainable solutions for problems in developing countries. The Mondialogo – Intercultural Dialogue and Exchange programme also includes an international school contest.

Although implementation of the proposed solutions is not part of the Mondialogo Engineering Award, previous Mondialogo projects show that most proposals do not remain purely theoretical. In all, 11 ideas developed during the first edition of the engineering contest have been implemented in specific projects. Examples include new methods of generating drinking water, the development of biofuels and the use of solar energy in rural areas (http://www.mondialogo.org/246.html?L=en).

* information about the teams can be found at: www.mondialogo.org.