engineering essay competition 2022

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2022 Contest Winners

These winning entries in the 2022 EngineerGirl Writing Contest showcase how engineers can help humanity meet one of the Sustainable Development Goals.

In addition to first place, second place, third place, and honorable mention winners for each grade range, some essays received Special Topic Recognition. Each of these essays was selected from all entries – regardless of grade – as an excellent submission for the UN Sustainable Development Goal about which it was written.

Elementary School (Grades 3-5)

5th grade at Daves Creek Elementary School

Hydroponics Engineering: A Solution to Global Food Crisis

First Place

4th grade at Sugarloaf Elementary School (Urbana, MD)

Clean Water For Everyone

Second Place

Hailey Silva

4th grade at St. Michael the Archangel Catholic School (Apex, NC)

The Amazing Milk Chiller

Third Place

Uma Blankinship

3rd grade at New Explorations into Science, Technology and Math (NEST+M) (Brooklyn, NY)

Singling Out Single-Use Plastic

Honorable Mention

Brooklyn Walsh

4th grade (Suffield, CT)

The Plastic Crisis

Other Finalists

Microbes at Work by Evelynne 5th grade (San Ramon, CA)

Engineers Light the Way for Kids to Learn by Zora Miller 4th grade at Albany International Center (Albany, NY)

Reclaiming Energy with "My Combustion Machine" by  Junseo Kwon 4th grade at Golden Elementary School (Yorba Linda, CA)

Everyone Needs Clean Water by Katherine Aikawa 4th grade at Duke School (Chapel Hill, NC)

Engineering is the Future of Clean and Affordable Energy by Mia Teusan 4th grade at Eastwoods Intermediate School (Hudson, OH)

The Tole of Engineering in Sustaining Life Below Water by Temiloluwa Adeyemo 5th grade homeschool student (Baltimore, MD)

The Road to Sustainable Cities by Jaya Srini 4th grade at Columbus Academy (Columbus, OH)

Fixing Carbonates to Sustain Life on Land by Nova Macknik-Conde 5th grade at P.S. 321 William Penn (Brooklyn, NY)

Early detection of Leukemia: Learning from Covid-19 rapid tests by Zoe Ralhan 5th grade at River Oaks Elementary (Houston, TX)

The Role of Engineering in Achieving Quality Education by Oluwatimilehin Adeyemo 4th grade homeschool student (Baltimore, MD)

Fight World Hunger with Engineering by Enrique Garcia 5th grade at Somerset Academy Boca   (FL)

Middle School (Grades 6-8)

8th grade at Fort Settlement School (Sugar Land, TX)

Engineers Develop Diagnostic Devices for Global Health Using Frugal Innovation

Jalen Blackwell

6th grade at Gerstell Academy (Finksburg, MD)

Engineering Sustainable Solutions to End Global Hunger

Victoria McLeod

6th grade homeschool student

Coral Innovators

8th grade at Victory Christian International School (Dasmariñas, Cavite, Philippines)

Engineering A Clean Earth

Claire Weng

7th grade at Fort Settlement Middle School (Sugar Land, TX)

Cleaning up the Oceans Using Sustainable Engineering

Sustainably Engineering to Solve Worldwide Goals by Ella Murphy 7th grade at Harpeth Hall School (Nashville, TN)

The new technology of 3-D printing by Gabriela Dyogi 8th grade at Ingrid B. Lacy School (Pacifica, CA)

Gender Equality Sustainability by N. Manning 7th grade at Harpeth Hall School (Nashville, TN)

Magical Mycelium: Engineering Our Way to a Sustainable Future by Taia Saurer 7th grade (CA)

The Wonderful Sleeping Bag-like Incubator, Embrace, Helps Babies Who Are Premature and Live in Countries That Are in Poverty by Audrey Kim 6th grade at Santiago Hills Elementary School (Irvine, CA)

High School (Grades 9-12)

Megan Haubrich

11th grade at Fred C. Beyer High School (Modesto, CA)

Engineering Magic: Harvesting Water From Thin Air

10th grade at Longmeadow High School (Longmeadow, MA)

Frugal Engineering Design Solutions in the Fight to Eradicate Malaria

Katherine Liu

9th grade at Clements High School (Sugar Land, TX)

Talking Books: Reducing Gender Inequalities Around the World

11th grade at Lexington High School (Lexington, MA)

Engineering: Bridging Gratitude and Innovation

Engineering the Future of Education by Amelia Joseph 9th grade at Indus International School (Bangalore, Karnataka, India)

Water Accessibility For All: How Engineers Can Help Combat The Water Crisis by Srinidhi Gubba 11th grade at Westview High School (Portland, OR)

Making Sustainable Production a Reality for Small Farmers by Neha Sudarshan 10th grade at West Windsor-Plainsboro High School North (West Windsor, NJ)

GoldieBlox: Building Blocks for an Engineering Mind by Abigail Cooley 11th grade at Wissahickon High School (Ambler, PA)

Engineering for Inequalities: The Need for Infrastructure by Amélia Carneiro Zhu 10th grade at Oporto International School (Porto, Portugal)

MechanicalTrees™: Taking Inspiration From Mother Nature by Emily Huynh 10th grade at Leigh High School (San Jose, CA)

Special Topic Recognition

Arianna Huriash

5th grade at Eagle Ridge Elementary School (Tamarac, FL)

How can engineering help those in need without risking a sustainable future?

SDG 1: End poverty in all its forms everywhere

Caleb Adams

5th grade homeschool student (Baltimore, MD)

How Engineers Are Helping to Solve the Problem of World Hunger

SDG 2: Zero Hunger

Jennifer Chiou

11th grade (Parkland, FL)

Increasing Access to and Quality of Mental Health Care with Software Engineering

SDG 3: Ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all at all ages

Sravya Kotamraju

11th grade (Frisco, TX)

Engineering Education

SDG 4: Ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all

Charles Alexander Jr.

4th grade at Villa Cresta Elementary School (Parkville, MD)

Gender Equality for All

SDG 5: Achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls

7th grade at Lausanne Collegiate School (Germantown, TN)

Engineering Solutions Towards Sustainable Water Access For All

SDG 6: Ensure access to water and sanitation for all

11th grade at Edgemont High School (Scarsdale, NY)

The Future of Nuclean Power

SDG 7: Ensure access to affordable, reliable, sustainable and modern energy

Nia-Omhle Lunga

5th grade at Farragut Intermediate School (Knoxville, TN)

ENGINEERING: The Key to Decent Work and Economic Growth

SDG 8: Promote inclusive and sustainable economic growth, employment and decent work for all

Aahana Joshi

3rd grade at J.V.B Wicoff Elementary School (Plainsboro, NJ)

C3Flex v2.0

SDG 9: Build resilient infrastructure, promote sustainable industrialization and foster innovation

11th grade at John Burroughs School (Chesterfield, MO)

Engineering the Future of Our Cities

SDG 11: Make cities inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable

Alexa Rose Battaglia

9th grade at Manlius Pebble Hill School (Manlius, NY)

Engineering Sustainable Solutions: Mycelium Insulation, an Environmentally-Friendly Alternative to Polystyrene

SDG 12: Ensure sustainable consumption and production patterns

Tamiyah Ibeh

8th grade at Cooper Middle School (Powder Springs, GA)

The Future is Engineering

SDG 13: Take urgent action to combat climate change and its impacts

Yeowon (Stella) Kim

10th grade at Crescenta Valley High School (La Canada Flintridge, CA)

Engineering: Healing Life Under Water

SDG 14: Conserve and sustainably use the oceans, seas and marine resources

8th grade at Folsom Middle School (Folsom, CA)

Enviornment, Engineering, and Ingenuity

SDG 15: Sustainably manage forests, combat desertification, halt and reverse land degradation, halt biodiversity loss

Kyu-Sun Kim

10th grade at Seoul International School (Seoul)

One Molka Eliminated for Woman, One Giant Leap for Womankind

SDG 16: Promote just, peaceful and inclusive societies

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Engineer Girl Writing Contest

Engineering Council, San Diego County

The Engineer Girl writing contest is open to all students in grades 3 - 12. This year's 2022 contest is "Sustainable Solutions". Students are invited to write an informative essay about how engineering can help humanity meet one of the 17 United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. 

The submission deadline is February 1, 2022. Winners will receive cash prizes. See EngineerGirl.org website (link below) for more details.

If any San Diego student does win, please make sure to let the San Diego County Engineering Council (SDCEC) know so that they will be recognized here locally in San Diego.  For additional San Diego engineering and technology opportunities, please visit www.sandiegoengineers.org/stem .

Other learning opportunities from this partner

Engineering teacher honor award.

 Engineering Council, San Diego County

Award for making significant contributions in advancing student engagement in engineering.

Teacher / educator award nominations are due by December 31, 2018

Online/Hybrid

See Details 

Referees needed for FIRST Robics Qualifying Meet

Volunteers needed for qualifying meets in engineering competition

Judges needed for Future Cities Regional Competition

Volunteer judges are needed for this regional engineering qualifying competition.

Engineering Essay Contest by EngineerGirl

National engineering essay contest by EngineerGirl (a program from the National Academy of Engineering)

Essay contest with the on-line application due Feb 1, 2019

Learn more about providing an opportunity

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AGC 2022 James L. Allhands Student Essay Competition Now Open

AGC of America invites construction management or engineering seniors to enter the James L. Allhands Student Essay Competition. Entries are due on November 15, 2022 .

The competition is open to any senior-level student in a four or five-year ABET or ACCE accredited university construction management or construction-related engineering program. The first-place essay author receives $1,000. The author’s faculty sponsor receives $500. Both the recipient and sponsor are invited as guests of the Foundation to attend the 2023 AGC Annual Convention.

This year’s topic is “Climate Change Impacts on and Actions from the Construction Industry: Past, Present and Future” . In your essay, please address, as a minimum, the following discussion points related to the topic using research and examples from your own experience to support your position:

• Identify and describe how climate change policies can affect the construction industry.
• How is the construction industry addressing climate change policies and what are some of the positive changes that are being used or considered as we move to the future?
• What are your suggestions for addressing these changes?
• Discuss the role that an organization such as the AGC might play in addressing issues related to this topic?

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Oxford and Cambridge Essay Competitions

We have gathered together some of the key essay competitions to enter, hosted by colleges at oxford and cambridge university..

If you are applying for Oxbridge or a top UK or Russell Group university that interviews its applicants, it is worth noting that many of the competition questions are very similar to interview-style questions. Submitting an essay to one of these essay competitions is a great way to increase your super-curricular knowledge for personal statement or interview and many will provide feedback from top academics in their field. You may only have time to enter one competition, but check out similar ones relating to your course of application, and practise brainstorming/verbalising an answer to the question.

Could you be interested in having an Oxbridge-educated mentor support your writing process? Minds Underground™ is the brainchild of the wider educational company, U2 , with offerings curated by a team of 700+ Oxbridge-educated mentors , who would be able to support both your essay competition entry and wider Oxbridge application (sessions from £75/h).

Do also check out online Oxbridge Summer Schools , hosted by our team of Oxbridge graduates, with 12 different subject categories!

Course-wide Oxbridge Essay Competitions:

Robinson college, cambridge’s essay prize.

This essay competition is designed to give students the opportunity to develop and showcase their independent study and writing skills. Unfortunately, for external reasons, the essay won’t be running in 2023, but may well be running in 2024 so do keep an eye out so you don’t miss it!

Sample Essay Questions from 2020

Discuss, with reference to any academic discipline, any area of interest raised by one of the following quotations/ questions:

"Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety.” (Benjamin Franklin) Do you agree?

Does the theory of evolution by natural selection tell us anything interesting about how we should live?

Watch the following TED talk by novelist Chimamanda Ngozie Adichie: The Danger of a Single Story.  TED Global . (2009) Available online via:  https://www.ted.com/talks/chimamanda_ngozi_adichie_the_danger_of_a_single_story . What are novels for? Answer in light of the TED talk and any one or two text(s) you have read recently

“A true war story is never moral. […] If a story seems moral, do not believe it. If at the end of a war story you feel uplifted, or if you feel that some small bit of rectitude has been salvaged from the larger waste, then you have been made the victim of a very old and terrible lie. There is no rectitude whatsoever.” (Tim O’Brien,  The Things They Carried , 1990). Write about any piece of war literature or art about war in light of O’Brien’s claim

There is no such thing as ‘untranslatable’. Discuss

Sample Essay Questions from 2022

'Law and morality should never collide'. Discuss.

A character in a novel written by an African American woman in 1892 makes the following claim:"Miss Leroy, out of the race must come its own thinkers and writers. Authors belonging to the white race have written good books, for which I am deeply grateful, but it seems to be almost impossible for a white man to put himself completely in our place. No man can feel the iron which enters another man's soul." (From Iola Leroy by Francis Harper)Black feminist writer Patricia Hill Collins describes the above as a "belief in a special vision of those who have experienced oppression". Discuss this belief with reference to at least one book, play, or poem written by an author of colour.

Can science tell us how we should live?

In the twenty-first century, what is monarchy for?

"A good translation is like a pane of glass. It should never call attention to itself." (Norman R. Shapiro). Discuss.

Girton College, Cambridge’s Humanities Writing Competition

Aimed at giving Humanities applicants an insight into research at university level - candidates expected to produce extensively researched, clearly written and well-referenced essays ranging well beyond the set curriculum. This essay is a great way to extend your knowledge and research across a wide range of different humanities based subjects so useful if you are looking to apply for something like Human, Social, Political Sciences (HSPS).

Newnham College, Cambridge’s Woolf Essay Prize

This year, the Woolf Essay Prize invites participation from all female students in Year 12 (or equivalent), irrespective of their school or nationality. The submission deadline is 12pm GMT on Friday, July 14th, 2023.

While this award might particularly interest those pursuing English Literature, History, Politics, Philosophy, or Sociology, the college encourages entries from curious students studying a diverse range of subjects.

Archaeology

Fitzwiliam college, cambridge’s archaeology essay competition.

Past questions: What are the challenges in reconstructing cultural identities from the archaeological record?// How does reconstructing diet help us understand past societies?

The college also runs writing Webinars in the months leading up to these essay competitions that would be really useful in getting yourself Cambridge and Oxford

Architecture

Fitzwilliam college, cambridge’s architectural design competition.

This is an exciting opportunity for secondary school students to analytically approach a design problem and creatively develop architectural design solutions. Students will design and communicate their design solutions through drawings and a design narrative

Oriel College, Oxford’s Lloyd Davies Philosophy Prize

2019 questions included: Is anything special about the present moment?// Can one be mistaken about one's own state of mind?// Which is more important in determining the wrongness of a person's action: the person's intentions or the action's effects?

The Lloyd Davies Philosophy Prize is open to students in Year 12 (or equivalent). The first prize is £250, and there may also be a second prize of £150.

Trinity College, Cambridge’s Philosophy Essay Prize

2020 Question 1: If you learn that humanity will be extinct in twenty years, what difference should it make to what you value?

Question 2: Could you be friends with a robot?

The competition carries a First Prize of £600 and a Second Prize of £400, to be split equally between the candidate and his or her school or college; the school or college’s portion of the prize to be issued in the form of book tokens.

St. Hugh’s College, Oxford’s The Julia Wood Prize

St Hugh’s College, Oxford offers a prize worth up to £500, for the best historical essay submitted by a pupil who, at the closing date, has been in the Sixth Form of any school or college for a period of not more than two years.

Entries should be 2,000 – 4,000 words in length, and should be submitted as a Microsoft Word document, together with the Julia Wood Prize cover sheet .

Trinity College, Cambridge’s Robson History Prize

2020 Questions : E.g. Can one write a history of women in Ancient Greece? Is it meaningful to speak of a ‘renaissance’ in intellectual life in twelfth-century Europe? What can historians learn from coins?

The competition carries a First Prize of £600, and second prize of £400 both to be shared equally between the successful essayist and their school or college.

St. Hugh’s College, Oxford’s The Mary Renault Prize

At least one prize will be awarded a pupil who is not studying either Latin or Greek to A-level standard

Prize worth up to £300

“Essays can be from any discipline and should be on a topic relating to the reception of classical antiquity – including Greek and Roman literature, history, political thought, philosophy, and material remains – in any period to the present; essays on reception within classical antiquity (for instance, receptions of literary or artistic works or of mythical or historical figures) are permitted.”

Fitzwilliam College, Cambridge’s Ancient World/ Classics Essay Competition

Trinity college, cambridge’s gould prize for essays in english literature.

“This Essay Prize has the following aims. First, to encourage talented students with an interest in English Literature to explore their reading interests further in response to general questions about the subject.”

Like the other Trinity essay competitions, the competition carries a First Prize of £600, and second prize of £400 both to be shared equally between the successful essayist and their school or college.

Queen’s College, Cambridge’s The Estelle Prize for English

Example question from 2019 competition: The following two poems, (a) 'To Autumn' by John Keats, and (b) 'Halcyon Days' by Walt Whitman, might be said to create for their readers an experience as well as an understanding of time. Making reference to the distinctive temporality of one or both poems, write about the experience of time in any other poem or poems you like.

The winner will receive a £500 prize; depending on the strength of the field of submissions, honourable mentions may also be made.

Linguistics

Trinity college, cambridge’s linguistics essay prize.

It may be of interest to students taking A-Levels in Modern Languages, English Language or Classics, but also to students taking Psychology or Mathematics

Land Economy

Fitzwilliam college, cambridge’s land economy competition.

Past questions: ‘Governments should be accountable to their citizens for loss caused by climate change’. Discuss.// Critically analyse the costs and benefits of a large-scale infrastructure project of your choice. In making this assessment, consider in particular any regional disparities and how they are affected by such projects

Trinity College, Cambridge’s R.A. Butler Politics Prize

Aims to encourage students with an interest in modern politics and world affairs to think about undertaking university studies in Politics, International Studies or a related discipline; it is not limited to those already studying these subjects or indeed other social sciences

Trinity College, Cambridge’s Robert Walker Prize for Essays in Law

Aims to encourage students with an interest in Law to explore that interest by researching, considering and developing an argument about a legal topic of importance to modern society.

2020 Question': ‘Should legal disputes be determined by artificial, rather than human, means?’

Peterhouse College, Cambridge’s Kelvin Science Prize

The Kelvin Science Essay Competition is open to students in their penultimate year of study (Year 12 in England and Wales, S5 in Scotland, Year 13 in Northern Ireland, or equivalent) who are educated in the United Kingdom and Ireland.

Please find attached the questions for this years competition. 

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