Where There Is No Engineer 2025 National Finals

The ‘Where There Is No Engineer’ program provides participants with the opportunity to learn about design, teamwork, and communication through real, inspiring, sustainable, and cross-cultural development projects. By participating in the program, students have the opportunity to design creative solutions to real-life development challenges. This year, the program is funded by Irish Aid.

Engineering, product design and architecture students from universities in Dublin, Cork, Waterford, and Galway have taken part in the WTINE competition this year. Students had the opportunity to design innovative solutions for Kameswaram, a small fishing village located in Southeast India, in collaboration with EWB Ireland’s development partner, Friend in Need India Trust (FIN).

The 2025 National Finals of the ‘Where There Is No Engineer’ (WTINE) Design Competition took place in the East Quad of TU Dublin’s Grangegorman Campus on Friday 23rd of May 2025, where nine teams from the University of Galway, NCAD, SETU and TU Dublin showcased their projects in front of a panel of judges from FIN, Concern Worldwide, Engineers Ireland, EWB and WTINE alumni.

Students have designed innovative solutions ranging from a solar desalination solution for clean water access, a low-cost manual crusher to turn fish waste into fertiliser, a hands-free shower experience without electricity or running water, to different architectural designs for FIN’s office, among other incredible designs.

The judges selected the SoilCycle project as the winners of this year’s competition. The SoilCycle is a hot composting drum and access solution for the Ecosan toilets. It was developed by Jack McKinlay, Mark McKenna, and Oisin Hills, three students from TU Dublin in their final year of Product Design. As winners of the competition, they will have the opportunity to develop their project further with EWB Ireland and its partner, FIN, in the WTINE Innovation Academy. FIN considers the winning project a compelling improvement to the current model, and they are keen to work with the team to implement the project.

The 25-26 edition of the ‘Where There Is No Engineer’ program will be launching in September 2025. For further information or interest in supporting the program, please contact cristina@ewb-ireland.org.