Engineering Project Weeks 2026: Learning through real life challenges

These two weeks move students beyond lectures and into multidisciplinary, team-based challenges designed to develop the professional skills that underpin engineering practice — teamwork, communication, critical thinking and industry awareness.

“Project Weeks give students the opportunity to apply their knowledge in realistic contexts and to see how engineering decisions connect to society, sustainability and professional responsibility,” says Dr Raja Toqeer, Project Weeks Academic Lead. “They’re an important step in helping students develop confidence as emerging engineers.”

Global Engineering Challenge

GEC introduces first-year students to collaborative problem-solving, encouraging them to consider environmental, ethical and social dimensions alongside technical solutions. Working in mixed-discipline teams, students tackle globally relevant themes such as sustainability, energy resilience and digital inclusion.

For many, it is their first experience of working in a truly interdisciplinary engineering team, reflecting the realities of professional practice.

Engineering: You’re Hired!

In EYH, second-year students respond to industry-inspired briefs, developing and presenting solutions to contemporary engineering challenges. The week emphasises technical feasibility, professionalism, effective communication — skills that students regularly reference in placement and graduate interviews.

A central feature of GEC and EYH was the Engineer Your Future Fair, which brought industry mentors, alumni and university colleagues together for panel discussions and exhibition stands from a few university facilities (National Epitaxy Facility, Royce Institute, LVV and Emerge). Students engage directly with engineers from a wide range of organisations, gaining insight into career pathways, placements and postgraduate routes.

Developments in 2026

This year’s delivery included three key enhancements:

• Aligned and streamlined timetables across both weeks, improving consistency and efficiency for students, staff and facilitators.
  
   
• Centralised online resources, with session links embedded directly into timetables to support clearer navigation and independent team working.
  
   
• A further refined Engineer Your Future Fair, strengthening structured panel sessions and industry engagement.

This year’s delivery operated at scale. The Global Engineering Challenge ran across 43 Hubs rooms, engaging 1,547 first-year students working in 258 teams. Engineering: You’re Hired! involved 1,448 second-year students, organised into 256 teams across 41 Hubs rooms. Delivery was supported by 88 PhD Facilitators, 90 members of staff and 120 industry mentors, reflecting the collective commitment required to run these weeks successfully.

Student feedback across both weeks was largely positive, with many describing the experience as “better than expected”, enjoyable and worthwhile. Students particularly valued the opportunity to work in multidisciplinary teams and to develop communication, teamwork and presentation skills within a low-risk, pass/fail environment that mirrors professional engineering practice.

A consistent theme in feedback was that the more effort students invested, the more they gained — highlighting Project Weeks as a meaningful opportunity for personal, professional and collaborative development.

Why Project Weeks Matter

Engineering Project Weeks are about more than completing a brief. They build adaptability, resilience, communication skills and professional identity.

By combining academic expertise, alumni engagement and industry partnership, MEE continues to ensure that Sheffield engineers graduate not only with strong technical knowledge, but with the collaborative and ethical mindset required in a rapidly changing world.

As these weeks continue to evolve, they remain one of the Faculty’s most distinctive and impactful educational experiences — and a powerful example of engineering education done differently.