Inclusive Additive Design Challenge: Imperial Takes First and Second Place at National Finals

The Inclusive Additive Design Challenge (IADC) is a competition where students create 3D printed objects to bridge accessibility gaps in the world around them. Sponsored by Elegoo and the Engineering and Scientists Business Fellowship (ESBF), the IADC was created by Huddersfield University in collaboration with the Royal Academy of Engineering’s Visiting Professor for Inclusivity Katy Deacon.

Regional finals were held at each of the three competing universities: University of Huddersfield, Aston University and Imperial College London. After regionals, nine winning teams came together at Aston University for the National IADC Finals on the 28^th of January 2026.

Teams gave a ten minute presentation demonstrating their product, explaining how it catered to their target demographics, solved an accessibility problem and giving applicable use cases/further steps. They then underwent rigorous Q&A from the judging panel on facets of their product/designs and the possible weaknesses/ areas of improvement.

The judges panel was composed of academics specialising in inclusive engineering design from each of the competing universities, including two Imperial staff members, Principal Teaching Fellow in the Department of Mechanical Engineering Chloe Agg and Principal Teaching Fellow in the Department of Bioengineering Dr Maria Parkes.

The teams had varied products, ranging from simple yet practical ideas like an assistive key turner to complex constructions like mechanical hands. It was a fascinating display of awareness and compassion from the students, focusing on using engineering to assist those requiring adaptations that may otherwise be overlooked. The judging panel were very impressed by the quality of all the students work and the amount of innovation shown on the day.

The Imperial teams were:

• Team Pinpoint.AJ : Rahime Yavuz, Ken Ogawa, Sherry Chen, Aaroh Jain and Chris Cao, all 2^nd years from the Department of Materials. Their team developed ‘BrailleLink’, an innovative modular Braille signage system that has the ability, through a range of attachments, to attach to a huge variety of surfaces, including curved ones like jam jars.
• Team Païens: Ziyi Liu, Yanzi Jiang, Xinjing Li, Yanzhong Shi and Che Su, from EEE and Bioengineering. Their team developed a deceptively simple but highly effective cane rest device using parametric design and many iterations. The device clips onto a cane, and acts as a grip, rest and counterbalance to make leaning, resting or even hanging the cane easier. It also had broader applications such as umbrellas.
• Team Formula 5: Eric Liu, Waka Hagiwara, Zihan Chen, Emily Davies and Joshua McKelvie all 1^st Years from the Department of Materials. They developed a sink topper draining board to allow those without full use of both arms to wash their dishes one handed. The concept, while simple, is often an overlooked gap in the market, which this team has effectively plugged with their device.

The final winners of the National IADC Final 2025-26 were:

• 1^st Place: Pinpoint.AJ
• 2^nd Place: Païens
• 3^rd Place: Mech and Cheese from Huddersfield
• Highly Commended Runner-up: Formula 5

Well done to all those who participated and made it to the National IADC Finals, as well as to everyone involved in the logistics, coordination and judging. It was a great experience, and we have encouraged these teams to continue developing their designs and products. We are excited to see where these teams go next, as well as who competes next year!