UTech team wins EDGE Innovation Challenge

Delightful and rewarding! This is how third-year UTech mechanical engineering students, Antwan Campbell and Sha-J Lattibeaudiere describe their moment of victory after being named champions of the Electric Power Research Institute’s (EPRI) 2025 EDGE Innovation Challenge on July 18.

The students claimed the first place prize of US$10,000 having made an impressive pitch for the design of a gasket capable of measuring real-time stress under extreme conditions on a nuclear plant.

The 2025 EDGE (Emerging Disruptors with Groundbreaking Technology Evolution) Innovation Challenge is an initiative of EPRI, a United States non-profit research and development organisation, specialising in the production of clean, reliable, affordable and resilient energy.

The 13-week global EDGE Innovation Challenge was held virtually between February 26 to June 30 with student participants designing digital prototypes of the required gasket under the guidance of subject matter experts and their lecturers. They also delivered virtual presentations about their designs to a team of EPRI judges leading up to the finals.

Both Campbell and Lattibeaudiere said the experience was worth it.

“It was the first time entering the competition and learning about EPRI,” Lattibeaudiere shared, adding, “It feels delightful and relieving to win. This success made my team felt like our tedious work was not in vain.”

His teammate, Campbell, shared, “It feels rewarding to know that all the hard work paid off.”

The students also thanked their fellow batchmate, Toni Ann Budhoo, who was initially a member of their team, but unfortunately had to leave the competition due to an unforeseen situation. They also expressed gratitude for the support and advice they received from UTech, Jamaica lecturers, such as Hugh Cargill and Oneil Josephs.

They noted that their academic studies and engagement in student clubs helped them during the competition. “Academic studies, specifically in the areas of strength of materials and control systems helped to formulate ideas and determine what could or could not work. Since our design considered how materials and sensors would behave under certain conditions, these courses were helpful to finalise the details,” expressed Lattibeaudiere.

Campbell shared that his involvement in the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineering (IEEE) student club helped him during the competition.

“Throughout this period of research and development, I was leading a team of student engineers to develop a mobile robot for the IEEE Region 3 Southeast Conference Hardware Competition. It enabled me to ask the right questions which strengthened our approach and ultimately the final design,” Campbell stated.

SUSTAINABLE SOLUTIONS

Dr. Kevin Brown, president, UTech, Jamaica, also congratulated the students and pointed out that “their success highlights the quality of engineering experts that this university continues to nurture. Their win is a win for our institution. It signals to the world that our academics and students are providing sustainable solutions to industry challenges in engineering and other sectors and that they are helping to drive global development.”

Dr. Shallon Stubbs, head, School of Engineering, University of Technology, Jamaica, also congratulated the students.

“My heartfelt congratulations to Sha-J Lattibeaudiere and Antwan Campbell on securing a first-place finish in this year’s EPRI’s EDGE Innovation Challenge. Their achievement is a powerful testament to the capability of our university, and by extension, our nation’s ability to produce engineers who can compete head-to-head on the global stage,” Dr. Stubbs mentioned. He added that though Jamaica is a small island, “just as we excel in track and field, we are equally capable of producing world-class engineers, innovators and scientists”.

Describing the stages in completing their winning concept which they later narrowed down to a prototypic gasket incorporating custom-printed thin film gauges, Antwan noted that the process consisted of four phases.

“We had to do an initial proposal to get to the final stage. This is where we stated our initial ideas, budget, and limitations for the EPRI team to review. We then got 13 weeks to expound on all sections of our proposal which had quite a few changes while still maintaining the original idea. The final stage was creating a full paper then presenting our findings to a panel.”

Practicality and Implementation

The students are optimistic that an actual device of this nature will find relevance in the power generation sector. The device should be able to measure stress and reduce leakage on plants within energy companies. They explained that this function creates a practical link between their innovation and energy companies’ operational and economic efficiency targets.

“The next step is to build the device and validate its theoretical design. From there, optimization for manufacturing as the foundation for a market-ready solution would be the next step” Campbell stated. A more ambitious implementation goal according to Lattibeaudiere would be deploying the product in companies such as New Fortress Energy as it would be suitable for their piping networks to transport steam of liquid natural gas (LNG) in their operating process. He added that a nuclear company such as the EPRI and electricity providers Jamaica Public Service could also benefit from the use of this gasket for their piping network and power plants.

The students are now eyeing the next competitive opportunity and encouraging current UTech, Jamaica students to participate to boost their creativity and practical experience.

“The important step is to start. An idea can always be changed” Lattibeaudiere advised. He also encouraged them to, “Follow creativity and potential…work with your peers who are on a similar wavelength academically to get the project done.” Campbell warned, “don’t use your status as a student as a limitation to bring resolution to real-world problems. Your success in this initiative is contingent on your mindset.”

UTech, Jamaica offers several diplomas, undergraduate and graduate programmes in a variety of engineering courses of study through its Faculty of Engineering and Computing. These includ civil engineering, industrial engineering, mechanical engineering, chemical engineering, electrical & computer engineering and agricultural engineering.