The Grand Challenge 2021/22: New Economic Model for the Oceans (NEMO) shortlist revealed

The biggest single-institution postgraduate design project in the world, the RCA Grand Challenge brings together multidisciplinary teams of students across the School of Design to address some of the world’s most pressing problems through a marriage of design and science.

An annual initiative, the Grand Challenge 2021/22 sees the RCA partner with Logitech, one of the most innovative design companies in their industry, with support from Extreme E, a radical new off-road electric motorsport series, and Sustainable Ventures. The theme of this year’s Grand Challenge – a New Economic Model for the Ocean (NEMO) – investigates global topics including environmental sustainability, plastic pollution, loss of marine habitat and new ocean economies.

The partnership between Extreme E and the RCA has brought students closer to the North Atlantic Ocean in particular: in 2021, academics from the RCA installed data-gathering equipment on Extreme E’s floating operations hub, the St Helena ship. The data collection platform was built by Sustainable Ventures, a company founded by alumni of RCA MA/MSc Innovation Design Engineering. 350 students from across the School of Design have been able to use the real world data gathered as the St Helena travelled from Greenland to the UK to inform their design solutions.

From 70 interdisciplinary teams, a shortlist of 12 have now been selected. The shortlisted projects propose design solutions to a range of problems – from sound technologies that protect marine mammals, to community-based projects that boost carbon sequestration, and unusual ways to safeguard coral reef ecosystems. Each team will further develop their projects before the winners are announced later this Spring.

Discover the Grand Challenge 2021/22 Shortlist:

Cody Kullman (MA Textiles), Felix Ke Chen (MA/MSc Innovation Design Engineering), Haoyue Lin (MA Design Products), Yuhan Liu (MA Fashion), Yalena Yang Sun (MA Service Design)

After Life is a revolutionary ocean memorial reef and funeral company that allows people to continue the legacy of their loved ones underwater. Combining sustainable materials, innovative technology and humane services, After Life reefs help coral ecosystems and reduce the heavy carbon emissions from traditional funerals while allowing people to remember their loved ones more meaningfully.

Mallory Chen (MA/MSc Global Innovation Design), Shiyu Ding (MA Design Products), Hui Hu (MA Textiles), Siyu Li (MA Service Design), Yuxin Zhang (MA Fashion)

BLÜM is an interlinking aquaculture pod designed to prevent the algae blooms that are devastating estuaries – some of the most biodiverse ecosystems in the ocean. Pollution from fertilisers causes algae to spread rapidly which can cause dead zones – bodies of water that are devoid of oxygen and cannot sustain marine life. BLÜM employs the fertiliser-rich waters to harvest algae upstream, so the water is clean when it reaches the estuary.

Haochen Zhou (MA Service Design), Khanh Nguyen (MA Design Products) Rhea Thomas (MA/MSc Global Innovation Design), Richard Newman (MA Intelligent Mobility), Yihan Dong (MA/MSc Innovation Design Engineering)

Decibel is a nature-based solution for noise pollution – an invisible pollutant that is a major and often deadly threat to marine life. Decibel provides a structure on which kelp and oysters can be grown, acting as a natural sound barrier between shipping highways while creating a regenerative marine permaculture system. This paves the way for a circular economy where oysters, fish, and kelp can be harvested while mitigating sound pollution.

Amy Ken Chen (MA Service Design), Grace Louise Duan (MA/MSc Innovation Design Engineering), Lifan Hu (MA Fashion), Bohan Peng (MA Design Products), Sheryl Swee Sim Teng (MA Textiles)

In death, a whale’s body can provide for thousands of lives – ENDoW proposes using an immersive installation to encourage visitors to the Natural History Museum to visualise their own material legacy and their impact as consumers. Inspired by the parallel between whale fall and the material legacy that comes after human passing, ENDoW encourages an approachable dialogue about death, dying and the material possessions that go on to live a life of their own.

Madison Cilluffo (MA Service Design), Sean McCarthy (MA Design Products), Sarah Stone (MA/MSc Global Innovation Design), Chenzhi Tang (MA Fashion Menswear)

For the Ocean Festival harnesses the power of community to increase seagrass restoration efforts in the UK. Seagrass ecosystems can sequester or store significant amounts of carbon dioxide. This one-day festival on the Whitstable Coastline aims to make innovative seagrass sowing methods accessible and fun for the public, and uses methods applicable to coastlines worldwide, such as the BoSSRope – a streamlined design allowing fishermen to sow seeds from their boats without diving equipment.

Ella Campion (MA Textiles), Chloe Johnson (MA Fashion), Annabel Maguire (MA Design Products), Jan-Frederik Niehues, (MA Intelligent Mobility), Soumitra Sathe (MA Service Design)

GREENRIG is a circular concept that sees the burgeoning kelp industry recycle existing fossil fuel infrastructure by repurposing decommissioned oil rigs and turning them into seaweed farms and biofuel refineries. GREENRIG harnesses the infrastructure of decommissioned oil rigs to successfully scale seaweed farming, promoting the vast carbon capture needed to reverse atmospheric damage, and offering the opportunity for sustainable seaweed industries to thrive.

Isabel Fletcher (MA Textiles), Zhiyin Huang (MA Fashion), Mingyue Li (MA Design Products), Alexandra Park (MA/MSc Innovation Design Engineering), Zhengwei Shao (MA Service Design)

OSOF is a community-focused initiative that supports the development of oyster farming to rebalance the ocean’s nutrients. Identifying oysters as an ecologically friendly solution to algal bloom, OSOF offers a community-based, open-source approach to strengthening oyster aquaculture in West Africa, where some of the world’s largest swathes of algal bloom are found. The OSOF app provides comprehensive information including water quality data, DIY guides, and a community forum for best practice sharing.

Eloka Agu (MA/MSc Innovation Design Engineering), Bangning An (MA Intelligent Mobility), Caitlin Maxwell Hughan (MA Textiles), Marie Munzi (MA/MsC Global Innovation Design), Liana O’Cleirigh (MA/MSc Global Innovation Design)

Pearl is a community-driven VR experience that incentivises people to train the NEMO AI to identify waste and generate unique digital art which players can purchase and display in the virtual ‘Pearl Waste Park’. Each transaction earns money for ocean cleanup organisations near where the waste was found. This new digital ocean economy empowers communities to engage purposefully with one of the largest environmental challenges our oceans face.

Xiaowei Fang (MA Fashion), Joon Hyung Park (MA Design Products), Henry Parkin (MA/MSc Innovation Design Engineering), Zoe Jia Xiong (MA Service Design), Zifan Zhang (MA Textiles)

Reef Bells are analogue instruments designed to be played by the ocean current on coral reefs. Tuned to mimic the percussive crackling sound of a healthy reef, Reef Bells act as an aural navigation tool for baby reef fish which spawn in open water and navigate to coral reefs by listening for the sounds made by the animals which inhabit them. Reef Bells provide an energy-free toolkit for acoustic enrichment without using speakers and are designed for longevity – once they stop making useful sound, the bio-composite ceramic which they’re made from provides ample substrate for the growth of new life.

Chloe Benham (MA Textiles), Adam Chesworth (MA Fashion), Elizabeth Lee (MA/MSc Innovation Design Engineering), Colby Wong (MA Design Products), Weichen Ye (MA Service Design)

ReReef is a tool to help deep water coral researchers collect data from remote reefs, while also serving as a reef regeneration platform. Deep water corals represent half of all coral coverage, yet information about these ecosystems is limited because existing research methods are expensive, and locations are extremely remote. ReReef offers an array of sensors, an infrared camera, laser measure, hydrophones, and sonar capabilities that broadcast data for researchers and conservationists to use remotely.

Raya Azar (MA Design Products), Amelia Bradshaw-Birch (MA Fashion), Monika Dolbniak (MA Textiles), Yuchan Fang (MA Service Design), David Reitenbach (MA/MSc Global Innovation Design)

SeaComms uses prospective whale language to reduce injuries and deaths in whales caused by noise pollution. For the last 40 years, man-made ocean noise has been doubling every decade. Noise pollution, such as industrial shipping and sonar systems, has a great effect on whales’ feeding, breeding and communication patterns, and can even injure or kill them. SeaComms is an underwater speaker that can be attached to the underside of ships to communicate with whales and prevent vessel strikes.

Hengyuan Liu (MA Design Products), Micaela Santistevan (MA Fashion), Rui Ma (MA/MSc Innovation Design Engineering), Yibing Chen (MA Textiles), Yulu Xia (MA Fashion)

Sachets are cheap, small, lightweight and easy to transport – the ultimate symbol of a convenience-driven modern lifestyle. Sauce in the Fork tackles the negative environmental impacts of sachets by replacing the plastic design with biodegradable beeswax and redesigning the product in the shape of a fork to eliminate the need for single-use plastic forks and maximise the product’s utility.

The RCA Grand Challenge 2021/22 is delivered in partnership with Logitech and supported by Extreme E and Sustainable Ventures.