Four winning ideas which aim to transform construction

Winners of the COINS Grand Challenge 2022 have now been announced. The four winning ideas aiming to transform construction feature a technology platform to improve construction waste management, a carbon capture innovation, a wall climbing robot designed to improve working at height and construction materials produced from food waste.
Pictured: Isabelle Gough, Jack Cornes, Subarna Sivashanmugam, Jun Tung Lai
Joint Winners, 2022 Undergraduate Competition
A BIM enabled, automated platform that supports the supply chain to maximise the circularity level of buildings from the early design stages submitted by Teesside University student Subarna Sivashanmugam.
The main goal of the platform is to facilitate the supply chain to incorporate digital technologies like BIM into waste management. To measure, manage, monitor and report waste generation levels across project lifecycle stages. Winning this competition is a kind of confidence booster for me, and it will help me to enhance my idea further. This is a kind of approval from the construction industry who are the end user of innovation.
Subarna Sivashanmugam
Student at Teesside University, UK
An idea for interlocking concrete with cladding made from food waste, FWC+, entered by Jun Tung Lai heading up a team of Malaysian students.
I feel grateful to have the opportunity to attend COINS Grand Challenge and I feel overwhelmed. It's a very great honour to have this support. FWC+ is food waste interlocking concrete with cladding. It is a product that is made from a process that uses food waste to create cement and sand.
Jun Tung Lai
Student at Universiti Sains Malaysia
Winner, 2022 Open Competition
The winner of the 2022 Open Competition is UK entrepreneur Isabelle Gough, founder of Cercula, who is trying to revolutionise the construction industry by adding carbon data to the design phase of construction planning.
Cercula is not your average carbon calculator. We're experimenting with the latest technologies in data science and natural language processing to optimise the process of carbon capture for the construction industry. Winning the Grand Challenge is really validating for what we're doing. It shows that we have meaningful technology. We're deploying it in an area which is really needed and that there is real market acceptance for what we're doing.
Isabelle Gough
Cercula
Runner-up, 2022 Open Competition
Jack Cornes, co-founder of UK company, HausBots, which has developed a wall-crawling robot designed for the inspection and maintenance of the built environment was awarded the Open Competition Runner-up Prize.
The HB1 provides our customers the opportunity to work at height with zero feet leaving the ground, three times more cost effectively, and typically three times faster in their inspection of maintenance projects. It feels great to be a runner up in the Grand Challenge. We've made some brilliant connections through this competition, and hopefully this gives us a launchpad for the next stage of our business.
Jack Cornes
HausBots
The panel of 8 construction and technology expert judges included Oliver Novakovic, Technical & Innovation Director of Barratt Developments Plc; Stuart Binstock, President and CEO of US organisation Construction Financial Management Association (CFMA); and housing expert Nicola Barclay who, until recently, was the Chief Executive of Homes for Scotland.
2022 Finalists
Well done to everyone shortlisted for this year's COINS Grand Challenge - please watch the finalist showreels to discover more about their ideas.
Open Competition showreel
Undergraduate Competition showreel
Robert Brown, CEO of COINS, has played a major role in establishing the COINS Grand Challenge
Since its inception COINS Grand Challenge goes from strength to strength. Our aims are not only to search out new innovation but also to showcase to people of all ages how getting involved in the construction industry can provide an exciting and dynamic career choice. And at the same time address the issues that young people care about the most such as climate change, sustainability, accessibility and more generally the quality of peoples’ lives.
Robert Brown
COINS
Prize Sponsors
With thanks to the 2022 Prize Sponsors: Singlepoint Solutions, Henley Information Systems and Barratt Developments plc.
For more details please visit www.coins-grandchallenge.com
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