9 April 2026

Design Innovation in Plastics 2026 announces finalists

The six finalists in this year’s Design Innovation in Plastics competition will present their prototype to the judging panel in London on 8 May.

Design Innovation in Plastics is an annual competition for undergraduate students, and we're pleased to be supporting this event along with the Worshipful Company of Horners.

This year’s brief asked students to create a game which could be played indoors or outdoors.

From the submissions, six finalists were chosen from Aston University, Brunel University, Coventry University and Nottingham Trent University. The competition’s chairman of judges, Richard Brown, said the top candidates had done well to consider the demographics and diverse learning styles of their target audience, thereby ensuring their products were accessible to a wide range of people.

He said: 'Developing a game is challenging, especially if you want it to be educational as well as engaging and fun. We were impressed that many of the top students achieved this. They avoided vague or unfocused goals, and a number of them even measured the game's learning content. The purpose of the game was generally clear, with the best entries providing good instructions and visually logical paths, as well as a balance between luck and difficulty and fun.

'We felt they’d risen well to the challenge, and it will be interesting to see how our six finalists develop their ideas, having received feedback from the judges at this preliminary stage.'

As part of their prize, all finalists have been invited to attend a four-day process engineering course hosted by Fanuc UK Ltd, a world market leader in factory automation and run by Sierra 57 Consult, a leading training provider to the UK plastics industry.

This year’s finalists are:

Daniel Brown, Brunel University - Mad Dash Escalation, a tabletop board game involving forward thinking and strategy, involving two or four players.
Joanne Chartouni, Nottingham Trent University - Steady Stacks, an indoor or outdoor game tailored to children with ADHD to encourage social interaction and mental stimulation
Isaac Faruque, Brunel University - Cross Connect, a unique two-player strategy path game with wide age range appeal.
Aidan Jones, Nottingham Trent University - Lollipop Lane, an indoor or outdoor board game which teaches children road safety rules.
Yushu Li, Coventry University - Munchie Monster, a physical learning game designed for children aged 4-6 to educate them about sugar awareness
Maya Pai, Aston University - Honeycombe Havoc, a fast-paced strategy board game for people of all ages, designed to build predictive skills