
What if we ate bugs for breakfast?
Students answer the call for new ways to use the earth’s resources.
What if we could make affordable food by farming crickets, help shoppers to reduce food waste, or turn air into drinking water?
These are just some of the questions that inspired the five team finalists of Shell Ideas360, a global competition that challenges students to think about innovative ways to conserve the world’s energy, water and food supplies.
“We wanted to give people in dry areas easier access to clean water,” says Avtar Rekhi, who comes from Kenya and is studying mechanical engineering in London. His team invented a system that extracts drinkable water from moisture in the air using natural air circulation and solar-heated domes.
Other students who reached the final designed a model cricket farm to provide protein and income for people in countries where nourishing food is scarce, and a device that can remove toxic levels of fluoride from water supplies in rural Africa and Asia.
The 2014/15 competition winners – Team Renaissance from Nanyang Technological University, Singapore - designed an app called Food Basket, which aims to help households reduce food waste. The app allows people to track the expiry dates on their groceries and suggests recipes for items that are approaching their use-by date.
“1.3 billion tonnes of food goes to waste each year, costing the average household $1,500 annually in waste,” says team member Alex Chen. “We think the Food Basket app can help to reduce that.”

Winners Team Renaissance of Nanyang Technological University, Singapore, receive their prize from Shell CEO Ben van Beurden at the final in Rotterdam. From left to right: Ben van Beurden, Alex Chen, May Lim and Nitya Anthony.
Pitching ideas
Shell Ideas360 is one of several programmes that Shell runs under the #makethefuture initiative. Its goal is to encourage a new generation of scientists, technologists, engineers and mathematicians.
“We need creative minds to help build a more sustainable energy future,” says Yuri Sebregts, Shell’s Chief Technology Officer, who oversees research and development and innovation at the company.
The judges selected the finalists from almost 1,100 entries. Each team pitched their ideas to the judges and attended the final at Shell Eco-marathon Europe 2015, in the Netherlands. Winners Team Renaissance will go on a National Geographic Adventure of their choice, such as hiking in the Grand Canyon, kayaking in Costa Rica or trekking in Mongolia.
Inspiring careers
The Shell Ideas360 competition develops talent as well as ideas. One of last year’s finalists, for example, Januardy Djong from Indonesia, successfully applied for a place in Shell’s Graduate Programme. The 26-year-old student at Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands designed a pedal-powered irrigation pump that enables farmers to water their fields faster and with less effort than the traditional method of using watering cans.
Januardy will now spend between three and five years on the graduate programme. He’s looking forward to working on pioneering projects in the energy industry. “I want to be part of a team that develops something new and makes it work,” he says.
Watch Januardy’s video about his pedal-powered irrigation pump
Shell Ideas360: Announcing the 2014/15 competition finalists
Title: 360 Reveal FINAL (1)
Duration: 1:26 minutes
Description: Students from around the world to submit innovative ideas
360 Reveal FINAL (1) Film Transcript
[Background music]
Bright, pop music.
[Graphic]
Light bulb
[Text displays]
Shell Ideas 360
A global ideas competition:
Stage 3 teams revealed
Interview with Jennifer Gearheart-Tang
[Title]
Global Innovation Manager, Shell Ideas 360 team
[Jennifer]
“Shell Ideas 360 is a global competition inviting students from around the world to submit ideas that could potentially change the world.”
[Video footage]
Back view of young person attending event wearing hoodie showing: What if your idea could change the world?
Two young people talking.
Young people pressing large touchscreen at event.
[Graphic]
Globe turning
[Text displays]
Shell Ideas 360
A global ideas competition
[Graphic]
Text disappears and globe flies into centre of screen and breaks up into little purple pieces. Pieces reform into flat map of the world. Lots of white markers show up on map.
[Text displays]
Students teams across the world
Submitted 1000 ideas
[Graphic]
Number of markers on map is reduced.
[Text displays]
We chose…
100 teams for mentoring
[Unidentified Male]
“360 competition is fantastic. With a growing population we’re going to need new, innovative… “
[Video footage]
Advertising boards at event.
[Split screen]
Screen gradually becomes a split-screen as main screen in the middle becomes smaller.
Footage of people attending event, talking to camera. Can hear them all talking over one another.
[Graphic]
Purple map of world.
[Text displays]
100 teams for mentoring
5 Excelled
[Graphic]
5 yellow markers show up on map and fly to the middle.
[Text displays]
Team name:
Blu
University:
Imperial College London
Country:
United Kingdom
[Text displays]
Team name:
Fluorasorb
University:
University of Illinois at Urbana
Country:
USA
[Text displays]
Team name:
Passive House
University:
University of Qatar
Country:
Qatar
[Text displays]
Team name:
The Cricketeers
University:
Petronas Technological University
Country:
Malaysia
[Text displays]
Team name:
Renaissance
University:
Nanyang Technological University
Country:
Singapore
[Graphic]
Purple and white globe rotating.
[Text displays]
Which could change the world? – the O in world is shown a small globe.
[Graphic]
Zooming back in on the globe.
[Text displays]
Shell Ideas 360
[Music]
Riff plays.
[Text displays]
Copyright Shell International Limited 2015
The #makethefuture initiative
Visit the Make the Future web pages and see how programmes such as Shell Ideas360, Shell Eco-marathon for students, Shell LiveWIRE for young entrepreneurs, and Shell GameChanger for innovators are inspiring people to unlock their ingenuity and creative spirit.
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