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Working on real-life assignments from industrial partners and collaborating across faculties and with Deggendorf Institute of Technology (THD) in Bavaria, this year's DESING+ international workshop once again brought together students of mechanical engineering, economics, industrial design, and other disciplines to show that these fields are inseparable in practice. "We designed the individual assignments to reflect the latest trends in supported technical fields, including connections with AI," said Josef Dvořák from the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering at the University of West Bohemia in Pilsen (FME), co-founder and chief organizer of the competition. Since the beginning of the academic year, students had been working in a total of nine teams on projects for companies, banks, and other institutions. The six best teams then presented their work in English at the May finals.

One of the selected projects was a proposal for a gravity power plant. Mechanical engineering students handled the structural design; the Sutnar Faculty of Design and Art created the site's virtual appearance; a student from the Faculty of Economics conducted the economic feasibility analysis; and the Faculty of Health Care Studies provided the ergonomic solution. The assignment came from Deggendorf Institute of Technology. The students developed a concept for using old abandoned mines. According to their proposal, the mines would be flooded, and the gravity power plant would use the water to generate electricity. "The project taught us interdisciplinary cooperation. Projects like this are important for our future professional lives and careers. For most of us, it was our first large-scale project," said team member Matěj Kudrhalt, a student of Industrial Engineering and Management at FME. His teammate Martin Kechner also appreciated the interdisciplinary collaboration: "We had the opportunity to look at the same problem from the perspective of a designer, a healthcare specialist, and an economist."

A Czech-German student team also presented a hydropower plant designed for a passive family house. Their proposal included a water turbine and an acceptable method for storing electrical and thermal energy. Another outcome of the cross-border cooperation was a project to optimize a thermal energy system using artificial intelligence. Students from UWB faculties also presented their designs for a functional device to return beverage caps to a conveyor belt and a sorting system for them. They worked on an assignment from the KONPLAN company. Lawyer and doctoral student at FME Jakub Šváb, in cooperation with J&T Banka, proposed ways to use AI to accelerate software development and subsequent testing.

The 22nd edition of the international student competition DESING+ was jointly organized by the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, the Ladislav Sutnar Faculty of Design and Art, the Faculty of Health Care Studies, the Faculty of Economics, and the Institute of Applied Language Studies at the University of West Bohemia in Pilsen, together with partner institution THD. The DESING+ project was held at the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering for the first time in 2004. Its name combines the words 'Design' and 'Mechanical Engineering'. In the competition, students progress from the initial idea to the production of a functional prototype, which they subsequently present to others. Students from all UWB faculties can apply for new projects every year.