School of Electronics, Electrical Engineering and Computer Science

Future leaders: Pictured with Robert Swan are (L to R) Judy Black, Caron Malone, Karen Creighton, Richard Stewart

Four students from the School of Electrical & Electronic Engineering and Computer Science have made it into the final of the npower Future Leaders Challenge.

Teams from universities across the UK entered the competition by sending in a short film describing their plans for a local green project around their university and wider community. The Queen's University students aim to encourage first year students to eat their evening meal together one night a week to reduce energy use from cooking various meals.

The winning team - whose project is judged to have the most impact - will win a trip of a lifetime to Antarctica where they will get to experience effects of global warning first hand.

The four finalist students from Queen's University joined the other nine teams this weekend at an outdoors activity weekend in the Lake District. The course was specially designed to help develop team building skills, environmental knowledge and other key skills that will enable them to deliver their project.

The weekend was attended by Antarctic adventurer Robert Swan, whose company, 2041, will be taking the winning team to Antarctica. Robert talked to the university students about the affect climate change is having on the South Pole and how a series of small actions and projects - like the one being undertaken by the Queen's students - can make a real impact on the environment.

Judy Black said, "The weekend was fantastic. After being chest deep in bog and a mountain-top rescue due to a dodgy knee, we still came out laughing. We're now really inspired to start our project - the Enviro-chefs! We'll be encouraging first years to do a carbon cutting diet by cooking and eating an evening meal together once a week, to get to know each other and save energy"

Clare McDougall, npower's head of education programmes said," The npower Future Leaders Challenge has been developed to find the next generation of Robert Swans: young people with drive and passion, committed to learning about climate change and discovering new solutions to tackle its harmful effects. A team of Future Leaders will take part in an Antarctic expedition in March 2010, lead by polar explorer Robert Swan OBE."

The university teams will be working on their projects for the next two months, before the winning team is announced on 18th December.