Awards & rankings, News

Deakin international students prosper in Fleetwood Challenge Cup

December 9, 2021 - 3 min read

Deakin’s Think Tank team has been awarded second place in the 2021 Fleetwood Challenge Cup. Each year, students from select universities are invited to participate in this competition designed to discover the next generation of young built environment design professionals. Teams are comprised of four to six students from architecture, construction management and other AEC (architecture, engineering and construction) fields. In 2021, 110 students on 26 teams represented ten universities in the challenge.

This year’s Deakin Think Tank team was made up of architecture and construction management students Ashik Charles Dsouza, Poojan Sanjaykumar Khahhar, Lilu Palakkappilly John, Tejas Hema Sanjay and Abdulqawiy Kolapo Abdulraheem.

Tejas, who is originally from India, is a recent Master of Construction Management graduate who pursued his degree at the Deakin Geelong campus. For him, ‘The most memorable part of the Cup was to work in an interdisciplinary team, sharing our thoughts and coming up with an interesting and challenging building design for the competition.’ He recounts that the most rewarding experience of the challenge was being guided by the professors in the various aspects of prefabrication, structure designing, architectural designing and sustainability.

‘The most memorable part of the Cup was to work in an interdisciplinary team, sharing our thoughts and coming up with an interesting and challenging building design for the competition.’

Ashik Charles Dsouza added, ‘To represent Deakin and secure the second place amongst all the universities was a great achievement for our team. Working on an interdisciplinary project which combined real-world challenges and opportunities encouraged us to push boundaries and go beyond the comfort zone.’ Ashik is a current postgraduate student from India pursuing his Master of Architecture degree.

‘We had the pleasure to learn about prefabrication and construction from some of the best industry experts. Not only did we work in a multi-disciplinary team, but were also taught by our instructors that had exceptional knowledge in different fields,’ recalls Poojan Sanjaykumar Khahhar, a Master of Construction Management graduate who came to Australia from India to pursue his degree at Deakin’s Geelong Waterfront Campus. ‘Combining all our knowledge and talent and submitting a design that ended up being second in the entire competition is a very satisfying outcome, one that wouldn’t have been possible if our entire team wasn’t provided with this platform by Deakin.’

‘Not only did we work in a multi-disciplinary team, but were also taught by our instructors that had exceptional knowledge in different fields.’

Deakin’s international architecture and construction management students have made us proud.

For information about studying at Deakin and the many degrees on offer, visit our international student page.

Quick links

To learn more about Deakin’s Master of Construction Management (Professional), click here.

To discover our range of construction management degrees, click here.

To learn more about Deakin’s Master of Architecture, click here.

To discover our range of architecture degrees, click here.

To learn more about Deakin’s Geelong Waterfront Campus, click here.

To find out more about Deakin’s 2021 Fleetwood Challenge Cup entry, click here.

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