3 Days, 36 Students, 6 Challenges and Hundreds of Ideas! That was our last 'Innovation Camp' with Virgin Australia in a nutshell. With ideas ranging from plane engines run using kinetic energy, to flight attendant uniforms reupholstered into lounge chairs, and even aircraft fuselage converted into homeless shelters; the students at our latest 'Innovation Camp' were out to wow the Virgin Australia team with their ideas.
Our 'Innovation Camp' saw 36 high school students from across Queensland coming together for three days of innovation in aviation hosted by the fantastic team at Virgin Australia. With the first two days of the camp hosted at their head offices in Brisbane and the final day at their lounge at the Brisbane Airport; this camp was designed to show students the different careers in aviation and some of the exciting projects happening in the industry.
Our students range from 12 to 17 years of age and spent the three days developing out of the box solutions to real challenges in the aviation industry. Here's what our students were working on:
Sustainability Challenge
Students had to choose one element of airline operations and find a way to make it more sustainable and environmentally friendly. Some popular ideas included getting rid of singe use packaging, recycling old uniforms and chairs and even how to power the aircraft using renewable energies.
In-Flight Entertainment Redesign
This challenge saw students designing activities spaces and programs for some of Virgin Australia's younger flyers to keep them entertained on longer flights.
Aircraft Redesign
What would your dream flight look like? This is the question we asked our students as we challenged them to redesign the floor plan of a Boeing 777 to incorporate all the features they think passengers would want on a flight.
Passenger Reallocation
Have you ever wondered what happens behind the scenes when a flight is delayed or cancelled? Our students found this out first hand as they had to re-seat 300 passengers travelling to LA on other flights. A very hectic hour and a half to say the least but all the passengers were on their way in no time!
These were just a handful of the challenges the students tackled throughout the three days and some of the favourite challenges. Our students even had the opportunity to pitch their top ideas to the Virgin Australia team, and a few select students even got to pitch their ideas to the CEO of Virgin Australia Paul Scurrah.
With tickets for this camp selling out in a matter of days, we can't wait to host even more of these camps in future for students across the country!