Undergraduate and graduate students from all areas of study are wanted to compete in a Siemens-sponsored case competition through Engineers Without Borders at Georgia Tech (EWB-GT). Participants will be grouped and charged with designing a durable, efficient and adaptable refugee camp.

Applicants are teamed up based on their backgrounds and strengths to create a well-rounded group able to consider the engineering, humanitarian and health perspectives of the task at hand.

“We have a lot of global health students from Emory, so we need more Tech students, especially engineers, to team up with them,” said Hayden Asquith, a business administration and industrial engineering major who is chairing the event for EWB-GT. Students will come primarily from Georgia Tech and Emory University, but some have also registered from Clemson University and the U.S. Military Academy (West Point).

Through a $15,000 donation from Siemens, EWB-GT will give out monetary prizes in three divisions, to be named at the start of the event; first place in each division will earn $4,000, and second place $1,000. Working with Peacebuilding Solutions, a non-governmental organization, the winning design will be presented to the United Nations High Commission on Refugees this winter and constructed shortly thereafter.

“The competition will be an intensive week, but the payoff is worth it — not just financially, but for the experience of meeting amazing contacts, especially for global health or refugee camps, and actually putting what you learn in school into action,” Asquith said.

The weeklong competition will commence with an opening ceremony on campus on Sunday, Sept. 25, when students will receive specifications for the refugee camp. Each group will present its design before a panel of judges at an open event on Saturday, Oct. 1, at the College of Management.

There are no minimum requirements for participation; interested students should apply online by Saturday, Sept. 10, either with a group or as individuals.