King's College London

Lambeth Academy students aged 15–16 recently won the Health & Life Sciences category at the 2025 Motivez Sustainable London Multi-Borough Competition.

The event brought together more than 2,500 young people across six London boroughs, challenging them to design climate-conscious solutions in fashion, transport, health, and consumer wellbeing. The winning team presented an innovative pitch; sustain-a-cast – an eco-friendly medical cast made from biodegradable or recyclable materials.

King’s Health Partners, a founding partner of SC1 London, offered the winners a special work experience opportunity exploring the life sciences and innovation ecosystem. As part of the programme, King’s BMEIS Public Engagement team members, Yinka Fabusuyi and Alice Taylor-Gee, guided the students through an interactive two-hour workshop.

The session kicked off with an introduction to the London Institute for Healthcare Engineering (LIHE). The students then visited the Surgical & Interventional Engineering Lab (SIE) lead by Duane James with Gayathri Nantharatnam where they had an opportunity to speak with two PhD students about their research focus.

The experience continued at LIHE with thought-provoking presentations from King’s researchers Antonia Pontiki and Emelia Delaney. The session included participating in a rapid prototyping workshop run by Emelia, giving the students an opportunity to make a prototype design and present it to the group.

The students shared positive feedback and asked insightful questions, making the workshop a real success. Overall, it was a fantastic morning of learning, discussion, interaction and fun.