I greatly applaud the Royal Society of Art for taking the initiative to introduce the RSA-USA Student Design Awards. I only wish that there were more creative challenges like this when I was a student.

By taking part in this competition, you will be given a chance to contribute to improving the environment, and social responsibility, as well as developing your design skills. It will also positively position you for your future endeavors in interacting with a rapidly changing Industry.

I therefore urge all undergraduate students to take part in this project which you will find rewarding in many ways.

The RSA student awards are a fantastic opportunity to work on a live brief with a real client, and helped me personally establish a lot of the methodology that I use in my professional practice. Having to justify my research, design thinking and creative output before a panel of industry experts was daunting, but ultimately instilled a sense of pride in my work that I still strive for every day.

I cannot over-emphasize the importance of identifying young individuals with a passion for making the world a better place. It is not only the award that is received, however, that is important. It is the opening of the RSA network to winners and the moral support given to those following a sometimes lonely and challenging path in fostering helpful change.

In my own life, if I had not won an RSA award, some of the things I have managed to do would have been far more difficult. I have seen the power of the RSA to develop wonderful, trusted partnerships.

Thanks to connections the RSA helped facilitate, I am able to help individuals with multiple sclerosis make evidence-based lifestyle changes that can often dramatically improve their life. All told, Facebook tells me I directly and indirectly reach over 300,000 individuals worldwide; this would not have been possible without the RSA.

Thank you RSA!

The RSA competition for students has shown itself as always to be a challenging and thought provoking scheme this year with many young designers tackling a range of focussed and socially relevant design briefs. Their attention to deliverable outcomes has been terrific. The organisations who set the briefs have also extended their work to engage talented people on some industry based core issues. The range of solutions have been imaginative, innovative and inspiring to others in the field.

The RSA Design Competition has opened so many doors for me, not only in terms of getting my name out there, but it has provided me with a huge network of people from all industries that I can contact and collaborate with. The briefs which are set are realistic to the world we live in and yet allow the freedom to design what you wish within the area of scope. Winning the RSA Design Competition has given me additional confidence in my skills as a designer to tackle challenging problems head on.

I am incredibly proud to be the winner of a competition which has seen previous winners such as Jonathan Ive, Paul Priestman and Betty Jackson. Thank you RSA!

My team of three selected the ‘Action For Age’ brief (2009) because we found it to be challenging, socially relevant and with the right level of complexity. The project took us about four months; this included qualitative research, interaction with stakeholders, idea- generation and prototype creation. We were all involved in other activities during this time, but the project was a great opportunity to learn more about both method (design strategy) and our user group (seniors).