"Fly your ideas" university contest ready for final round

Ten expert-jury from around the world to evaluate students’ eco-efficient ideas

Airbus, one of the world’s leading aircraft design and manufacturing companies, is pleased to announce the jury members for the final of its international student competition, “Airbus Fly Your Ideas.”

The competition was launched to challenge students from around the world, studying a bachelor’s degree, Masters or PHD in any academic discipline, to come up with and to develop innovative and eco-efficient ideas that could ultimately shape the future of aviation.

Since competition launch in October 2008, the university contest has proven to be a huge success with the participation of thousands of students around the globe. Over 2,350 students from 82 countries registered to take part in round one, and out of the initial 225 team proposals submitted, 86 teams were selected to further develop their ideas for the second round.

These second round proposals have now been submitted and are being assessed by Airbus experts from various fields. Five teams will be selected to continue to the live final in June 2009 at Le Bourget Airshow in Paris.

The five finalist teams will have the opportunity to finalise their proposal with the help of an Airbus coach, before presenting the result to the jury during Le Bourget, Paris Air Show, on 18th June 2009. This jury, consisting of a panel of five Airbus representatives, as well as five independent industry experts, will select the winning team and runner up. The winning team will receive €30,000.

The independent jury comprises the following industry experts:

Dato’ Dr Sheikh Muszaphar
Dr Sheikh was the first Malaysian to go into space when he took part in an international mission aboard a Soyuz TMA-10 in October 2007. Known widely as “the Angkasawan” (Malay for astronaut), Dr Sheikh’s achievements have inspired many young people from the region to show an interest in aeronautics. Originally trained as a medical doctor, Dr Sheikh is currently undertaking postgraduate studies in Orthopedic Surgery at Hospital Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (HUKM). In 2008 Dr Sheikh was named a UN Ambassador for Global Peace .

Dr Donald Tambunan
Dr Donald Tambunan is Head of the Science and Technology Unit at the Jakarta-based headquarters of the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN). In this role he is responsible for coordinating the S&T cooperation in ASEAN covering a broad range of areas including biotechnology, materials science, space technology, non-conventional energy research, meteorology and geophysics. Dr Tambunan has a PhD from Massey University, New Zealand. He is the author of numerous academic publications ranging from agricultural issues to the development of science and technology policies within ASEAN.

Mr. Christer Haglund
Christer Haglund is Senior Vice President, Finnair Corporate Communications. In this role he is responsible for the Finnair Group’s internal and external communications and public and investor relations. Corporate responsibility is also included in his area of competence. Mr. Haglund is a member of the Finnair Group’s Executive Board and he has been employed by Finnair since 2000. Previously Mr. Haglund has worked for the Finnish Ministry for Foreign Affairs and in various media positions in Finland, Sweden and the United States.

Mr. Manuel Toharia
As an expert on popularisation of Science, Mr Toharia is active in many areas linked to science, environment and youth development. Currently he is Scientific Director of the City of Arts and Sciences of Valencia, Spain. Previously he was director of the Science Museum of La Caixa in Madrid and an active science journalist for national television, radio and newspapers. Mr Toharia is also on the Board of Directors of the “Airbus Corporate Foundation” which is a foundation aimed at facilitating charitable activities worldwide.

Professor William M. Banks
Professor William M. Banks is President of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers (IMechE), one of the world’s leading engineering institutions which is dedicated to encouraging more young people into engineering. Prior to his appointment at IMechE, he was Chairman of Advanced Materials in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at the University of Strathclyde, UK. He is also a past Chairman of the Engineering Professors’ Council.Professor Banks graduated from Strathclyde University with a First Class Honours BSc Degree in Mechanical Engineering in 1965 and an MSc Degree in 1966. He achieved his doctorate in 1977.

The Airbus Representatives in the jury are:

Mr. Patrick Gavin
Executive Vice-President of Engineering and member of the Airbus Executive Committee, Mr. Gavin is the patron of the Airbus “Fly Your Ideas” competition. Mr. Gavin benefits from his broad experience within the aviation industry. He began his professional career at Aérospatiale in 1973 and since then took leading positions within the industry until he joined Airbus in the year 2000. Born in Paris, Mr. Gavin graduated in 1972 as an engineer, with a major in electronics from the Ecole Nationale Supérieure d’Aéronautique et de l’Espace (ENSAE) in Toulouse, France.

Mr. Christian Scherer
Christian Scherer was appointed Executive Vice President Strategy and Future Programmes in September 2007. As such, he is in charge of defining Airbus’ long term strategic objectives in different areas such as the analysis of the market environment and the research of trends and evolutions, the product policy and the development of future programmes, the industrial strategy, the international partnerships and the cooperation programmes. Christian Scherer joined Airbus in 1984, becoming successively Vice President Contracts for Airbus North America (based in the USA), Vice President Leasing markets, Vice President Contracts and Pricing Worldwide and permanent Deputy Head of Commercial in Toulouse. Born in Duisburg, Germany, Christian holds an MBA from the University of Ottawa in international marketing and graduated from the Paris Business School (ESCP).

Mr. Colin Stuart
Mr. Stuart, formerly Airbus Vice President, Marketing and now an Airbus senior ambassador, joined the Technical Marketing department at Airbus Industrie in 1979. He was appointed to the position of General Manager Product Marketing in 1986, heading the team responsible for technical marketing activities worldwide. In May 1996, Mr. Stuart was promoted to the executive position of Vice-President, Marketing, with the responsibility for managing both the development and implementation of customer and product marketing activities and related marketing support services for the complete Airbus range of commercial products.

Ms. Renée Martin-Nagle
Vice-President and General Counsel for Airbus Americas, Ms. Martin-Nagle joined Airbus in 1990 as the first in-house counsel for Airbus in the United States and Canada. She also serves as Corporate Secretary, Chief Compliance Officer and Head of Environmental Affairs. Besides pursuing her professional career in the aviation and aerospace industry, Ms Martin-Nagle has been a member of the “International Aviation Women’s Association” since 1991. She is also a member of the organization “Women in Aviation, International”, with the objective to encourage more women to seek opportunities in the aviation industry. In addition, Ms. Martin-Nagle is chair-elect of the American Bar Association Forum on Air & Space Law, which has over 1600 aviation and space lawyers as members. She is currently pursuing Master of laws degree in environmental law.

Ms Zhu Xia
Executive Assistant / Project Manager, Procurement, Ms. Zhu joined Airbus through its international young talent programme in 2006. Prior to joining Airbus Ms Zhu gained experience in Human Resources across the software and automotive industries. Within Airbus she worked in Recruitment & Mobility before moving to Procurement in 2008, where she leads projects in organisational change, process harmonisation, resource and competence management, etc. Ms. Zhu graduated in 2002 with an MBA in International Management from University of Applied Sciences, Berlin.