In September 2021, Mondelez International organised the Mondelez Student Design Challenge 2021 with The South Indian Education Society (SIES). The competition required the students to explore, assess and develop packaging designs for existing Mondelez products. For the next four months, the students dived into the nitty-gritty of principles of design. 

Sameer Naik, senior engineer at Mondelez International and coordinator for the design challenge, floated the concept of the competition in India with Prasad Iyer, director, SIES School of Packaging to hold the competition exclusively for SIES students.

A total of 58 students through 16 groups from the SIES participated in the competition, which was held between September and December 2021. The competition involved project briefs where students had to work on the scope of the project.

“The competition provided students with an enriching educational experience by offering an opportunity to participate in project-based learning, coordinated and overseen by a SIES faculty member. In addition to packaging, students from multiple fields of learning were allowed to participate, giving a multi-disciplinary approach to the competition,” Naik said. 

“The students conducted market surveys and literature reviews, created multiple iterative designs, both 2D and 3D models and rapid prototypes. They also realised the importance of project timelines and brought out creative ideas to the table,” Iyer added.

Multiple rounds of the review were taken by the Mondelez team during the competition to help refine the design ideas. Sagar Waghmare, assistant professor, SIES Graduate School of Technology guided students in rapid prototyping and 3D printing, where students learned design feasibility and design for prototyping vs production design.

The competition was judged based on packaging functions such as airtightness, dispensing mechanism, controlled dispensing, easy to open and close, barrier properties, sustainability and market research, and packaging material research. A design solution was created to cater to different age groups while also keeping the company's requirements in mind.

The final presentations with working models were showcased in mid-December 2021. The judges were Lou Fenech, principal engineer, Mondelez International, and Ozgur Polat, director, R&D packaging, AMEA Chocolate, Mondelez International. The first-place winners were Prathamesh Patil, Aarti Desai, Omkar Mulick, Meet Mange, and second-place winners were Amogh Gharat, Aditya Ghosalkar, Mithul Kurlekar and Nischal Gupta. 

The winning and the participating teams were awarded prize money for their expenses and efforts put in for the competition.