In Show RCA 2011 the Innovation Design Engineering (IDE) Department celebrates success from PhD research and also from the joint double Master’s course run between the Royal College of Art and Imperial College London.

This year’s graduates are, as always, a rich mix of backgrounds and cultures; over 15 nationalities are represented and students’ previous experiences range from engineering through design and a broad sweep of other career paths. For them the accelerator pedal has been flat on the floor since they walked in: research, idea generation, more research, building stuff, testing, fantastic failures, rebuilding, project meetings... dancing in the ArtBar... reflection, more project meetings... eight-hour presentations... losing their desks under prototyping materials... cash-flow problems, manufacturing nightmares, confusion, reflection, realisation... 18-hour days... pulling it all together for the Show... exams... and success! The students are commonly linked by intelligence, curiosity and a passionate belief in improvement through innovation. They won’t be told anything is impossible, and are the agents of future change. They are going to make it happen and we’re going to watch them do it. We look forward to it.