Independent/Bosch Technology Horizons Award: Writers capture China rising

This year's Bosch Technology Horizons Award, in association with The Independent and the Royal Academy of Engineering, offered young people in two categories the chance to answer the question, "How is technology and engineering driving change in a country of your choice?"

More than 500 entries were received, ranging from the architectural development of Dubai to the socio-economic reasons for the boom in online gaming in South Korea, plus insights about Japan, India and the USA. But it is unsurprising that the two winning essays concentrated on China. In the 14-18 age group Christopher Cubitt of Ilford County High School took the £700 prize, while in the 19-24 age group Carmel Digweed from the University of Sheffield scooped the award and £1,000.

The Technology Horizons Award, now in its third year, encourages students to think creatively about the changes and challenges facing the world. The award also seeks to highlight the importance of technology and engineering to young people .

The winners attended a presentation ceremony at The Royal Academy of Engineering in London. The ceremony was hosted by ex-Tomorrow's World presenter Kate Bellingham, now President of Young Engineers and featured presentations from Richard Noble OBE, project director of Thrust SSC, Bill O'Riordan, former chief scientist of Fujitsu/ICL and Steve Connor, science editor of The Independent.

"The shortlist was one of the best in the history of the awards," says Connor. "The quality of the essays demonstrated that young people in Britain have a keen awareness of the world around them and the ability to communicate that knowledge via the written word."

The award-winners

Aged 14-18

Winner: Christopher Cubitt, Ilford County High School, Essex

Highly Commended: Alex Docherty, Hornsea Sixth- Form College, East Yorks; Jonathan Stimmler, JFS, Middlesex; Beth Squire, Gryphon School, Dorset; Fiona Robertson, Hayesfield School, Bath; Daniel O'Connor, St Olave's Grammar School, Kent; Thomas Shelbourn, Oakham School, Rutland.

Aged 19-24

Winner: Carmel Digweed, University of Sheffield

Highly Commended: Caitlin Pearson, Durham; Jack Sidey, Exeter; Alejandro Vincente-Grabovetsky, Cambridge; Christopher Maidment, Sheffield; Christopher Ince, Sheffield; Michael Ellender, Keele.

Winning Schools:

St Olaves Grammar School, Kent; Ysgol Uwchradd Bodedern School, Anglesey

Winner, 14-18: Christopher Cubitt

China is in the middle of a technological revolution that is fuelling change in a nation long stuck in the past. It is leading the world in technological progress, and growing at a tremendous rate. This revolution began with economics. Embracing the free market in the late 1970s meant investment poured in. Now China pulls a million people out of poverty every month. It is re-enacting its great leap forward, but this time in the right direction. In 1990, fewer than 20 per cent of Chinese households owned a colour TV. Today over 98 per cent owns one, transforming the leisure time of the people.

China is now the world leader in producing communications equipment. Its output of computer and office equipment was valued at $11.5bn in 2005. Its main task is to expand and cater for this technological change. Engineers will be needed. Last year, 600,000 students graduated in engineering – a staggering 35 per cent of the degrees awarded were in this subject – compared with only 134,000 in the United States.

Over 461.1 million Chinese now own a mobile phone, about one-third of the population. In 2007, 162 million Chinese logged on to the internet, an increase of 25 million over the previous year, and numbers continue to rise. This is fuelling a surge in e-commerce and opening up this previously remote country to the rest of the world. Although the Chinese government tries to censor the internet, people are finding their way around it. By downloading blogging software, they can avoid the government's censor. It is estimated that 5 million Chinese have blogs and are relishing their first taste of freedom of speech. The great firewall of China is slowly being dismantled, blogger by blogger. Technology is setting the Chinese people free.

This year, the Olympic torch will shine over Beijing, boosting the demand for engineers further. China hopes these games will cement its place in the world. Massive capital projects such as the olympic stadium, the expansion of Beijing airport and four new underground lines will have to be delivered in the next few years. Nationally, China is planning equally ambitious projects such as a maglev (magnetic levitation) train line linking the north and south of the country.

Energy is a smouldering issue. As the demand for energy grows, China is consuming more and more fossil fuels but the country needs to develop renewable energy.

This once backward nation is moving forward.

Winner, 19-24: Carmel Digweed

China. The word evokes images of smog, smoke, and factories. It is certainly not a country known for its environmental awareness and green credentials. In fact, it only marginally trails the "all-consuming" USA in the energy stakes, and alarmingly, China is the world's third-largest net importer of oil behind the United States and Japan. But don't worry too much: that is starting to change. China has the fastest growing economy in the world. From decades of Communist rule, China is undergoing what many have described as, a second industrial revolution. But this has fuelled demands for more energy, mainly from coal. It is apparent that China needs a way of using alternative sources of energy, and through technological innovation this is possible. China recently announced plans to spend 78 per cent more on emission reduction to meet its 2010 targets. By closing inefficient coal-fired power units and steel plants, China will spend 9m Yuan (£6.4m) on helping the country become more energy efficient. Thanks to technology, it will no longer be the big bad wolf of the environmental world. Solar power is a major part of China's plan for environmental success. It is officially the world's biggest consumer of solar energy, as well as the largest producer of solar water heaters. Owing to a sunny climate, China has a potential solar energy reserve equivalent to 1,700bn tons of coal. That's a lot of smoke they could be saving. Even the Olympic Games are going green. China is making a real effort to use solar energy at the games in Beijing. According to Li Zhonghai, a senior official with the China Association for Standardisation, 80 per cent of streetlights around the Olympic venue will be using solar power, and 90 per cent of all hot water at the event will be heated by solar energy. By 2020, China wants 15 per cent of its power to come from renewable energy sources. The majority of this will come from hydro-power.

In 2006, the world's biggest dam was built in China, and it smashed an alarming 10 world records. The Three Gorges Dam was met with controversy when it was built. Indeed, thousands of people had to be relocated for it to be constructed. But it is the world's biggest man-made producer of electricity from renewable energy, and undoubtedly the key to unlocking China's hydro-power potential.

Over the next few years, China may also become home to the worlds first eco-city. Dongtan is the brainchild of Shanghai Industrial Investment Corporation and Arup, the design firm responsible Heathrow's new Terminal 5. Between them they envisage, the world's first eco-city, which will be sustainable not just environmentally, but socially, economically and culturally. It will be located on the third- largest island in China, and will be responsible for producing its own energy, through wind, solar energy, bio-fuel and recycled city waste. A nice idea indeed, and if it works, it will provide a clear environmental model for the world. But sustainable communities such as these are not realistic models for countries like China, and it will probably be hundreds of years before anywhere is 100 per cent carbon neutral.

But what does any of this have to do with technology and engineering? Arguably one of the main criteria for any new product or building is that it must be green and come from a renewable source. It should protect the environment.

China is still adjusting to having been a massive consumer of coal over the past few decades. The new ways of harvesting renewable energy, and the technological breakthroughs we have made to do so, mean that China's government has to sit up and take notice, and implement change. All we need now is for the USA to have an environmental epiphany, something I suspect won't be happening any time soon.