Core77's Design For (Your) Product Lifetime Student Challenge is off and running. In its second installment, this challenge, focused on product design for durability and reparability, is the creative vision of many partners including Autodesk, iFixit, Makeshift Magazine and Core77.

Drawing on their knowledge of the principles and practice of sustainable design, Autodesk helped to identify the overall problem and opportunity that this challenge addresses. Design for durability, disassembly and repair are all strategies taught at the Autodesk® Sustainability Workshop, a free online resource that teaches basic sustainable engineering and design concepts. The free videos and tutorials make it easy for students to learn sustainability strategies that can be incorporated into the design process. Participants in this challenge (and all students) can leverage the resources and even use Autodesk software, downloadable for free, including Autodesk® Inventor® Fusion and Autodesk® Inventor® Publisher.

At the heart of this student challenge is the belief that designers can make a huge impact on a product's lifetime, and everyone should have the right to maintain and repair their products. iFixit is all about product maintenance and repair, empowering thousands of people everyday to repair their devices and hardware. As students, the founders Luke and Kyle started iFixit from their college dorm room in 2003. Their mission is the inspiration for this challenge, and their troubleshooting forums provide a huge resource for participants.

Makeshift Magazine is a quarterly print and online magazine about creativity and ingenuity. Through innovative dispatches from around the world, they document the enterprise of hackers, sharers, innovators and entrepreneurs. To support this challenge, Makeshift drew upon their understanding of the product lifecycle and the impact of electronic waste to create a cool and informative infographic that helps designers understand a clear path to their work.

Core77 works with communities, design associations, schools and individuals to facilitate the ongoing discourse around sustainable design. From featuring articles about sustainable design challenges and solutions, playing a key role in establishing The Designers Accord, sponsoring events such as AIGA SF's Compostmodern, hosting The Designers Accord Sustainability in 7 Video Series and producing the 2008 and 2009 Greener Gadgets Design Competitions, Core77 has long history of pushing the envelope on sustainability advocacy.

Check out all the resources and information from each of these partners in the tools and resources section in the sidebar and remember that the deadline for entries for The Design For (Your) Product Lifetime Student Challenge has been extended to November 15!