Royal Academy of Engineering

We were thrilled to celebrate so many exceptional engineers at our annual Awards Dinner last night. Hosted by broadcaster Krishnan Guru-Murthy, the ceremony saw us announce Google DeepMind as the winners of our MacRobert Award for UK engineering innovation, and provided an opportunity to present accolades to other 2024 awardees including: - Judith Hackitt, who received our President's Medal - Alalea Kia, Ruben Doyle, Ishara Dharmasena, Jamie Serjeant and Nikhila Ravi, our Young Engineers of the Year, supported by The Worshipful Company of Engineers. Alalea also took home the Sir George Macfarlane Medal - National Grid, whose team behind the Viking Link project received the Major Project Award for Sustainability - Dr. Shini Somara // BEng(Hons) EngD HonFIED, who received our Rooke Award - Jason Hallett, Daniel Jamieson, Katerina Spranger, PhD 🇺🇦 and Orr Yarkoni who received our Princess Royal Silver Medals - Sunamp and University of Oxford, AstraZeneca and partners, our MacRobert Award finalists The ceremony featured presenters including Vice Admiral Sir Tim Laurence KCVO CB, on behalf of the Academy’s Royal Fellow, HRH The Princess Royal. We were also pleased to hear an inspiring keynote address from Academy Fellow Juergen Maier CBE FRS. Congratulations to all of our winners, and huge thanks to everyone who attended and took part in the event. See the full list of winners, and find out more about why they have been recognised, on our website: https://lnkd.in/g9BXkKFc #RAEngAwards #MacRobertAward #AwardeeExcellence

Google DeepMind's GraphCast weather forecasting technology, which could help mitigate the impacts of severe weather events, optimise resource allocation, and support critical decision-making across various industries, has won the 2024 MacRobert Award, the UK’s top award for engineering innovation. The team behind GraphCast were presented with the MacRobert Award gold medal and a £50,000 prize at our Awards Dinner on 9 July. Google DeepMind’s innovation represents a revolution in weather forecasting, using machine-learning instead of traditional numerical weather prediction methodologies. The AI-powered tool uses cutting-edge machine learning algorithms and vast data sets to give highly accurate and timely weather predictions up to ten days in advance. The model currently takes just 45 seconds to generate a forecast that would take more traditional forecasting methods over an hour on a supercomputer; a developmental leap that has advanced weather forecasting significantly. Supported by The Worshipful Company of Engineers, the MacRobert Award is the UK's longest-running and most prestigious national prize for engineering innovation. Congratulations to all the team at Google DeepMind. Find out more about their award-winning innovation: https://lnkd.in/ecKddvhD #MacRobertAward #RAEngAwards #AI #WeatherForecasting

We're delighted to reveal the winners of our 2024 Princess Royal Silver Medals. The award recognises outstanding personal contributions to UK engineering by early to mid-career engineer resulting in market exploitation. The winners will be presented with their medals at our annual Awards Dinner which takes place today, 9 July. - Professor Jason Hallett, Imperial College London, has developed environmentally-friendly and economical solvent-based chemical processes for large-scale industries. - Dr Daniel Jamieson founded Biorelate Ltd., a cutting-edge tech-bio startup at the forefront of using data science to revolutionise pharmaceutical research. - Dr Katerina Spranger founded Oxford Heartbeat to increase the safety and accuracy of brain implant surgeries through AI software. - Dr Orr Yarkoni, Colorifix, was a major contributor to the development of biological textile dyeing as a replacement for toxic and wasteful chemical processes. Congratulations to our winners. Find out more: https://lnkd.in/evtPUzeT Image description: Collage showing the four winners of the 2024 Princess Royal Silver Medal. Clockwise from top-left: Professor Jason Hallett, Dr Daniel Jamieson, Dr Orr Yarkoni, Dr Katerina Spranger

We are proud to announce our newest Higher Education Partnerships in sub-Saharan Africa (HEP SSA) awardees. Our experts have projects spanning collaboration on industrial applications for rice husk particles to transforming engineering curricula through industry collaboration. HEP SSA is supporting eight projects in five countries this year, with ODA funding under the UK government’s International Science Partnership Fund. Grant recipients have been awarded up to £100,000 for one-year projects. Each project sees a partnership between a minimum of three spoke universities and one UK Higher Education Institution partner. The awardees are: • Prof. Amos Omamo, Meru University of Science and Technology (MUST), Abubakar Tafawa Balewa University, Bahir Dar University, Lagos State University and University of the West of Scotland • SAGALA FARAD, Ph.D, Mbarara University of Science & Technology, Makerere University, Abubakar Tafawa Balewa University, University of Namibia, Cape Peninsula University of Technology and Imperial College London • Karen Le Jeune, University of Cape Town, University of Johannesburg, University of Botswana, Namibia University of Science and Technology, University of the West of England, Cardiff University / Prifysgol Caerdydd, ECSA, Mintek and The Chartered Institute of Building (CIOB) • Professor Kelleh Mansaray, University of Sierra Leone, Fourah Bay College, University de Cheikh Antar Diop, Eastern Technical University, University of Energy and Natural Resources, Imperial College London, Engineers for Change (Sierra Leone) and Sierra Leone Institute of Engineers • Dr Grace Mukondeleli Kanakana-Katumba, Tshwane University of Technology, Cape Peninsula University of Technology, Durban University of Technology, University of South Africa/Universiteit van Suid-Afrika, King's College London, Aston University, University of Warwick and naamsa | The Automotive Business Council • Dr Shadrack Sabai, Ardhi University (ARU), The Water Institute, The University of Dar es Salaam, The Nelson Mandela African Institute of Science and technology, University of Cambridge, Majicom and Ekihya • Dr Stephen Mukiibi, Makerere University, The University of Johannesburg, The University of Cape Town, Kyambogo University, The Copperbelt University, Liverpool John Moores University and actogether • Professor Tilahun Workneh, University of KwaZulu-Natal, University of the Free State, The University of Venda, The University of Zimbabwe, Fort Cox College of Agriculture and Forestry Training Institute, Lincoln Institute for Agri-Food Technology, MBB Consulting Engineers and Agricultural Engineering at Agricultural Research Council. Read more about our awardees and their projects: https://lnkd.in/evJziHaA #AfricaEngineers

It's not long now until we announce the winner of the 2024 MacRobert Award. From groundbreaking AI-powered weather forecasting, to innovative heat batteries using phase-changing materials and the rapid manufacturing scale-up of a Covid vaccine, find out why our judges have selected Google DeepMind, Sunamp, and University of Oxford, AstraZeneca and partners as this year's finalists: https://lnkd.in/deY73fpD

🌍🌟Celebrating a decade of driving global innovation. For 10 years, LIF has supported bold, talented entrepreneurs from around the globe who are tackling some of the most critical challenges of our time. In its ten-year history, LIF has supported over 1,400 #InnovationLeaders (35% of which identify as women), who have created over 6,791 skilled jobs in LIF-supported companies, and incorporated 225 new companies. Join us as we celebrate the impact that our programme has had in striving for a more inclusive and sustainable future, and showcase some of the innovators who are leading the way in making it happen. To find out more: https://bit.ly/LIF10 Alt text: A GIF with an orange and red gradient background reads: "What has LIF achieved in 10 years?", followed by "1,400 innovators supported" "who have gone on to create..." "6,791 skilled jobs" and "225 new companies", ending with the LIF 10-year logo.

We're thrilled to announce our five RAEng Engineers Trust Young Engineers of the Year for 2024, supported by The Worshipful Company of Engineers. The entrepreneurs, researchers and professional engineers are all demonstrating outstanding success in their fields. Each will receive a £3,000 prize and will be presented with a certificate at our annual Awards Dinner on 9 July. Of the five, we also celebrate an overall winner who receives the Academy’s Sir George Macfarlane Medal. - Senior Lecturer at Loughborough University, Dr Ishara Dharmasena , is a leading theorist developing 'super-smart textiles’ that convert body movements into electrical signals. - Dr Ruben Doyle, CEO at Additive Instruments Ltd, has invented and commercialised a surgical hip replacement. Ruben’s device helps surgeons to prepare the bone and place the implant reducing the risk of bone fracture. - Research Engineering Manager at Meta, Nikhila Ravi, co-led the Segment Anything project, which has applied AI tools to a wide range of image-based tasks, from photo editing to radiology scans. - Jamie Serjeant, Senior Design Engineer at Occuity, has developed a new tool that could manage myopia by non-invasive measurement of the length of the eyeball. - Dr Alalea Kia is our overall winner and winner of the Sir George Macfarlane Medal. Alalea is recognised for her work developing a patented concrete pavement called Kiacrete which will help to alleviate climate change and urbanisation challenges. Congratulations to all our winners. Discover more about their achievements: https://lnkd.in/esnD6_mu

From a children's book series exploring engineering careers to schoolchildren, to professional development for engineers on urban development principles, we are delighted to announce our Africa Catalyst phase 5 awardees. Africa Catalyst is supporting six projects in five countries this year, with ODA funding under the UK government’s new International Science Partnership Fund. Grant recipients have been awarded up to £100,000 for one-year projects and knowledge sharing activities to support professional engineering institutions in sub-Saharan Africa. Each project sees a partnership between a minimum of one local industry partner, and one UK partner. The experts and organisations awarded this year are: • Cecilie Uwimana with "Empowering professional engineers for career success", Institute of Engineers Rwanda, Engineers Against Poverty, Tasks Africa • GRACE WANJIHIA with "Engineering excellence alliance - strengthening engineering professionalism, capacity building and growing engineering talents for sustainable development in sub-Saharan Africa", Institute of Engineers Kenya, University of the West of Scotland, Meru University of Science and Technology (MUST), Association of Professional Women Engineers of Nigeria (APWEN) - LAGOS CHAPTER • Immaculate Akello with "Strengthening the institutional framework of UIPE to advance the contribution of engineering professionals to innovate value chain in Uganda", Uganda Institution of Professional Engineers- UIPE (Official), University of West Scotland, Innovent Labs Africa • Professor Jeff Smithers with "Raising public awareness and the profile of agricultural engineering to grow and sustain the agricultural engineering professional engineering bodies in Africa", The South African Institute of Agricultural Engineers, Institute of Agricultural Engineers, Kenya Society of Environmental, Biological and Agricultural Engineers, The Pan African Society for Agricultural Engineering • Michelle Rutendo Sibongile Maphosa, PMP® with "Catching them young through Sibo the Engineer Project", South African Federation of Engineering Organisations, Commonwealth Engineering Council, STEM explorerz, Teain60 • Jack Campbell Clause with "Integrated and inclusive infrastructure framework (3iF) - phase 3: professional development for Kenyan engineers on urban development principles, tactics and design", Imperial College London, Institute of Engineers Kenya, Architectural Association of Kenya (AAK), Arup East Africa Limited Read more about our awardees and their projects here: https://lnkd.in/ejQv7BdD #AfricaEngineers

Our 2024 President's Medal, for significant contributions to the Academy's aims and work, is awarded to Dame Judith Hackitt. Dame Judith is recognised in the UK and internationally as a leader in chemical and systems engineering and engineering safety. Following the Grenfell Tower disaster, she led an Independent Review of Building Regulations and Fire Safety, making a series of radical and demanding recommendations which have been implemented to address serious issues across the construction industry, clients, investors and government. She was elected a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering in 2010 and has made a deep and sustained contribution to our work ever since. As a Trustee and Chair of our External Affairs Committee she fostered the launch of the major This is Engineering campaign, changing young people's perceptions of the engineering prefession and encouraging them to consider it as a career. Over the last five years, she has chaired the steering group for our Safer Complex Systems mission, forming an important part of the #EngineeringX collaboration established with Lloyd's Register Foundation. Find out more about Dame Judith Hackitt's career, and why judges selected her as this year's winner: https://lnkd.in/ewbkCTK7

A record-breaking electricity interconnector that enables the UK and Denmark to share renewable energy for the first time - congratulations to National Grid's Viking Link, which wins our 2024 Major Project Award for Sustainability. Denmark’s power generation is primarily from wind power, which complements the UK’s own renewable energy mix. When there is a surplus of Danish wind power and high UK demand, the link means that renewable power can be quickly and flexibly imported to the UK via the high voltage direct current interconnector - enough to power up to 2.5 million homes. When the UK’s demand is low, Viking Link distributes the power across Denmark, ensuring secure, affordable and sustainable electricity for both countries. At 475 miles (765 km), Viking Link is the longest land and subsea interconnector in the world. The £1.7 billion project to construct it began in 2020, with the completed link moving into commercial operations in December 2023. Find out more about the project, its impacts, and why judges selected it as this year's winner: https://lnkd.in/eXHAfVep