A focus on…Celebrations

The EPC has announced that the winner of the 2023 Hammermen David K. Harrison Student Prize is Charlie Wilson, 23, who has just graduated with a Distinction from his 5th year of an integrated Masters (MEng) in Product Design Engineering at Strathclyde. Charlie’s winning entry was a poster, aimed at “guiding designers through the process of picking solutions, while giving them information on a wide range of sustainable design practices”.

Charlie had made it through to the final shortlist of five students who each delivered a short pitch to Engineering academics attending the EPC’s Annual Congress at NMITE’s new Skylon Campus in Hereford, who then voted for the winner. The award and prize of £500 was presented by Dr Nina Baker OBE, DL, Deacon, of the Incorporation of Hammermen of Glasgow. The Hammermen Award has now been renamed the Hammermen David K. Harrison Award in memory of the EPC’s Honorary Secretary, who passed away last year, who had also served as a former Deacon of the Hammermen and had been instrumental in establishing the prize.

Congratulations to  Amelie Taylor, UWE Bristol, winner of the EPC Hammermen Student Award 2022.

These competitions received large numbers of submissions and five finalists were chosen in each year to compete for the coveted prize at the EPC Congress.

During the 2023 AGM Prof John Mitchell (UCL) took up his place as EPC President from 2023 to 2025, while Prof Mike Sutcliffe’s term as President came to an end. Prof Sutcliffe now takes up his place as Vice President for 2023 to 2024.

John E. Mitchell is Professor of Communications Systems Engineering in the UCL Department of Electronic and Electrical Engineering and Co-director of the UCL Centre for Engineering Education. Between 2012 and 2016 he was on secondment to the UCL Engineering Sciences Faculty office, where he led the introduction of the Integrated Engineering Programme. The team that led this major revision of the curriculum across the engineering faculty was awarded the HEA Collaborative Award for Teaching Excellence (CATE).

He has published widely on curriculum development, active learning and issues of diversity within engineering education. From 2015 to 2022 he was Vice-Dean Education of the UCL Faculty of Engineering Sciences.

Professor Mitchell is a Chartered Engineer, Fellow of the Institution of Engineering and Technology (IET), Senior Member of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), Principal Fellow of the Higher Education Academy, Member of the Board of the Engineering Professors’ Council, Member at Large of the Board of Governors of the IEEE Education Society and was until recently a Member of the Board of Directors of the European Society for Engineering Education (SEFI). He is currently Editor-in-Chief of the IEEE Transactions on Education.

During the 2023 AGM, elections were held for the positions of Honorary Treasurer and Honorary Secretary (following the sad passing of Prof David Harrison ) and three ordinary Board members. Prof Stephanie Haywood retained her position of Honorary Treasurer and Prof Colin Turner’s interim role as Honorary Secretary was conferred.

A new addition, Dr Matthew Studley will be joining as a new Board member alongside Prof Lisa Brodie and Prof Dave Allan who retained their positions on the Board in the AGM election. 

We are very proud to announce that Stella Fowler, the EPC’s own Research and Policy Director, has been granted the title of Honorary Research Fellow by University College London.

Among many other things, Stella is the brain behind most of the data analysis that the EPC provides for members (through the Data Explorer) and which adds weight to our reports, campaigns and consultation responses. She has also recently launched a series of ‘Data Dive’ webinar workshops to help members dig deeper into the rich seam of statistics that the EPC sources and analyses on their behalf each year.

Over the past year Stella has been working closely with UCL on a major research project for the Royal Academy of Engineering to understand the ‘state of the nation’ in terms of Engineering education. The honour from UCL recognises her invaluable contribution to this important work, which will be published in 2023.

Every two years, the EPC honours an individual who has made an outstanding contribution to engineering education and academia.

The 2022 President’s Prize was awarded to Dr Hayaatun Sillem CBE FIET, CEO of the Royal Academy of Engineering, for her exemplary contribution to the world of engineering. Prof Mike Sutcliffe, CEO of the EPC, presented Dr Sillem with this prize at the EPC’s Annual Congress 2022 dinner aboard the SS Great Britain.

Dr Sillem’s distinguished career includes roles at the Royal Academy of Engineering (RAEng), the Department for International Development, and the House of Commons Science and Technology Committee. She chairs the UK government’s Business Innovation Forum and serves as a trustee of various not-for-profit organisations, including EngineeringUK, the Foundation for Science and Technology and the St Andrews Prize for the Environment. Dr Sillem has also been named one of the ‘Inspiring 50 Women in Tech’ and won a Suffrage Science Award in 2021. Her contribution to national debates and policymaking has been wide-reaching and, in particular, Dr Sillem has been a driving force for expanding the diversity of the engineering profession. She was appointed Chief Executive of The Royal Academy of Engineering in 2018 and of The Queen Elizabeth Prize for Engineering in 2020. With Dr Sillem at the helm, the EPC’s close working relationship with RAEng has become ever stronger with partnerships on campaigning, on degree apprenticeships, and on engineering ethics. This most recent work gave rise to a toolkit produced by the EPC with the support of RAEng to embed ethical approaches in engineering education and practice.

In 2020, The Presidents’ Prize went to Professor John Perkins CBE FREng FIChemE FIMA FIET FCGI FRSA. Prof Colin Turner invited Professor John Perkins CBE to receive the award in and deliver an address as a live webcast in June 2020.

Until 2015, John Perkins was the Chief Science Adviser at the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS), before which he was Provost at the MASDAR Institute of Science & Technology in Abu Dhabi, leading the development of this new institution. His academic focus is as an expert on Process Systems Engineering and his career has spanned senior roles at the University of Manchester, Imperial College London, the University of Sydney and the University of Cambridge. He has served as President of the Institution of Chemical Engineers and Vice-President of the Royal Academy of Engineering. Among other companies and consultancy roles, he has worked for ICI and Shell and founded various spin-out start-ups. In 2006, he was awarded the CBE for services to engineering and science.

During the 2022 AGM during the EPC’s Annual Congress, elections were for the positions of Vice President and President Elect. and four ordinary Board members. Prof John Mitchell (UCL) was elected as Vice President and President Elect of the EPC, while Prof Colin Turner’s term as Vice President came to an end. Prof Mitchell is Professor of Communications Systems Engineering in the UCL Department of Electronic and Electrical Engineering and Vice-Dean Education in the UCL Faculty of Engineering Sciences.

A new addition, Dr Abel Nyamapfene will be joining as a new Board member alongside Prof Catherine Hobbs, Prof Mike Bramhall and Greg Rowsell who retained their positions on the Board in the AGM election. Dr Nyamapfene is Programme Director MSc Engineering & Education, Associate Professor (Teaching) at UCL.

Congratulations to Prof Mark Sandler (Queen Mary University of London), Prof Sarah Spurgeon (UCL), Prof Paul Conway (Loughborough University), Prof Jin Wang (Liverpool John Moores University) and Prof Rossi Setchi (Cardiff University) who were appointed to the Research Excellence Framework 2021 Engineering Sub panel 12 following the EPC nominations in 2020.