BrightSparks - Class of 2022

For the fifth year, we teamed up with Electronics Weekly to find the brightest and most talented young engineers in the UK for BrightSparks 2022.

We were looking for those that are already making a difference in the first years of their working life, or who are still studying but are showing the promise to become the person behind the next big innovations.

RS and Electronics Weekly believe that by celebrating the achievements of the most talented young people in the engineering world we can help inspire new entrants to the industry. We know there is a skills gap in this sector and along with the UK government and other organisations, we are committed to encouraging a greater take-up in schools and universities of STEM and engineering-related subjects.

Awards Day 2022

On Friday 17th June those selected as the winners of the 2022 awards and those who had also been selected in 2020, but were unable to meet due to COVID-19 restrictions, came together at the IET headquarters in London to celebrate and collect their trophies.

On a gloriously sunny day in the UK's capital, Yewande Akinola presented the awards, supported by RS Group plc CEO Lindsley Ruth, RS Grass Roots VP Isabella Mascarenhas and Richard Watts, MD of Emap and group publisher for Electronics Weekly.

There were also inspirational key note talks from BrightSparks alumni Nathan Ruttley and Nadja Yang, President of European Young Engineers and part of this year's judging panel.

BRIGHTSPARKS - CLASS OF 2022

We would like to say a huge congratulations to all of this year's recipients, who were selected by our judges from across the industry as the top young engineers in the country.

The 2022 winners are:

ALBERTO PROGIDA

Mechanical Engineering Student, University of Edinburgh

Alberto is the Systems Lead at Endeavour, the University of Edinburgh's rocketry team. Responsible for the development of Darwin III, he led the Endeavour sub-team in the development of a modular payload able to accommodate different mission profiles aboard three different launchers.

He won the Mach-21 CanSat competition and represented the UK at the European Rocketry Challenge in Portugal 2021, and interned as a Testing Engineer at Rocket Factory Augsburg (RFA) in Germany, working on pressurised systems and hardware like Swagelok, AN, and BSP fittings. The CubeSat used in EuRoC 21 contained advanced electronics including GPS, 433MHz radio and pyrotechnic squibs, which would enable the vehicle to be recovered independently from the main launch vehicle.

AMY SUDDARDS

PhD student in radio astronomy technologies, University of Manchester

Amy has completed her MPhil project, "Optimising the Performance of Wideband Low Noise Amplifiers for Radio Astronomy Applications", involving the development of high frequency waveguide-to-microstrip transition designs for use alongside Indium Phosphide MMIC-based LNA chips.

She was recently invited to present her design and model improvement work to the millimetre wave group at STFC’s Rutherford Appleton Laboratory in Harwell due to collaborative involvement in manufacturing the project designs.

As well as design work, Amy has been a key member of the team working in the lab to test and characterise LNAs and ancillary components, working independently with both cryogenic and room temperature testing systems to deliver accurate measurements for project deadlines.

ANA CLAUDIA REIS

Senior Software Engineer, Imagination Technologies

As part of the application programming interface (API) team at Imagination, Ana works together with engineers and developers to deliver APIs for neural networks that run on different platforms. This helps drive optimisation for the networks as well as thesoftware execution.

She has taken part in Imagination’s STEM outreach programme at Kings Langley. This is aimed at schools and provides students with the opportunity to learn coding with Lego robots through live workshops. It has had great feedback from teachers and students.

She has also been learning to manage a??team efficiently and effectively. Filling in a??gap in leadership has meant having more visibility in senior planning meetings and needing to understand how to manage resources on broader timescales.

ARTURAS MATUSEVICIUS

MSc Electronic??Power Engineering??St?udent,??University??of Northumbria Newcastle upon Tyne

His nominator said Arturas is one of the most talented young engineers in the UK, and one of the most motivated engineering students that he had encountered, with a high level of aptitude and diligence in electronic power engineering.

His specialism is in the future of battery technology and their potential for greater energy sustainability. He can master engineering design and think creatively, as well as write very clearly about abstract engineering concepts for a public audience.

Arturas has carried out a comprehensive review of the current state of battery technology which has directly strengthened the growing collaborative R&D activity of research staff at Northumbria University and battery giant British Volt.

CALLUM MIDDLETON

Senior Packaging Materials Engineer, CSA Catapult

His nominator at the CSA (Compound Semiconductor Applications) Catapult said has been an example of professionalism and made exceptional contributions to the projects he has worked on, displaying a ‘can do’ attitude and leading on four projects.

Projects he has worked on include: an RF GaN diamond demonstrator, growing crystalline diamond on silicon substrates for space, a high reliability optical source for space-based quantum sensing, and a power inverter module for electric vehicles.

He has been involved in designing an educational toolkit that will be used to educate school kids about electronics, specifically their medical applications. This allows it??to be used in biology lessons and should broaden interest in electronics.

CHARLOTTE FITZPATRICK

Digital and Technology Solutions Degree Apprentice, BT

Charlotte led on the Remote PC access project to enable hundreds of employees to access their computers remotely due to coronavirus. She was responsible for installing and troubleshooting the new application used to remotely access PCs in the office.

She worked with the STEM ambassador organisation and came up with the idea of hosting a Myth busting video to spread awareness of STEM apprenticeships and address common stereotypes surrounding them. This was pre-recorded and hosted on YouTube.

She has mentored over 30 students as part of the FastFutures and ELEVATE programmes, alongside mentoring my own class from St Columbus school on a??weeklybasis as part of an initiative run by ELEVATE.

DAISY BRISTOW

Digital Engineer and Content Creator/Student,?University of the West of England

Daisy's work spans education materials, videos and interviews with Q&As, all aiming to educate and inspire the next generation of STEM cohorts and develop people's understanding of engineering principles.

She has created videos and tutorials that teach children, at primary school ages andlower secondary school, how they can use tools in Minecraft to emulate what they arelearning about real world engineering.

DAVID KONG

MEng Electronics and Electrical Engineering Student, University of Edinburgh

During an internship at ON Semi, David wrote firmware for an automotive image sensor and developed some tools for image sensor testing, and at Imagination, he developed performance models for different processor components.

He co-founded Robocean a subsea robotics start-up company developing a robot to restore seagrass (which excels in capturing carbon dioxide) and the project won the NTT wildcard prize at the Red Bull Basement Competition.

David has been awarded a range of scholarships, including The Royal Academy of Engineering (RAEng) Engineering Leaders Scholarship, and won both the NEC Semiconductor Prize and the Alasdair Sutherland Prize at the University of Edinburgh.

DR EJAY NSUGBE

Founder and Chief Engineer, Nsugbe Research Labs

Ejay has shown scientific entrepreneurship by founding Nsugbe Research Labs where his work has applied AI technology to innovate in different aspects of modern medicine, helping to improve technology affordability where practitioners are constrained. For example, Gesture Recognition for Prosthesis Control Using Wearable Sensing, addressing transhumeral amputees (the largest Upper-Limb amputee cohort in the UK).

It remains challenging to design bionic upper-limb prosthesis due to the poor signal quality from the residual stump. Dr Ejay attempted to resolve this via ergonomic and affordable wearable sensors alongside signal processing and Machine Learning methods for an intelligent control system to solve the gesture motion recognition to facilitate prosthesis control.

DR ETHAN GARDNER

R&D Engineer, Flusso

Ethan has developed into the company’s lead engineer developing gas sensing technology using thermal conductivity, using the sensors and knowledge developed during his PhD (developing technology for CMOS MEMS flow sensors).

Filing two patents and co-authoring on seven, he won the award for IEEE Best Paper at the 2017 International Semiconductor Conference (CAS) in Romania for his pioneering work on 2D and 3D thermal flow sensor modelling.

During his PhD studentship at University of Cambridge, he helped guide several undergraduate research projects and helped with laboratory practical demonstrations, particularly in microcontroller programming.

ECE ERKAN

Electrical and Electronic?Engineering Student, University of Sheffield

Ece's academic success has been recognised by her department and she was awarded the EEE Faculty Undergraduate Bursary for her academic achievement in the first two years of her degree.

She is part of a student-led project Project Marsworks working on the design and development of a??Mars rover to compete at the European Rover Challenge. She's been in charge of the team's documentation and communications. In her placement, at Perkin Elmer's R&D department, she is working on PCB design and has completed successful delivery of various boards such as illumination boards, motor driver boards and optical detection boards.

JACK TUFFT

Mechanical Engineering MEng Student,?University of Glasgow

Jack is the founder of GU Rocketry, the University of Glasgow’s student-led rocket development programme. Since 2020, the project has grown from a small group of under graduates to now having over ninety members in a range of technical and non-technical roles.

The team has three main goals: the Saltire rocket programme, the Chimera hybrid engine development programme, and outreach. The Saltire rocket family began withSaltire-1, reaching an altitude of just over 5000ft and was fully recovered.Chimera-1 is the project's hybrid rocket engine that is currently being developed and is scheduled to be hot fired this summer. GU Rocketry is the only student-led team in Scotland, and one of few in the United Kingdom, to attempt ground-up rocket engine development.

JANESH LUXIMAN

Year 3 BEng Biomedical Engineering student, King’s College London

Janesh obtained 80% in the final year group Mechatronics project. Its theme was an environment monitor, with the Arduino project monitoring five sensors measuring temperature and humidity, turbidity, ultrasonic, TDS (Total Dissolved Solids) and water quality.

He also created a Water Quality Monitoring and Notification System. It??simulated a??reservoir system with water sensor, pH sensor, turbidity sensor and a notification system for when the water level is low and to make sure the water is safe.

Janesh also created an NGO in his home country of Mauritius, to give one-to-one tuition to needy students by finding appropriate volunteers.

JESSICA READING

Engineering Degree Apprentice, Siemens PLC

Jessica's key responsibilities at Siemens Congleton include managing a??new assembly-station, supporting Value Stream 2 with any production issues and acting as LEAN in-Office coordinator, whereby team savings targets must be met.

She also acts as a STEM Ambassador, YAAN and WISE member, tutor GCSE students in mathematics and focus mainly on promoting equal opportunity, continuous learning, and diversity and inclusion, and?hopes to continue to inspire and empower others to learn about the sector.

Throughout a four-day hackathon, Jessica and the team designed, simulated, built and tested a manufacturing aid to reduce the calibration time of a ventilator from 40minutes to 2 minutes. The contribution enabled the ventilator peak production to exceed 400 devices a day.

MIHAI CIORTUZ

IC Engineer, Crypto Quantique

Mihai had to learn fast at this quantum-driven analogue semiconductor IP startup, getting to grips with some of the industry’s most advanced design tools and helping to significantly increase the company's design productivity.

Throughout his short time with the company, his colleagues have been deeply impressed by his ability to learn quickly, identify gaps in his knowledge and correct them. He is described as 'incredibly hard-working'

.Mihai joined Crypto Quantique as an analogue IC design intern, but his talents were quickly recognised and he progressed to becoming a??graduate IC engineer and then a fully-fledged IC Engineer within a year of graduating.

MIHAI DANIEL IVANESCU

Graduate Software Engineer, Imagination Technologies

For his dissertation for Computer Hardware and Software Engineering, Mihai created a microcontroller-based circuit as a low-cost solution to the problem of e-waste, specifically the waste of old television sets.

The project used a customised PCB with an ESP32 MCU, featuring PS/2 keyboard input, VGA video and headphone jack audio. As proof of concept, the interface featured a??news feed, internet radio, and an app downloader. The apps were a??weather tracker and Tetris.

He helped create an engineering student society at university to take full advantage of the utilities that they had in the labs. The goal was to make the labs easily accessible by holding regular meetings and helping people work on their own projects.

MOHAMED ELRAYAH

Student,?Southampton University

In an electronic engineering design module, Mohamed was responsible for designing the schematic and layout for a ring oscillator circuit and building a clock divider circuit using D-Type Flip Flops for output.

As secretary of a 300+ member student-led society, he was responsible for organising weekly meetings and during the pandemic helped organise high-attendance virtual events, such as a Bloomberg mental health work shop.

In a 2020 Disaster Recovery Hackathon his tram placed 2nd overall, using an Arduino kit to create a DIY capacitor to weigh supplies, and an algorithm to calculate the number of supplies and alert when more were needed.

NISHIKA CHETTRY

MEng Student / Embedded systems soft ware developer, Aston University /Renesas Electronics

Nishika, a??UKESF Scholar in a??placement at Reneseas, is developing secure boot ROMs for microprocessors, including an automated test system using Python, which has an interactive GUI and automates 80% of the process.

She has won the HKP Burt Memorial prize and the IMI Prize, and been involved with a STEM superhero campaign at Aston University. She has also been involved in the ‘Girlsinto Electronics’ to promoting electronics to sixth-formers. She has helped UKESF develop a beginner electronics course for sixth form students, aiming to prepare them for study in higher education.

OANA LAZAR

MEng Electronic?Engineering with I ndustrial Studies Student,?University of Southampton

During her placement with Tessent Embedded Analytics, Oana successfully worked on a??new product called the Embedded Software Development Kit (ESDK), satisfying a??key design requirement for ESDK through creating a low-level C library.

She has been a Coordinator for Invent Plus, an incubator project from Southampton’s branch of Student Hubs, a??national charity that shares engineering with school children from disadvantaged backgrounds, helping bridge the STEM inequality gap.

Contributing >37,000 lines of code to ESDK, she raised the standard of documentation for the project, reviewed technical and customer-facing documentation, and actively looked for opportunities to engage with larger parts of the company and beyond.

OLIVER KANJOO-PARSONS

Student / Student Team Director, Salford Racing, University of Salford

Oliver has worked as Salford Racing Team Director, helping to design, develop and build a single seater race car to compete at the IMechE Formula Student competition, impressed people with his leadership skills.

To help young people from diverse and low income communities access higher education, he has been involved with the GM Higher programme, showing how to convert interest in video games into careers in motorsports via engineering and computer sciences.

Studying Aeronautical Engineering, his skill set includes, a strong understanding of mathematics, manufacturing, 3D modelling, CFD simulation, FEA, MATLAB, CAD, CAM, Project Management, Generative Design and MS Office.

SAMRUDHI INAMDAR

MSc Astronautic s and Space Engineering Student,?Cranfield University

Samrudhi has worked as a research fellow at the Indian Space Society, championing green/environment-friendly technologies for future satellite communication, demonstrating her commitment to sustainability within the Space Engineering sector.

She has been a key member of the Communications and Onboard Data Handling Subsystem in the Electrical Work package for the Group Design Project "HoneyMoon",the design of an experiment to study the survival and reproduction of bees in space.

She also designed key systems for handling onboard data between the electronics and the ground segment, and designed communication systems between the space craftand the ground station to downlink video footage of the behaviour of bees in space.

SARAH COOPER

Senior Hardware Engineer, Leonardo, via Zavi

Sarah has been involved in a wide array of activities, spanning production support of Leonardo's existing counter-measure systems, through to early concept design of next generation aircraft technology.

A big achievement was her involvement in complex EMC design and testing for a valuable customer. She was the main hardware engineer completing this work package and helped achieve successful results for the project.

She was instrumental in setting up and leading a STEM team onsite, to conduct outreach in the community. She has co-ordinated multiple events such as Ada Lovelace Day and International Women in Engineering Day.

SARAH KEANE

Field Applications Engineer, ADI

In response to the pandemic, Sarah created the ADI UK internship program to give students a chance to gain experience of the industry. She spearheaded the initiative, engaging with colleagues and universities to help establish its framework.

She went on to manage and mentor the interns, which resulted in several joining the company as Graduate engineers upon completion of their studies and she continues to manage and mentor all new European graduates.

She was also a committee member on ADI's Young Professional Network for Europe, an inclusive network of early career professionals at that fosters connection and camaraderie while also helping its members with their professional development.

SERGIO MIGUEZ APARICIO

MEng Hons Electronics and Computer Science Student,?University of Edinburgh

Sergio has developed two Energy Harvesting patents focused on zero power consumption communication. One of them has finished the patenting process and is expected, by STMicroelecrotrics, to make a strong impact in IoT.

President & Co-Founder of the humanoid robotics society at the University of Edinburgh, he has worked in the field of robotic limbs, exoskeletons, bipedal motion and AI. An Electronics Engineer for Edinburgh's Hyperloop team.

SHARON KUDENKO

Photonic s Engineering Intern / Student,?CSA CATAPULT / University of Bristol

Sharon has shown extraordinary skills in mid-high-level software and has applied these techniques to automate photonics and RF testing, her nominator from the CSA(Compound Semiconductor Applications) Catapult told us.

For STEM, she developed an activity using an optical tweezers test-kit to enrich students’ understanding of A-level physics and engage students in the field of optoelectronics, exposing students to the field of photonics at a deciding moment in their career paths.

For example, Sharon proactively worked on GUI development for testing photonics and RF devices with electricity/TEC control. This work promotes easy and wide accessibility to high-standard testing setups for all engineers.

SHROUK EL-ATTAR

Lead Senior Electronics Engineer, emm Technology

Shrouk is the Lead Senior Electronics Engineer at emm Technology working on smart menstrual health solutions that are more inclusive to transgender people and other under-represented communities in tech.

For her master's thesis, she created a machine to use new methods of detecting organic compounds including certain cancers based on electron quantum spin, research that moves towards replacing bulky and expensive ESR machines.

During lockdown, she created and hosted the engineering podcast Badass Engineers where she introduced the world to an amazingly diverse group of engineers including the CEO of a FemTech organisation and a quantum physicist ballerina.

SIMON A. BETTS

MEng Electrical and Electronic?Engineering Student,?Cardiff University

Simon, while studying for his Master's degree, has started his own company, been a student representative for UKESF, been a student mentor, and been President of the university's electronics and technology society.

Among other STEM work, he developed a project that looks to teach students about measuring the blood oxygen level of an individual through an optical sensor. He also organised a STEM awareness event in Cardiff for parents and children.

Atlantic Innovations' first product is an autonomous race series that will see teams from across the world pitted against each other to develop AI to navigate a car around a real-world race circuit.

TOM CULLEY

Networks Degree Apprentice, BT

Since joining BT’s Networks team in 2018, Tom has not only taken on technical challenges and improved processes as an Apprentice but has been a huge advocate for STEM Apprenticeships, both inside BT and out.

He has been recognised for his outstanding efforts with a certificate of merit from TechUK and was invited to speak with the Secretary of State for Education, with other BT Apprentices, at No. 10 Downing Street.

He recently won BT's CTO Award for co-designing and running a wellbeing campaign called “Service Platforms Showdown” which aimed to motivate colleagues and their families to take part in weekly activities with colleagues.

VIRGINIA CANGELOSI

Electrical and Electronics Engineering Student,?University of Edinburgh

Having taken part in Huawei’s Seeds for the Future programme, Virginia was also part of the team winning the Mach-21 CanSat competition and representing the UK at the European Rocketry Challenge (EuRoC) in Portugal.

She was responsible for the development of a CanSat payload for Edinburgh University's Endeavour rocket designed to investigate fluid sloshing and particle interactions in the atmosphere.

WILLIAM LEE MILLAR

Senior Fellow, The European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN)

William has a PhD in RF Engineering with Lancaster University as part of the CERN Doctoral Student Programme, based at CERN, and an MEng in Nuclear Engineering(First Class Honours) at Lancaster University, winning 2021 UKESF 'Scholar of the Year'.

His community engagement includes regularly organising and providing tours of CERN'S Compact Linear Collider (CLIC) test facility for students at various stages in their education and participating in an outreach event by Lancaster University titled “Discover Engineering: Engineers and Particles”.

He is the winner of the Lancaster University Outstanding PhD Achievement Award, and of the IMechE Best Project Certificate for his MEng dissertation which covered the design, build, and test of an electron linear accelerator and recipient of an IET Diamond Jubilee Academic Scholarship.

BRIGHTSPARKS - CLASS OF 2020

Congratulations also to the Class of 2020, who we finally had the pleasure of meeting.

The 2020 winners are:

AAKASH BANSAL

PhD Electrical Electronic?and System Engineering, Loughborough University

Aakash has shown extraordinary skills with 3D designing and electromagnetic simulations. He is presently working on developing a novel antenna system to enable wireless communication at millimetre-wave frequency bands for 5G.

Along with his research on “Active Beam Steerable Antenna Array for 5G and Future IoT Devices”, he’s promoting STEM Education in the community with the support of the IEEE, Rotary Foundation and Loughborough Student Union.

AMBER O’CONNOR

Equipment?Health?Monitoring & Performance Engineer and Remote Diagnostic Services Programme Manager, Siemens Aeroderivative Gas Turbines

Amber is responsible for managing an engine fleet of 180 units worldwide, which covers any arising connection and hardware issues, assigning resources for problem resolution and managing multiple workload priorities.

She is heavily involved in improving the workplace culture, forming the ‘Press for Progress Committee’ which looks at tackling key issues within the workplace such as flexible working, parental leave and cultural behaviours.

ANNA HART

Graduate Electronics Engineer, Leonardo

She is making a big impact on a project to redesign a current radar product, working with electromagnetic simulation models, trying to optimise various parameters of the antenna design, such as the dimensions of the radiating element.

She has also been very involved with STEM projects introducing young children to coding with the use of handmade enigma machines. She also helps organise a work experience week for pupils to experience workplace engineering.

ELVIS TINAGO

Student / MEng Aerospace Engineering, University of West of England Bristol

Elvis was the first engineering student at UWE to receive the prestigious Royal Academy of Engineering’s ‘Engineering Leadership Scholarship’ awarded to 30students across the UK with potential to become engineering leaders.

He volunteered full-time for a??year with the educational charity, City Year UK. In his role as Peer Mentor, he mentored and encouraged young people from inner city schools in Birmingham into STEM careers.

JAMES IMBER

Senior Research Engineer, Imagination Technologies

James has contributed to 20 patent applications, several of them granted. His paper ‘Intrinsic Textures for Relightable Free Viewpoint Video’ presents an approach to estimate the intrinsic texture properties of scenes.

Described by management as an excellent team player, he’s instigated collaborative work within Imagination and is involved in its STEM outreach programme, visiting local schools and talking about his engineering experiences.

JORDAN ALBUTT

Manufacturing Leadership Engineering Degree Apprentice, Rolls-?Royce /University of Warwick

Jordan was tasked with re-writing inspection programs for a machine that inspects solder paste deposits to support a newly introduced manufacturing process. The inspection machines now run correctly with no false calls.

Participating in a?variety of STEM events within his time as an apprentice, he become a STEM ambassador. His company’s Operations Executive asked him to the lead the organisation of a STEM event at the WMG Academy for Young Engineers.

KATHERINE SCOTT

TV & Digital Media Degree Apprentice at BT

Katherine has contributed to BT’s large scale Athena project, building FTP servers to create test versions of network setups. She currently monitors and supports the servers behind BT’s Video on Demand platform.

Inspired to champion apprenticeships, she is working closely with BT’s HR and making improvements to its application process – challenging bias and recruiting people who demonstrate eagerness to learn, even if they may lack in technical knowledge.

KYLE WALKER

PhD Student Underwater Robotic s, University of Edinburgh

For his PhD in Underwater Robotics, Kyle is designing a control system to predict waves before they occur, so that it can be used on autonomous underwater vehicles to ensure they remain stationary in rough seas.

He helped create an affordable prosthetic hand, designing the electronic system in the form of a four layer PCB, which receives signals, via electromyography, to be processed by the onboard MCU for movement of DC motors for the fingers.

MARNIE MCKAY

Graduate Engineer, Atkins

At Atkins, Marnie designs the electrical track equipment aspects of rail installations, developing simulation models for new or extended rail/tram lines, which help to automate the set-up of model data and extract results.

She also spent a study year at Nanyang Technological University, Singapore where, in addition to learning introductory Chinese, she completed a dissertation on wireless communications at Rolls Royce’s corporate research labs.

OLIVIA OJUROYE

Product Specialist, The Wearable Tech Hub

Olivia’s PhD involved developing a commercially viable sensing and washable capacitive proximity and touch sensing circuitry for yarn-based e-textiles, wearable technology, and other industrial applications.

A specialist in AI algorithms being applied to audiovisual databases, she got the chance to work on an EU-funded audio visual database project (Presto4U) using PHP and SQL to enhance an AI algorithm’s data insights.

RODOSTHENIS CHARALAMPOUS

Industrial PhD??Researcher /??Electrical and??El?ectronic?Engineering, National?Nuclear Laboratory / The University of Manchester

Rodosthenis’ doctoral project is “Communication Localisation using Underwater Acoustics” and he researches the use of underwater communications within confined environments, for use with ROVs and spent fuel decommissioning activities.

A summer research internship, supporting the Hallé Orchestra, investigated the capabilities of an Intel SoC for future designs of robotic musical instruments for the “Manchester Robot Orchestra” educational project.

TOM O’BRIEN

TV and Digital??Media Apprentice at BT

Tom was entrusted with updating the security on the BT Sport app, which has a reach of up to 1??million customers, and innovating processes on a??multi-billion valued network, changing the configuration of the production version of the app.

He also oversaw the completion of the Radius Migration project, which saw the migration of 40 offshore devices and accounts on BT’s Global Media Network onto anew administration platform for better device security.

TYLER WARD

Senior Engineer, Audioscenic

During his PhD, Tyler helped produce Erica the Rhino, a piece of interactive artwork which was used to promote rhino conservation and to support Southampton University’s electronics and computer science outreach activities.

Tyler discovered an issue with the Raspberry Pi 4’s Type-C power connector, widely covered by the media, when reviewing the schematics of the Pi upon release to investigate available features. He documented the issue and wrote a technical analysis.

ADAM WILSON

Embedded Electronic s Engineer, Centre for Process Innovation (CPI) UK

At Glasgow’s King George V dock, Adam commissioned and tested a control system for remotely controlling and monitoring auxiliary systems (generators, pumps) on a prototype renewably-powered buoy.

His main hobby is the restoration of 1980s 8-bit computers, such as Commodore, Sinclair, Apple and Acorn devices. He enjoys getting them working, but also reverse-engineering them to understand how they operate on a logic-gate level.

ALEXANDER TOMLINSON

Lead Analytical Measurement and Equipment Engineer, Jaguar Land Rover

Alexander designed and manufactured an electronically controlled mobile flushing rig to fully automate an emissions flushing process so the measurement pipes do not need to be removed from the test cells and users are not exposed to hazardous compounds.

He has also designed and manufactured electronically controlled systems to significantly improve process efficiency. Called an Eluter, it??was built to automate a??key aspect of the analysis process for a specialist emission group called aldehydes.

BEN CARTWRIGHT

Spacecraft Electronic s/Systems Engineer, STFC and Citadel Space Systems

Winning awards for his degree work on a navigation system for cube sats, Ben is now an electronic instrument engineer at the cutting edge of the space industry, working on the WFI/NFI instruments for NASA’s PUNCH mission.

Graduating from Aston University with a Master’s (1st class with honours), he was elected VP of the Aston Electronics Society and VP of Aston eSports, and was founder and president of the Aston Astronomy and Astronautics Society.

DOMINIC LANE

PhD student, Lancaster University

In developing a memory process in his PhD, Dom has become the most experienced user of the Quantum Technology Centre (QTC) cleanroom in Lancaster, overcoming many obstacles to refine the work of his ULTRARAM research.

His supervisor says Dom has already demonstrated exceptional abilities as an engineer and developed superlative experimental skills that have allowed him to fabricate highly complex devices with extraordinarily tight tolerances.

GETHN PICKARD

Graduate Engineer, Plessey Semiconductors Ltd

When Plessey achieved its GaN-on-silicon monolithic wafer-to-wafer bonding breakthrough in 2019, Gethn had designed the electronics system for the demonstration unit, set up the driver and programmed the display to run. He also built an imaging test system to retrofit to a??wafer probe station. It??had a??full GUI which had custom built image processing algorithms to calculate pixel performance data. It came complete with calibration problems, which Gethn overcame.

GRANT MULLEN

Founder, Managing Director, Ai Automation

Inspired by successfully creating systems for other companies, Grant created his own company, Ai Automation, which turned over ￡200k in its first year, offering cobots, robots, measurement systems, vision systems, laser markets and custom automation solutions.

He also helps with the mentoring of apprentices, teaching them skills around programming and automation, and he has given speeches and Q&A’s in local schools on the merits of attending university.

JAMES MORRIS

CEO, Intelliroller

James has used embedded systems and IoT to create a wheelchair treadmill forfriends who struggled with the current wheelchair rehabilitation system in the UK. Thetreadmill acts as a controller for a virtual reality game built into a smartphone.A budding entrepreneur, he created the system for less than ￡200 while the cheapestdevice on the market, with a lower spec, costs $9000. A health professional assessorcan control the game from anywhere in the world using a website.

JAMES ZAREMBA

BEng Electronic?and Electrical Engineering, Year 3, Swansea University

James developed a forward-looking prototype of a unique very small and cheap portable computer which could find use in many different markets. In his design, the screen is created by an in-built micro-projector which significantly reduces the price and size. Nominated by his project supervisor, James had to overcome many challenges in his work but also showed “exactly the type of innovation we are looking for from our students”, succeeding with both time-consuming PCB design and 3D modelling.

LAUREN GRAY

Development Scientist, Peratech

Lauren redesigned a test system, using Arduino, that automates creating and running almost any test routine on any matrix-sensor configuration including ones with over10,000 individual sensing points, with a UI for auto-generating test-routine code.

She also envisioned the systems Peratech would need to accelerate and scale development of everything from sensor designs, mechanical and electronics integrations, nanoparticle ink development and mass production traceability.

LUKE RICHARDS

MEng Mechanical??Engineering, University of South Wales

Fighting hard against the initial odds, including having to be self-taught, Luke’s academic results were so impressive that in his second year he was asked to upgrade his course to a Masters in Engineering. After graduation, Luke has been offered a??position at the electronics giant Sony on their competitive graduate scheme. He has volunteered weekly for many years at the Sea Cadets as a senior member and a teacher.

NICOLE COX

Graduate Engineer, Siemens Rail Infrastructure

Already winning company awards for excellence and innovation, her Siemens management highlight the impact Nicole has already made, whether helping win bids, automating existing processes or mastering presentations.

Working as a STEM ambassador and for Women in Engineering she has delivered lectures on Automating Railway Operations. She was Siemens CIS Woman of the Year 2018, and Siemens Mobility EDI & STEM Champion 2019.

YANISLAV DONCHEV

MSc Artificial Intelligence, University of Southampton

At Uni Yanislav created an air-drumming device, with sensor-fitted drumsticks, a custom-built PCB and feature-rich software. An internship with Microchip saw him build a new display signal emulator with a GUI for parameter control.

A UKESF scholar, he presents lectures on long- and short-term memory neural networks, has done activities promoting electronics to young students, programmed robots for LEGO competitions and supervised a computer vision workshop.

YING WAN LOH

Manufacturing engineer, Rolls-Royce plc, University of Cambridge

At Rolls Royce, as a manufacturing improvement lead, she led operational improvements in a complex manufacturing environment and delivered over ￡1m in total cost savings. She received the IET 2019 Young Woman Engineer of the Year Award.

As well as volunteering for disadvantaged schools in Malaysia, she was professional development lead for the Rolls-Royce Gender Diversity Network, a STEM ambassador and led the Rolls-Royce family day STEM activities.

ZAIN NAZAR

Digital & Technological Solutions Degree Apprentice (Software Developer/Engineer), BT

As a new degree apprenticeship with BT, Zain had a significant impact on a new ￡40million network BT is working on called Athena. It is a software defined network that allows customers to provision their own services via a web portal or API.

He has also become a STEM Ambassador, attending careers fairs and making school visits, to give back to the community and help children pursue STEM career paths. He’s also become a ‘barefoot volunteer’ to help teachers with STEM activities.

JAMES VEALE

Mechanical Engineer (Ice Core Drilling), British Antarctic?Survey

When James first joined Innomech, he was given an early concept for a precision powder dispensing machine which he transformed into a unique, highly featured and easy-to-use product, helping to launch it into a highly competitive market.

James has now moved to a position at the British Antarctic Survey where he is supporting scientists undertaking climate research, working in Cambridge and Antarctica to develop equipment used to extract ice cores from Antarctic ice sheets.