2013 Engineering Research Writers of the Year announced

(29 November 2013) - The two winners of the inaugural Engineering Research Writer of the Year competition, organised by the Association of Engineering Doctorates, were announced at the AEngD conference in London on Tuesday 26 November.

The writer of the best paper on 'actual EngD' impact was Javid Khan, a research engineer from the Centre in Optics and Photonics Technologies at Edinburgh's Heriot-Watt University, who wrote about "Holographic volumetric 3D displays" [PDF].

The best 'potential impact' article was written by Laura Daniels of the Technologies for Sustainable Built Environments (TSBE) centre at University of Reading, who looked at "Diesel generators and demand side management" [PDF].

Candidates, all current or recent EngD research engineers, had to write an 800-word article about their engineering research challenge. The finalists were invited to deliver a short presentation based on their paper at the AEngD annual conference, held at the Building Centre in central London. There are two categories: 'Actual impact' and 'potential impact', the latter recognising that research projects take time to deliver outcomes for their industry sponsors.

Articles in the 'Actual impact' category described tangible benefits actually delivered during and/or as a result of the researcher's project. Those in the 'Potential impact' category mainly related to EngD projects still at an early stage, and explained how the project could deliver benefits.

Winners

Javid Khan was commended by the judges for telling a strong story about the history of his holograph specialism, for demonstrating clear innovation and entrepreneurialism and for creating new (patented) intellectual property. Developing his research further, Khan is managing director of Holoxica Ltd, a high-tech start-up company based at the Scottish Microelectronics Centre at Edinburgh University.

Laura Daniels presented a technical subject in an open and accessible way, with little use of technical jargon, posing some intriguing questions and suggesting interesting directions for her research, for which the industry sponsor is retailer Marks & Spencer.

Runners-up

The other finalist in the 'Actual impact' category was Marek Kubik, also from TSBE at University of Reading, who looked at wind turbines and power generation in his article entitled "The winds of change". 

Shortlisted in the 'Potential impact' category were:

• Christos Ellinas (IDC in Systems, University of Bristol) - "An engineer imagines. Again."
• Maria Felice (Centre for Non-Destructive Evaluation, University of Bristol) - "Let's get cracking!"
• Rob Hughes (Centre for Non-Destructive Evaluation, University of Warwick) - "Pushing the limits of materials testing"

The winners received cheques for £250 and specially commissioned trophies made out of recycled glass from beer bottles by Yorkshire-based Bottle Alley Glass. The winners and runners-up were also presented with certificates by Professor Patrick Godfrey, chair of the AEngD steering group.

Copies of the articles are linked from the ERWOTY 2013 page, which also has copies of the finalists' slides and videos of their presentations.

- Ends -

For further information:

• Paul Wilkinson (PR consultant to AEngD) - tel: 020 8858 1104 mob: 07788 445920 or email paul.wilkinson@pwcom.co.uk

Notes

The AEngD

The Association of Engineering Doctorates established its steering group in 2010 and has grown to encompass almost all of the 28 EPSRC-designated industrial doctorate centres at UK universities. A community engaged in research in engineering and related disciplines, it aims to:

• promote acceptance and recognition of Engineering Doctorate (EngD) degrees within host institutions and industry
• promote excellence and maintain the quality of EngD degrees
• develop wider and more strategic industrial research collaboration
• identify and promote the benefits and impacts from EngD research
• recruit sufficient and suitable top quality research projects
• attract and recruit high calibre Research Engineers (REs)
• develop and promote taught programmes tailored to REs and industry needs
• encourage strong academic engagement and feed back into the host institutions' research base

The Engineering Doctorate (EngD) scheme was established by the EPSRC in 1992 (following recommendations of the 1990 Engineering Doctorate Report, produced by a working group chaired by Professor Parnaby).

The first EngD programmes began in 1992, and 28 schemes are now offered by UK universities - either singly or as multi-institution academic partnerships.

Research interests embrace all major areas of engineering, manufacturing and related disciplines.

Engineering Research Writer of the Year (ERWOTY)

As part of its commitment to promoting the EngD qualification, the AEngD sought articles (c. 800 words maximum) that address any area of engineering and would be suitable for publication in a magazine (for example, the RAEng magazine) and/or a broadsheet newspaper, as well as on the AEngD website. PDF copies of the articles are linked from the AEngD ERWOTY 2013 page.

Shortlisted candidates had to demonstrate that they had thought about and understood their audience and could convey information about their engineering challenge, and their research response to that challenge, in a readable way.

Judges looked for originality, bright ideas and a clear, distinctive writing style. Each 800-word article had to show a passion for engineering, summarise the researcher's contribution to knowledge and the potential/actual impact of their research, and encourage readers to consider, question and debate key issues in engineering and society. In short, they had to tell a good story, in an accessible style, and show how the work is interesting.