A very warm welcome to you wherever you’ll be joining us for our inaugural Awardee Excellence Community event - in Belfast, Sheffield, Glasgow, London, or online.
This is the first time the Academy has hosted an event of this nature - held simultaneously in different locations as well as online. And it is fitting that we are doing so to launch our Awardee Excellence Community, created to bring together all the exceptional and talented individuals from across the UK and internationally who are current and former awardees and alumni of our different programmes, prizes and medals.
Our aim is for this to become a powerful, vibrant, connected and diverse community of engineering leaders. I hope the day's events give you a flavour of what is possible through connecting and working with others within the community.
From everyone at the Academy, we look forward to welcoming you on the day.
Keynote speaker
Billy Boyle MBE FREng
Billy Boyle MBE FREng has a vision to change the way we currently diagnose and monitor serious disease. He is the co-founder and CEO of Owlstone Inc., whose mission is to become the global leader in the non-invasive detection of cancer, infectious diseases and inflammatory diseases – in the process saving 100,000 lives and $1.5 billion in healthcare costs. Billy received the Royal Academy of Engineering Silver Medal and was a winner of the 2018 MacRobert Award; he was then made a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering in 2020 and an MBE in 2021. Billy sits on the CRUK Early Detection and Diagnosis Research Committee and was previously a judge for the Cancer Research UK (CRUK) Pioneer award and a trustee of the Linacre Institute. He likes to combine a love of running with raising money for charities such as CRUK.
Attendees
Find out about some of the other attendees you can meet at the event or pre-connect through their profile below.
Attendees A- F
Mr David Branagh
Founder & CEO, Raidmed Ltd
Regional Talent Engines, 2022
Passionate health tech innovator building better patient outcomes through people and technology.
On a mission to build a team who will save and improve lives by working together to understand unmet clinical need, discover true patient/customer/user pains, and delivery commercial solutions to meet those needs.
With extensive leadership experience from start-ups to board level of £30m company. Covering all aspects of business including finance, governance, strategy and technical development, through design, regulatory approval, transfer to manufacturing and commercial release.
Always happy to connect with like-minded people!
Luca Frondoni
Founder & CTO, Phoenix Carbon
Engineering Leaders Scholarship, 2015
Chartered Engineer with rich international professional experience. Currently working on making composite sustainable - love cycling!
Attendees G-M
Jamie Graham
MEng Civil Engineering Student, Queen's University Belfast
Engineering Leaders Scholarship, 2022
A civil engineering student with a specialism in sustainable timber products, Jamie was awarded an Engineering Leaders Scholarship in 2022. Jamie has received awards for his engineering presentations and papers from both the Institution of Civil and Institution of Structural Engineers and delivers engineering talks to institutions and schools as part of his role as a STEM Ambassador.
Dr Leila Moura
RAEng Research Fellow/Lecturer, Queen's University Belfast
Research Fellowship, 2018
Leila graduated in Chemistry (MSc) at Instituto Superior Técnico, Portugal in 2008. In 2014 she completed a PhD in Physical-Chemistry at Université Claude Bernard Lyon 1, France studying the potential of ionic liquids for the separation of light hydrocarbons in collaboration with IFP Énergies nouvelles. For this work she was awarded the 2018 European Federation of Chemical Engineering (EFCE) Excellence Award in Fluid Separations. This was followed by a post-doctoral fellowship in ULCO, France, a Marie Skłodowska-Curie Individual Fellowship and an InvestNI PoC project at Queen’s University Belfast, UK.
In 2018 Leila started a RAEng Research Fellowship and founded a research group focused in developing “Liquid Engineering for Gas Separation”.
The Moura group targets energy reduction and process improvements. Their focus is on the development of sustainable materials that can reduce the environmental and energy impact of current operations in gas separation, scrubbing and water purification.
Attendees N-S
David Riordan
Senior Technical Fellow, Spirit AeroSystems
MacRobert Award, 2019
Senior Technical Fellow within Spirit AeroSystems in Belfast, which before 2020 was the Belfast site of Bombardier Aviation.
I earned a BSc degree in Mechanical Engineering from Queen’s University Belfast in 1982 and a MSc degree in Advanced Manufacturing Technology from Cranfield Institute of Technology in 1987.
Primary career interests have centered on the development and application of enabling technologies for the design of aerostructures, notably Nacelle Systems and Integrated Wing assemblies.
Prior to 2016, I was Chief Technical Engineer, providing leadership for all activities associated with the technical engineering fields of acoustics, aerodynamics, thermodynamics, ice protection, fire protection, lighting strike protection, mechanical systems, electrical systems, reliability and safety.
I retain links with academia, including visiting lecturer positions at Queen’s University Belfast and at the University of Nottingham.
Caitlin Sands
Student, Queen's University Belfast
Engineering Leaders Scholarship, 2022
I am a final year student studying MEng Mechanical Engineering at Queen’s Unvierstiy Belfast. I have a keen interest in automation and AI, and will be starting a PhD with QUB in October 2023.