ICE London Ambassador of the Year: Westminster engineer commended for work with students
A graduate engineer from the City of Westminster has received recognition for his work with sixth form students in the first STEM Ambassador Awards from the Institution of Civil Engineers (ICE) London Region.
Richard Harrap, age 27, received the award at a special ceremony held at the ICE Head Office at One Great George Street, Westminster.
Director of ICE London, Miranda Housden, said: “Encouraging young people to consider a career in engineering is important if we are to have the right people designing and building our infrastructure for the 21st century and beyond.
“ICE London is involved with a lot of STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) work in schools and colleges across the capital which can only be achieved by our members volunteering their time and expertise.
“To recognise that commitment we launched the ICE London STEM Ambassador Awards this year and we were delighted with the high standard of nominations received.
“Richard is a Design Engineer from Ramboll Energy, which is based in Westminster, and has been involved in a number of activities for schools and universities around London, where he has been inspiring young people to consider a career within Offshore Wind and Marine Renewables. One of the events was the Engineering Your Future event held at the Institution of Mechanical Engineers in March this year.
“At that event he designed and led a series of sessions for sixth form students from across the capital describing the offshore civil engineering industry and ran a hands-on exercise to design and build a model of a deep water foundation for a wind turbine.
“That work was judged to be of such a high standard that we were pleased to present him with a Highly Commended Award as recognition of the inspiration he has provided to young people considering engineering careers.
Richard said: “I graduated from Oxford University in 2007 with a Masters in Engineering Science and have thoroughly enjoyed my career in civil engineering with Ramboll Energy.
“The satisfaction you get from working on pioneering offshore wind and tidal steam projects is immense. Young people can take big responsibility and make a huge difference to the very fast moving industry.
“I am pleased to be able to work with ICE London to share my enthusiasm for engineering with young people as they make their career choices and I hope that as my own career progresses I will find myself working alongside some of the students who worked with me on these STEM projects and were inspired to also choose engineering as their career.”
ICE London has more than 8,000 members living and working in the city. More information can be found at www.ice.org.uk/London. You can follow ICE London on Twitter: @ICE_London