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Emerging Engineers Award

Promoting and rewarding excellence in the originality and communication of civil engineering ideas and research.

The award creates an opportunity for ICE student and graduate members, as well as apprentices at either of these grades or holding professionally qualified membership as IEng MICE or EngTech MICE and continuing on their apprenticeship, to showcase their knowledge and talent to the wider civil engineering community.

Entering the competition

The award gives members the opportunity to enhance their written and verbal presentation skills, showcase their work and enhance continuing professional development, particularly in support of professional review preparation. The ability to communicate technical concepts in a clear manner to a varied audience is a key skill for civil engineers, and this competition provides opportunity to enhance online and/or in person presentation skills. There is also opportunity to be selected for publication of the winning paper in one of the ICE technical journals.

There are prizes for regional winners and the overall winner receives a cash prize and the prestigious Institution Medal.

Heats take place across the ICE regions with the final selection of three papers for the overall Emerging Engineers Award final in October each year.

2025 regional dates

UK regional heat prize money:

  • 1st place: £250
  • 2nd place: £150
  • 3rd place: £100

East Midlands

The competition has not yet opened for 2025.

For enquiries please email: [email protected]

London

The competition has not yet opened for 2025.

For enquiries please email: [email protected]

North East

The competition has not yet opened for 2025.

For enquiries please email: [email protected]

Northern Ireland

The competition has not yet opened for 2025.

For enquiries please email: [email protected]

Scotland

The competition has not yet opened for 2025.

For enquiries please email: [email protected]

South East

The competition has not yet opened for 2025.

For enquiries please email: [email protected]

South West

The competition has not yet opened for 2025.

For enquiries please email: [email protected]

Wales

The competition has not yet opened for 2025.

For enquiries please email: [email protected]

West Midlands

The competition has not yet opened for 2025.

For enquiries please email: [email protected]

Yorkshire and Humber

The competition has not yet opened for 2025.

For enquiries please email: [email protected]

Hong Kong

  • Application deadline: 27 October 2024
  • Release of shortlisting result: 22 November 2024
  • Submission deadline of full paper (for shortlisted candidates): 10 December 2024
  • Regional final: 04 January 2025

Winners may be nominated to participate in the Emerging Engineers Award international final in the UK to compete for the prestigious Institution Medal and further cash prizes.

For enquiries, please contact Mr Tristan Leung on +852 5620 7533 or via email at [email protected] or [email protected]

Find out more about the competition by downloading our information sheet. ICE HKA G&S reserves all rights of the competition except the result of judgement in case there is any dispute.

Download the entry form

Download the award flyer

Prizes

  • Champion – HKD $2,000 and a certificate
  • First runner-up – HKD $1,500 and a certificate
  • Second runner-up – HKD $1,000 and a certificate
  • Merit – HKD $500 and a certificate
  • Shortlisted – a certificate

Ontario, Canada

  • Submission of papers to the ICE Ontario committee: 28 February 2025
  • Short list of papers for presentation: 28 March 2025
  • Final regional awards announced: 15 June 2025
  • ICE Ontario papers submitted for ICE global competition: 01 July 2025

For information about entry criteria and prizes, download the information pack

Download the pack

For enquiries please email [email protected]

Please note: the competition is not running in other regions in Canada in 2025.

Middle East and North Africa

The competition has not yet opened for 2025.

Prizes for MENA:

  • 1st Prize: AED 3,000 (equivalent in local currency)
  • 2nd Prize: AED 1,500 (equivalent in local currency)
  • 3rd Prize: AED 1,000 (equivalent in local currency)

For enquiries please email: [email protected]

Republic of Ireland

The competition has not yet opened for 2025.

Regional awards and prizes:

  • Regional winner: €150, a certificate, and invitation to the ICE Republic of Ireland Annual Dinner
  • Regional shortlist: certificate

For enquiries please email: [email protected]

United Arab Emirates

The competition has not yet opened for 2025.

Prizes for UAE:

  • 1st Prize: AED 3,000
  • 2nd Prize: AED 1,500
  • 3rd Prize: AED 1,000

For enquiries please email: [email protected]

Africa

The Emerging Engineers Award does not currently run in this region. If you are interested in running the competition, please email [email protected]

Americas, Australasia, Europe, East Asia, South Asia and South East Asia

The competition is not running in 2025.

For enquiries please email: [email protected]

Our 2024 award winners

Dilan Patel, winner of the ICE East Midlands Emerging Engineers 2024

East Midlands

Dilan Patel

Dilan Patel, a student from Nottingham University, won the East Midlands regional final for his presentation on 'Testing the suitability of seashell powder as a partial cement replacement in concrete'.

Concrete is vastly used in the construction industry due to its durability, strength, and versatility. However, its extensive usage results in detrimental environmental impacts, primarily due to the significant carbon emissions from cement manufacturing.

Read more about Dilan's paper.

Michelle Chiew, winner of the ICE Hong Kong Emerging Engineers 2024

Hong Kong

Michelle Chiew

Michelle Chiew, a recent graduate from the University of Hong Kong, captured the regional final with her research on 'Effects of increased use of electric vehicles on future design traffic action on bridges'.

Chiew pointed out that the use of electric vehicles (EVs) was on the rise in Hong Kong, but prevailing local guidelines were developed when internal combustion vehicles were dominant.

Read more about Michelle's paper.

Shaun Jinks, winner of the ICE London Emerging Engineers 2024

London

Shaun Jinks

Shaun Jinks, a civil engineering apprentice at Transport for London, presented his research into the evaluation and rehabilitation of reinforced concrete hinges, a unique structural element used in the construction of reinforced concrete highway bridges. 

Shaun’s research formed part of a larger study into reinforced concrete hinges that was recently completed for his BEng (Hons) in civil engineering at London South Bank University. 

Read more about Shaun's research.

Mina Maxi, winner of the ICE Middle East and North Africa Emerging Engineers 2024

Middle East and North Africa

Mina Maxi

Mina Maxi, student at The British University in Egypt, has won the Middle East and North Africa regional Emerging Engineers Award final.

He impressed the judges with his paper ‘AEM-Based Retrofitting for Existing or Adaptive Reuse Structures to Increase Resilience Against Terrorist Threats: The Pancake Effect’, which thoroughly investigates methods to enhance building resilience against extreme loads, particularly the vertical collapses known as the pancake effect.

Read more about Mina's paper.

Chris Davenport, winner of the ICE North East Emerging Engineers 2024

North East

Chris Davenport

Chris Davenport, a final-year civil engineering student at Northumbria University, has won the North East regional heat of the ICE Emerging Engineers Award.

He impressed the judges with the presentation of his paper, An Investigation into the use of Timber Bunds as a Natural Flood Management (NFM) Technique, at a Local and Catchment Scale.

Read more about Chris' paper.

Ben Miller, winner of the ICE Northern Ireland Emerging Engineers 2024

Northern Ireland

Ben Miller

Ben Millar, a PhD student at Queen's University Belfast, impressed the judges with the presentation of his paper on ‘ArchIMEDES: the development of computer vision-based methods for predicting scour at bridges’.

ArchIMEDES: Arch Image Measurement for the Evaluation of Deformation by Erosion due to Scour is a computer vision tool. It was developed to remotely record load-induced displacements across a masonry arch bridge as well as hinge information, which is unique to ArchIMEDES.

Read more about Ben's paper.

Hamish Dow, winner of the ICE Scotland Emerging Engineers 2024

Scotland

Hamish Dow

Hamish Dow, a final-year civil and environmental engineering PhD student at the University of Strathclyde, has been named ICE Scotland’s Emerging Engineer 2024.

Dow’s paper, Lights, Camera, Action: AI-Powered Concrete Inspections, focused on the field deployment of an automated, and robot-mountable concrete visual inspection device.

Read more about Hamish's paper.

Nuha Chowdhury, winner of the ICE South East Emerging Engineers 2024

South East

Nuha Chowdhury

Nuha Chowdhury, a civil engineering graduate from the University of Greenwhich, has won the South East England heat of the Emerging Engineers Award.

Chowdhury impressed the judges with her research on the failure mechanisms of earth-fill embankments and ways to strengthen them for enhanced flood resilience.

In her study, Chowdhury explores the use of waste tyres as a reinforcing material for earth-fill embankments. PVC hose was used to model the tyres and jute strings to connect them together for stability.

Read more about Nuha's research.

Timur Bolotin, winner of the ICE South West Emerging Engineers 2024

South West

Timur Bolotin

Timur Bolotin has won the South West regional final for his presentation on the future risk of power line galloping in the UK.

Bolotin explained how he used modelling to predict the possible failure of overhead power cables due to a phenomenon known as galloping, where electricity lines move in certain wind and weather conditions.

Read more about Timur's research.

Afeefa Muhammad Iliyas, winner of the ICE United Arab Emirates Emerging Engineers 2024

United Arab Emirates

Afeefa Muhammad Iliyas

Afeefa Muhammad Iliyas, a student at Heriot-Watt University Dubai, has won the UAE Emerging Engineers Award final.

She impressed the judges with her paper on 'Eco-friendly concrete: partial cement replacement with ceramic waste powder and supplementary cementitious materials'.

Iliyas’ research aimed to develop sustainable concrete by partly replacing cement with materials like silica fumes (SF), ground granulated blast furnace slag (GGBS), and ceramic waste powder (CWP).

Read more about Afeefa's paper.

Samprada Pradhan, winner of the ICE West Midlands Emerging Engineers 2024

West Midlands

Samprada Pradhan

Samprada Pradhan, a graduate geotechnical engineer at Mott MacDonald, has won the West Midlands regional final.

She presented on ‘Lessons learnt from real-time monitoring of rainfall and soil water content’.

Read more about Samprada's paper.

Matthew Brooks, winner of the ICE and Yorkshire and Humber Emerging Engineers 2024

Yorkshire and Humber

Matthew Brooks

Matthew Brooks, a graduate engineer at the Environment Agency, has won the Yorkshire and Humber regional heat of the ICE Emerging Engineers Award.

He impressed the judges with the presentation of his paper on Developing a Recovery Framework to Combat the Effects and Increase Resilience to Major UK Flood Events.

Read more about Matthew's paper.

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