Engineering & Technology Photographer of the Year 2018: Winners
Image credit: Mike Glendinning
Led by the Gadget Show’s Georgie Barrat, a selection of photos have been chosen to challenge public misconceptions of engineering.
The IET received over 400 photos from young people and adults around the world, who submitted photos to five categories:
- Design and Production
- Digital
- Environment and Energy
- Structures
- Transport
The winners
Adult entrants
- Kathryn Graham winner of the Design & Production category
- Callum Woodford winner of the Digital category
- Mike Glendinning winner of the Environment and Energy category
- James Birchall winner of the Structure category
- Peter Thomas winner of the Transport category
- Smart phone: Sudip Maiti, winner of the best smart phone photo across all categories
Youth entrants
- Rosina Canty winner of the Design and Production category
- Jodie Culmer winner of the Digital category
- Ben Steel winner of the Environment and Energy category
- Nathan Phua winner of the Structure category
- Mackenzie Hall winner of the Transport category
The overall winner was announced as Mike Glendinning for his photo ‘Engineers are hot stuff’, which captures an engineer in the environmental testing facility at Leonardo in Edinburgh. The facility provides extreme environmental testing on complex electronic systems to check they are ready for real world use.
Dr Ozak Esu, IET Young Woman Engineer of the Year and one of the judges of the competition, said: “Engineering is exciting and fast-changing – shaping the world around us and improving the quality of our everyday lives. And yet traditional images of engineering and engineers still focus on one area of the industry with hard hats and dirty overalls.
“We launched our photography competition again this year to help banish this outdated image and we received some brilliant photographs from across the world – I’d like to congratulate our winners and highly commended entrants.”
Georgie Barrat, Gadget Show host and fellow judge, added: “The image of engineering in the media is really outdated and doesn’t reflect how exciting, creative and varied engineering careers can be – and this certainly won’t attract the next generation of talent, especially girls. We’ve selected some fantastic images that show first-hand how varied, exciting and life changing engineering really is.”
Overall winner
Energy and Environment (adult)
Winner: Mike Glendinning
Modern, sophisticate electronic systems can fail due to the extreme conditions they are used in, and where failure is not an option someone needs to be able to create real world conditions to ensure failure is minimised. That’s what professional environmental engineers do.
Image credit: Mike Glendinning
Image taken: Environmental testing facility, Leonardo Company, Edinburgh
Category winners
Design and Production (adult)
Winner: Kathryn Graham
I was asked to photograph the team who built the LVP1 satellite at SSTL. As they were gathering for the shot, I like to take some natural shots around the spacecraft. During this time I noticed the teams reflections on the satellite and I thought it would make an interesting picture.
Image credit: Kathryn Graham
Image taken: Surrey Satellite Technology Clean Room
Digital (adult)
Winner: Callum Woodford
Virtual reality is changing the way media is consumed and created as well as aiding science. Architectural design is being radically reformed by immersive virtual environments allowing for rapid prototyping and real time feedback. Mass participation is paving the way to a more community- driven and interactive future.
Image credit: Callum Woodford
Image taken: University of Sheffield
Structure (adult)
Winner: James Birchall
Above the clouds on the Summit of Mauna Kea, Hawaii, The Subaru Telescope waits for the sun to set before a night of star gazing. Engineers are vital to the design, construction and operation of this cutting edge technology which helps further our understanding of the universe.
Image credit: James Birchall
Image taken: Mauna Kea, Big Island, Hawaii
Transport (adult)
Winner: Peter Thomas
I am an Aircraft Mechanic working in British Airways Maintenance Cardiff. I am also an amateur photographer. Early one morning we had a visit from a Boeing 787-8 dream-liner for a trial fit in one of our maintenance bays. It was a beautiful morning with the onset of a sunrise so, I took the opportunity to take some images of the aircraft being towed into the hanger with a full complement of observers and two zip-ups - one to each wing whilst the aircraft was being docked.
Image credit: Peter Thomas
Image taken: British Airways Maintenance Cardiff
Smartphone
Winner: Sudip Maiti
A girl educates her grandmother about the benefits of solar energy.
Image credit: Sudip Maiti
Image taken: Kolkata, India
Design and production (youth)
Winner: Rosina Canty
Conentrically turned bodies manufactured to create something bigger and useful that positively impacts our lives. The precision that goes into perfecting the detail destroys common misconceptions about design production. It was my first time in an engineering environment and I found the photo opportunity quite cool.
Image credit: Rosina Canty
Image taken: Ultra Precision Engineering in Haverhill, Suffolk
Digital (youth)
Winner: Jodie Culmer
Whilst visiting Bletchley Park, I spotted these awesome rotors from a WWII Polish code breaking machine, which contributed to the creation of Alan Turing’s Bombe. The exhibits at Bletchley represent engineering at its best. I was really impressed by the cooperation and intelligence of all the engineers from different countries working together.
Image credit: Jodie Culmer
Image taken: Bletchley Park
Environment and Energy (youth)
Winner: Ben Steel
We were on a family visit to the seaside and I was drawn to the waves breaking on the shore and, as the tide came in, it intrigued me as to how such a simple piece of engineering could stand up to the power of the sea.
Image credit: Ben Steel
Image taken: Worthing beach
Structure (youth)
Winner: Nathan Phua
The patterned and reflective glass panels strikes an abstract tone, displaying the simple beauty of architecture.
Image credit: Nathan Phua
Image taken: London
Transport (youth)
Winner: Mackenzie Hall
This picture was taken aboard the Dubai Metro running through the centre of the city. There are several skyscrapers that accompany this to the left that mainly consist of hotels and offices. This was a hard shot to capture as I was on the moving carriage that was very crowded.
Image credit: Mackenzie Hall
Image taken: Downtown Dubai
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