UKESF at the TechWorks Awards & Gala Dinner 2019

“The UKESF has provided me with the opportunity to meet many marvellous people.”
Hugo McNally, joint Scholar of the Year 2019

On 6th November 2019 the UKESF attended the annual TechWorks Awards & Gala Dinner, London, to announce the Scholar of the Year Award winners and hold a Fundraising Raffle in aid of our vital work in the Electronics sector. This year the event coincided with the Royal Academy of Engineering’s This is Engineering Day, making it an extra special industry celebration.

The raffle raised almost £3,000 for the UKESF, so huge thanks go to all the attendees who participated and congratulations to the prize winners! The funds raised will be channelled into hands-on STEM activities for children, summer schools for A-level students, professional development for UKESF scholars, and much more.

The UKESF had three tables at the event this year, one of which was kindly donated by Neil Dickins of IC Resources. Our guests included five UKESF Trustees, 15 former and current UKESF Scholars (including the 2019 Skills 4 UK Scholar’s Award recipient), the Embedded Systems Competition finalists and various representatives from some of the companies and organisations we partner with.

The UKESF Scholar of the Year Award went to joint winners: Mary Bennett (University of Surrey/Embecosm) and Hugo McNally (University of Southampton/onsemi). Many thanks to IC Resources, who sponsor the award.

“My sponsoring company, Embecosm, has strongly encouraged my work as the Group Chair for the RISC-V foundations University and Open Source Outreach task group. As part of this role, I have created two awards promoting and celebrating the teaching and learning of Electronic Engineering and Computer Science across the world. Embecosm has also encouraged me to present some of my work with them at several international conferences. I am very proud of my achievements and am honoured to be named 2019’s UKESF Scholars of the Year.”
Mary Bennett

“The UKESF has provided me with the opportunity to meet many marvellous people. Not only the people at my sponsoring company and the UKESF, who have taught me immeasurable amounts, but also the network of other high-achieving scholars.”
Hugo McNally

“We are delighted that Mary has been selected as a UKESF Scholar of the Year. Mary has been sponsored by Embecosm since July 2017, where she joined us for a year working in industry and then each subsequent summer in our head office in Lymington.

During Mary’s time with us she has been a key player in Embecosm’s contributions to the open source community and is currently leading a research program using mathematically formal descriptions of computer processors in association with Cambridge University Computer Laboratory.

Mary has also worked to support the next generation of engineers by leading a variety of workshops and is the Champion of the RISC-V Foundation’s Academia and Training Special Interest Group (SIG). It is a great honour for us to be able to play a small part in her success.”
Dr Jeremy Bennett, Chief Executive of Embecosm (Mary’s sponsor company)

“Hugo demonstrated outstanding technical ability, communications skills and enthusiasm during his internal project execution, his mentoring of two new UKESF interns and through his outreach activities. Of special note was his support of the UKESF’s ‘Girl’s into Electronics’ event.”
Dr David Burrows, Head of ON Semiconductor’s Bracknell (UK) Design Centre (Hugo’s sponsor company)

“Many congratulations to Hugo for this excellent result, acknowledging the contributions that he has made to his sponsoring company and in promoting the Electronics sector. Hugo is Southampton’s 10th finalist, and 7th winner, in the 9 years that the Scholar of the Year Award has been in existence. This is a continued testament to our consistently high-quality students, and the excellent and longstanding relationship that we have with the UKESF.”
Prof Geoff Merrett, Head of Centre for IoT and Pervasive Systems, Electronics and Computer Science, University of Southampton (Hugo’s university)

The 350 attendees of the sold-out TechWorks event enjoyed a black tie three-course meal, a speech by special guest Penny Power OBE and, later, entertainment from a live party band. Penny founded a professional network called Ecademy in 1998 (pre-dating LinkedIn by four years) and was awarded an OBE in 2014 for her contribution to entrepreneurship in the social digital sector. Penny announced each of the TechWorks Award winners, and her inspiring talk received a standing ovation.

Read the University of Southampton’s article on Hugo and the Embedded Systems Competition finalists here.

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