Success at the New Civil Engineer Graduate Awards for a Civil Engineering Graduate

Congratulations to Marcin Dawydzik, who graduated in 2015 with an MEng in Structural Engineering with Architecture, on coming joint 2nd in the New Civil Engineer Graduate Award of the Year in a field of strong shortlisted candidates. 

The New Civil Engineer said that as well as simply being brilliant graduates, this year’s Graduate Awards contenders were asked to set out a plan for what they intend to do in their year as Graduate of the Year. All six finalists had great ideas, but the ideas from our winner – and our joint runners up – were truly smart and truly inspirational. That said, all six had ideas worth developing and our judges are determined to see all six develop over the next 12 months.

Marcin Dawydzik says his passion for engineering was sparked even before he went to university. “During my senior year in high school I initiated a long‐term relationship with the Bingwa Primary School, where each year, a team of volunteers works on rebuilding part of the school,” he explains. “This incredible experience inspired me to get more involved with humanitarian sector and put my engineering skills to a good cause.”

He carried this on through university and as a president of Engineers Without Borders Edinburgh established two international and four local projects. One, project DIEM, aims at teaching science and engineering through hands on, scrapyard experiments. Explains Dawydzik; “I spent two months in Ghana teaching, researching and improving the idea to finally establish the project in the UK. It runs firmly to this day expanding to other universities.” He has aIso established cooperation with Cambodian non-governmental organisations (NGOs) supporting them in developing aquaponics as a means to diversify the diet and prevent malnutrition in Asia. This project has also been now successfully running for two years.

He’s technically savvy too, and won a prize for his thesis in which he developed a new way of erecting thin concrete shells using deployable gridshells as formwork.

Now working for Ramboll he has worked on the first Cooling Pod in UK, providing cooling for a 67ha district via heat exchange between the buildings, significantly reducing greenhouse emissions.

After office hours he devotes his time to designing a travelling performance pavilion in Ghana. “It combines two passions of mine: bamboo and shell structures, so heavily researched in my thesis,” he explains. “I rationalised the architect’s vision and achieved the required geometry and stiffness by the use of hyperbolic‐paraboloids, which can be constructed out of straight members.” Modelling the complex geometry of the structure, he adds, has developed his software skills and thorough understanding of the material.

It is clear he is hugely passionate about sparking interest in engineering among others and that is very much his plan for the next year.

His plan, to organise an industry wide TEDx “I am engineer” event, inviting young engineers to talk about how their work impacts the world, their successes and their vision of where they see the industry heading is something our judges are determined to support.

“I strongly believe that engineers shape the environment people live and work in, and are partially responsible for lives and a vast consumption of natural resources,” he explains. “Not everybody understands the significance of our everyday jobs, and in my year as New Civil Engineer Graduate of the Year I would like to promote the importance of using moral values as a compass guiding all decisions and actions, in order to shape a better future.

“Through the popular and friendly medium of TED talks I would like to inspire the new generation by sharing success stories of their peers,” he explains. “By promoting female speakers and their achievements I would like to inspire young women and help them discover that engineering is indeed a suitable path for them. Finally, talks focused on disaster relief and remedial actions would aid to raise the profile of civil engineering explaining to society how severe the consequences can be if not designed adequately.”

Story courtesy of the New Civil Engineer

New Civil Engineer Graduate Award Details

Graduate recruitment at major construction companies is at its highest level for years as the industry readies itself for a substantial amount of major infrastructure work. With the government committed to major projects such as High Speed 2 and the Thames Tideway Tunnel, graduate engineers can enjoy their pick of jobs and opportunities in the sector.

To help identify the best and brightest graduate talent in the industry, New Civil Engineer brings to you the 2016 Graduate Awards. As always the event recognises the most promising all-round civil engineers and this we seeked graduates within their first two years of post-graduate employment. Meaning they would have graduated in either 2014 or 2015 with a civil engineering or related degree. 

The winner will…

  • Directly influence New Civil Engineer’s agenda by joining its Editorial Advisory Board.
  • Act as ambassador to the profession, by judging next year’s Awards and New Civil Engineer’s influential NCE100 Companies of the Year Awards.
  • Build your message through a series of articles in New Civil Engineer.
  • Share £4,000 prize money
  • Achieve the accolade of NCE Graduate of the Year!

Further Information

Marcin Dawydzik is presented his certificate by Mark Hansford, editor of the NCE, and guest speaker Nicky Moffat CBE
Marcin Dawydzik is presented his certificate by Mark Hansford, editor of the NCE, and guest speaker Nicky Moffat CBE
Image courtesy of New Civil Engineer