After a two year hiatus due the pandemic Sir Alan Rudge, Sir Christopher Snowden and the ERA Foundation Board welcomed back over a hundred guests for its annual Dinner and Lecture yesterday, May 17th, at the historic Maxwell Library at the Institution of Engineering and Technology.
Although postponing the last two years events was essential, it has been a difficult decision to forgo this annual opportunity to meet face to face, given the immense importance of all our partners, organisations and individuals to the Foundation.
This year we were pleased welcome Phil Smith, former CEO and Chair of Cisco, former Chair of Innovate UK and currently Chair of IQE PLC, the global leader in the design and manufacture of advanced semiconductor epiwafer products driving connected 5G technologies, to give our annual lecture.
Phil is a distinguished thinker and speaker on the transformational nature of our connected world, sustainability, ambition, inclusion & diversity and the critical need for STEM skills in our future generations. His highly topical talk was entitled ‘Digital Thinking – The key to a Productive Nation‘, and explored the increasingly competitive environment of the expanding global digital economy.
This year RAEng ERA Foundation Enterprise Fellowships were awarded to Brendan Digney (Machine Eye), Henry Harrod (Fourier Audio) and Naomi McGregor (Movetru), and the 2022 Royal Commission for the Exhibition 1851 ERA Foundation Industrial Fellowship was awarded to Liam Bussey (BT).
Alongside this, David Clark presented this years ERA Foundation Clark Prize to two incredible teachers, Cath Milne and Rebecca Lofthouse, who have gone beyond what is required in the syllabus by inspiring students and showcasing real world engineering in the classroom.
