The Royal Academy of Engineering, with the generous support of the Worshipful Company of Engineers is making five awards of £3,000 each year to UK engineers in full-time higher education, research or industrial employment, who have demonstrated excellence in the early stage of their career.

From these five awardees, the Academy’s Awards Committee will select an overall winner who, in addition to their cash award, will receive the Academy’s highly acclaimed Sir George Macfarlane Medal, which was presented in July 2021 to this year’s winner Dr Marzia Bolpagni.

Dr Marzia Bolpagni is Head of Building Information Modelling International at Mace.  A chartered building engineer specialising in digital engineering, Marzia recognised the importance of engineers in helping to prevent disasters after surviving an earthquake. Marzia uses digital representations of built assets to facilitate design, construction, and operation processes to support reliable decisions. Her construction clients have included UK Government Departments and Birmingham Airport.

Marzia has been a member of the UK Building Information Modelling (BIM) Alliance since 2016, and an ambassador since 2018. In this role, she has promoted digital engineering across the UK and Europe. Marzia’s commitment to inspiring the next generation of engineers successfully bridges the gap between industry and academia, she gives talks at international universities and acts as a dissertation supervisor for construction students at University College London, where she is an honorary lecturer. She chairs the EC3 Committee on Modelling and Standards, a position usually covered by senior academics. Marzia also acts as Assistant Editor of the BIM Dictionary, coordinating 120+ international volunteers in translating complex concepts into accessible formats.

Since 2019, Marzia has been a member of the ACE Digital Transformation Group and she is lead author of a European standard (BS EN 17412-1) on digital engineering. Her work is internationally renowned and she has been a keynote speaker in 20 countries. She has received multiple awards for her innovative approach to design, construction and operation, including the Women Engineering Ingenious and Digital Innovation Change Maker of the Year by Mace.

The competition details are available on our sister website – Matrix