The Engineering Council would like to congratulate registrants Khouloud El Hakim CEng MIET and Dr Christopher Donaghy-Spargo CEng MIET, who are among the five winners of the RAEng Engineers Trust Young Engineer of the Year competition, alongside Simon Bowcock, Dr Robert Hoye and Chetan Kotur.

The competition recognises outstanding early career engineers and the overall winner, Khouloud El Hakim CEng MIET, will also receive the Sir George Macfarlane Medal for excellence in the early stage of her career.

Winners of this prestigious award were presented with their prizes of £3,000 each at the Royal Academy of Engineering Awards Dinner on Wednesday 27 June.

Khouloud El Hakim

Khouloud El HakimBechtel engineer Khouloud El Hakim is currently Project Manager leading the development of a 40-year renewal plan for High Speed 1, a strategy that involves the complex balance of carrying out renewals on an operational rail system without disrupting local and international train services.

Prior to this, Khouloud was the Project Engineer on Crossrail’s Farringdon Station, managing design and construction assurance for the station’s redevelopment in preparation for the Elizabeth Line’s launch later this year. Farringdon station is one of Crossrail’s most complex projects and Khouloud has been responsible for leading the successful integration of the old London Underground Station with the new state-of-the-art Crossrail facilities. Khouloud’s strong leadership and dedication highlighted her as one of Crossrail’s most exceptional young engineers, working in various roles for its Delivery Partner, Bechtel.

Khouloud is also an ambassador for women working in the construction industry. She was selected to deliver a Friday Evening Discourse at the Royal Institution and participated in several government and engineering institutions’ programmes to promote engineering in the UK. She has also worked with leads of NGOs in Europe and Africa to set up education support programmes, securing funding for teaching construction skills and personal finance to enable maintained employment where it is needed most.

 Dr Christopher Donaghy-Spargo

Dr Christopher Donaghy-Spargo is Assistant Professor of Electrical Engineering and Deputy Research Director for Future Energy Systems at Durham University. He is the author of over 25 peer-reviewed technical articles, with his first journal paper published while he was an undergraduate student – a rare achievement. During his PhD investigating high-efficiency motor technologies for industry, Dr Donaghy-Spargo won a number of prestigious awards, including the Sir Henry Royce Medal for Young Professionals from the Institution of Engineering and Technology (IET).

He was a Chartered Engineer by the age of 28, working with Dyson, where he led industrial research and development projects before returning to academia. He has gained both Chartered Mathematician and Chartered Scientist status, demonstrating his extensive technical achievements, and his commitment to the profession and continuing professional development.

Beyond his technical achievements, Dr Donaghy-Spargo is an enthusiastic public communicator and is engaged in a variety of activities to promote engineering, including chairing Durham University’s prestigious Sir Gordon Higginson lecture. As well as being responsible for STEM outreach activities at Durham University Energy Institute he has been elected to sit on the IET’s main board and serves as Vice-Chair of the Electromagnetics Technical Professional Network.

 For full details of the competition and winners, please visit the Royal Academy of Engineering’s website: https://www.raeng.org.uk/news/news-releases/2018/june/five-young-engineers-win-top-academy-awards