Celebrating the best engineering and technological advances

A new accolade for 2022, Chief Engineer of the Year was awarded to Mallik Tatipamula for his commitment to international collaboration and dedication to innovation through substantial contributions towards the advancement of 5G technology.

As Chief Engineer and Technologist at Ericsson, Mallik has had a defining impact on the advancement of 5G and 6G. Some of Mallik’s key achievements in this area have also included promoting innovation through industry-academia collaborations and providing international leadership on the emerging 6G vision.

On winning, Mallik said: “I am incredibly grateful to receive this award. It is such an honour to have my work recognised by the IET and by leaders from across the industry. I would like to say a big thank you to everyone who has been involved in helping me develop my career so far and to the selection committee of E&T awards!”

For 2022, the E&T Innovation Awards featured a range of new prizes to reflect the latest societal challenges faced by engineers and technologists. Other winners at this year’s celebration included an advanced bionic hand favoured by a gold-medal-winning Paralympian and the world’s first returnable satellite platform.

Now in its 18th year, the E&T Innovation Awards highlight the work of engineers, organisations and the projects they are working on, to bring about positive change to our world. Hosted by award-winning, mechanical engineer and computational fluid dynamicist, TV producer and broadcaster, children’s book author Dr Shini Somara, the awards celebrate innovation in the engineering and technology sector.

Chris Hayhurst, European Consulting Manager at MathWorks, the headline sponsor for E&T Innovation Awards, said: “Accelerating the pace of engineering and science is at the core of what we do at MathWorks, and these awards are a fantastic opportunity to celebrate the innovations and best work of some amazing engineers and scientists. Now in our 17th year of sponsoring the E&T Innovation Awards, we are as excited as ever to see how the entrants, finalists and winners will advance human knowledge and impact society. The diversity of the award finalists from startups to established multi-nationals, academic and commercial, and from students to chief engineers is inspiring, and all of them show how science, technology, engineering, and mathematics can make a big impact on our lives and address some of the planet’s greatest challenges.”

IET President, Professor Bob Cryan added: “The Innovation Awards highlight the very best examples of excellence in engineering and technology, honouring the incredible accomplishments of some inspiring innovators from across the sector. It’s wonderful to see finalists from all around the world, coming together to represent a wide range of different companies and organisations, and to see how they are all playing a key part in engineering a better world. On behalf of the IET and all our members, I send my warmest congratulations to all this year’s winners.”

The 2022 E&T Innovation Award winners are:

• Chief Engineer of the Year: Mallik Tatipamula
• Best Emerging Technology of the Year: Ars Electronica Futurelab, Johannes Kepler University and Siemens Healthineers for Virtual Anatomy, an immersive 3D environment to explore human anatomy
• Communications and IT: China Electric Power Research Institute for the development of HPLC technology to set up the energy internet communication highway
• Company of the Year: Space Forge for their work on in-space manufacturing, including the world’s first returnable satellite platform
• Cyber Security and Information Assurance: BT for developing cutting edge capabilities with Inflame – epidemiological malware simulation and automated response using deep reinforcement learning
• Difference Maker of the Year: Navjot Sawhney for The Washing Machine Project, a grassroots social enterprise aiming to solve some of the world’s most pressing humanitarian and development challenges
• Digital Health & Social Care: COVVI for engineering the most advanced bionic hand on the market, The COVVI Hand
• Equality, Diversity & Inclusion (EDI) in Engineering & Tech: Pūhoro STEMM Academy for their Indigenous solution to challenges in STEM equity
• Future Mobility: KAN Engineering, Ford Motor Company, IDIADA, Smart Mobility Living Lab: London, HORIBA MIRA, UTAC-Millbrook, University of Leeds and Zenzic for their flexible systems-of-systems approach to CAM simulation testing
• Intelligent Systems: BT for developing cutting edge capabilities with Inflame – epidemiological malware simulation and automated response using deep reinforcement learning
• Net Zero and Sustainability: National Grid Electricity Transmission and The University of Manchester for the retro-fill replacement of SF6 to accelerate the decarbonisation of the electricity network, accelerating a NetZero future
• Power and Energy: Oxford PV for perovskite photovoltaics to convert more energy from the power of the sun and accelerate the deployment of solar energy, enabling sustainable, affordable energy for communities around the world
• Future of Manufacturing: Russell Finex for the Russell AMPro Sieve Station, a powder handling solution
• SmartTech for a Smarter World: Tsinghua University for developing novel wide-band electromagnetic sensors and panoramic information perceptions for intelligent power grids
• Tech for Good: Kuronga Limited for the use of AI to optimise quality validation and grading, and to connect farmers with buyers
• Young Pioneer: Rayna Borah for developing Breathing Cart which uses hydroponics (growing plants without soil) to address a significant challenge farmers and food vendors face

The E&T Innovation Awards are sponsored by MathWorks, National Grid, RS, and created in partnership with the Innovation Leadership Forum.

You can find out more about the E&T Innovation Awards here: eandt.theiet.org/innovation.