Community Conference 2024

Following the success of our inaugural event in 2023, the Community Conference was designed to celebrate our diverse community and to encourage networking, collaboration, and building new partnerships.

Sessions were organised within four themes of Green Futures, Emerging Technologies, Collaboration & Partnerships and Engineers of the Future.

Attendees enjoyed a number of sessions including awardee-led lightning talks, workshops and panel discussions that covered topics including peer-to-peer mentoring, personal assistive robotics, critical materials, public engagement and commercialising emerging technologies.

Guests also had the chance to explore an exhibition showcasing work from Community members, including carbon capture technology, 3D printing for sustainable manufacture, engineering in the film industry and building sustainable societies through Minecraft.

Looking back at the Conference

During the first day of the conference, awardees were given the opportunity to attend a site visit to learn more about some local organisations and get to know each other. Hosted by their fellow awardees, they visited:

The conference sessions then got underway with a variety of lightning talks, workshops, Q&As and panel discussions, where fifty percent of sessions were created and delivered by Awardees. Some of the sessions included:

Panel discussions

Critical Materials: Following the publication of the National Engineering Policy Centre’s Critical Materials report, Professor Manish Chhowalla FREng chaired a discussion with Professor Rebecca Lunn FREng, Professor Laura Cohen MBE and Professor Joan Cordiner FREng.
Engineers of the Future: Chaired by Engineering Leaders Scholarship awardee Floriane Fidegnon, the panel consisting of Emma Critchon, Dr Despina Moschu and Dr Ian Ritchey FREng discussed the Engineers 2030 report and the skills needed for engineers of the future.
Commercialising Emerging Technologies: Chaired by Jessica McCreadie, investment director at Northern Gritstone, awardees were brought in for an in-depth discussion on how to commercialise technology. The panel included Ben Hovell, Principal Engineer at Dyson and RAEng Visiting Professor as well as Professor Jason Hallet, a winner of the 2024 Princess Royal Silver medal.

Workshops

Two awardee-hosted workshops, giving attendees interactive sessions around peer to peer mentoring and nuclear energy.

Awardee Lightning Talks

Awardees were given the opportunity to present their work in five-minute talks on the themes of Green Futures and Emerging Technologies.

Awardee Q&A sessions

Awardees hosted a series of informative Q&A sessions, bringing attendees into discussions around personal assistive robotics, entrepreneurship and people-centric processes.

The Community Conference will return in November 2025.