The award is named after past President and Academy Fellow Sir Denis Rooke and is normally awarded to an individual or small team (of no more than five) based in the UK that has supported the Academy's aims and work through their initiative in promoting engineering to the public.
2024 winner
Dr Shini Somara - fluid dynamicist and media broadcaster; founder of eSTEAMd Media; Pro Chancellor, Brunel University
Dr Shini Somara, a distinguished engineer, author and media presenter, is a graduate of Brunel University London, and holds an engineering doctorate in computational fluid dynamics and a first-class honours degree in mechanical engineering.
With a career spanning over two decades, Shini has significantly influenced the engineering landscape, particularly in inspiring young people and marginalised groups to pursue STEM careers. Her popular YouTube series, Crash Course Engineering and Crash Course Physics, have collectively garnered nearly 60 million views, making complex engineering concepts accessible and engaging to a global audience. These series have been incorporated into educational syllabi, amplifying their impact.
Shini’s dedication to diversity and inclusion is evident through her numerous public outreach initiatives. Her book Engineers Making a Difference, distributed to 16,000 secondary schools in the UK, celebrates the diversity of the engineering profession. She continues to produce and host podcasts and other digital media content aimed at promoting underrepresented groups and women in STEM.
Shini currently serves as Pro Chancellor of Brunel University. Her tireless efforts have fostered a more varied and inclusive future for the engineering sector, while also increasing public understanding of the field. She aims to strengthen relationships between academia and industry, promoting innovative, conscious and sustainable engineering solutions through a spirit of inclusion.
2024 highly commended
Avye Couloute, aged 16, is on a mission to get more girls involved in Tech.
Avye was nominated this year for the Rooke Award for her work in encouraging girls and young people into STEM careers. In 2018, she founded Girls into Coding, which offers free events where girls aged 10-14 explore coding, robotics, physical computing, engineering, and 3D printing.
She advocates for diversity in engineering and through her workshops has already engaged thousands of girls. She has presented at international events, writes blogs and articles, does interviews and fundraises to provide girls with physical computing kits and STEM themed books.
In a field of other candidates with much longer careers, the Awards Committee were hugely impressed by Avye’s achievements and leadership at such a young age. They took the unprecedented decision to give her a highly commended award.
Avye Couloute (right) receives the Rooke Award highly commended certificate on 24 September 2024 from Academy CEO Dr Hayaatun Sillem CBE.
Recent winners
2023: Ruth Amos - co-founder of Kids Invent Stuff
Ruth Amos is an award-winning British inventor, presenter and professional speaker. She was Young Engineer for Britain in 2006 for designing StairSteady as part of her GCSE Resistant Materials Course.
She then co-founded the YouTube channel ‘Kids Invent Stuff’ with fellow inventor, Shawn Brown. The videos target primary aged children (aged 4-11 years) where they can submit invention ideas to be brought to life by real engineers. The channel has had millions of views and annually has over 10,000 invention ideas submitted.
Her work in engaging children with STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Maths) has inspired children in a variety of ways. She has established strong connections with industry partners and institutions to create new outreach projects. Each of her projects is unique, and she sits down with sponsors and partners to craft one-of-a-kind, novel engagement opportunities to inspire the next generation of engineers & inventors.
Ruth’s next project is the Spirit of Invention exhibition at the National Archives. It is a free exhibition to encourage people to think about what it means to be an inventor, open to the public till 29 October 2023. She is continuing to create videos for Kids Invent Stuff and welcomes applications from all 4–11-year-olds.
2022: Dr Mark McBride-Wright - founder of EqualEngineers
Dr Mark McBride-Wright is recognised for his tireless efforts to promote rapid cultural change in engineering and technology. Through EqualEngineers’ events and training, Mark has engaged thousands of people to ensure organisations across the profession are truly inclusive.
Their pioneering diversity employment scheme, the Pathways Programme, helps to address inclusion issues that disproportionately affect engineering students from underrepresented groups.
As a gay safety engineer, Mark is also the chair and co-founder of InterEngineering, a non-profit industry body that connects, informs, and empowers LGBTQ+ engineers and supporters.
Now boasting a membership of 1,000, InterEngineering has allowed LGBTQ+ engineers to become increasingly recognised through presence at national Pride parades, producing open-source support materials on a range of topics (including Transitioning in the Workplace and Embedding Diversity in the Supply Chain).
2021: Dr Larissa Suzuki - Data and AI Practice Lead, Google Cloud
Dr Larissa Suzuki is, a technologist, entrepreneur and engineer who is working with Google internet evangelist Dr Vint Cerf to develop the Interplanetary Internet, as well as working on initiatives with UCL and Google Cloud on sustainability and smart cities. At the age of 17, Larissa initiated an educational program at weekends in her native Brazil, teaching maths and computing to young people and their parents, supporting them in acquiring new skills to escape poverty. Every year, her programme had over 13,000 attendees from economically deprived backgrounds.
After moving to the UK to pursue a PhD in computer science, amongst many initiatives, Larissa founded the UCL Society of Women Engineers and co-founded the London branch of the Anita Borg Institute for Women and Technology, bringing the joy of computer programming and engineering to thousands of women, minorities and young people. In her career of over 15 years so far, she has personally mentored over 400 women. Her initiatives have helped the Computer Department at UCL to receive the Athena Swan scheme’s Silver Award, and the Minerva Informatics Equality Award 2020.
Dr Suzuki has also drawn powerfully on her own personal experience of autism to champion disability inclusion and neurodiversity. She has created and supported initiatives for women in technology in all the industries she has worked in. As part of Google, she is an active member of the Disability Alliance, speaking openly about her autism and the need for companies to embrace neurodiversity and empathic leaders in their workforce. She has also contributed to the company’s disability inclusion training, which is aimed at promoting inclusion and demystifying the stereotypes surrounding people with disabilities, especially those who suffer from invisible neurodevelopmental disabilities.
