IET 2008 Ambition and achievement awards ceremony

Please find below a selection of photographs and delegate feedback from the 2008 Ambition and Achievement Awards Ceremony, held at the Riverbank Park Plaza Hotel in London on 3 November.

The IET's annual Awards Ceremony represents an opportunity to recognise some of the world’s most outstanding engineers and technologists and to acknowledge the talents of some exceptional students and young professionals.

It is also an opportunity to review what the IET's Awards and Scholarships programme has achieved over the last year. At the 2008 ceremony it was noted that, due to a comprehensive marketing campaign, the numbers of scholarship applications received had tripled and, during peak periods in 2008, the IET's awards web pages received over 10,000 visitors.

None of these achievements would have been possible without the support of the companies who generously sponsored the 2008 Ambition and Achievement Awards programme: AREVA, BAE Systems, BP, EDF Energy, IBM, Pace PLC and RS Components.

This year's Ceremony was unique in that, for the first time, it incorporated the Present around the World Competition International Final; the IET's technical presentation competition for students and young professionals. Four contestants each gave a ten minute presentation (interspersed throughout the ceremony) and the winner was announced towards the end of the event.

The four contestants were drawn from all over the globe and, in order to reach this stage of the competition, had had to fight off stiff competition in various ‘Present around the World’ heats in their home country. The winner of the international final (Shiyu Liu from the Asia Pacific region) was presented with a £1,000 cheque and the runner-up (Sachini Yapa who represented Australasia) a £500 cheque. Profiles of all four contestants can be found in the Ceremony Programme (see the right hand downloads menu) and photos can be found below.

Pete Samson, who represented Toronto in the Present around the World final commented that:

‘Everything about the Ambition and Achievement Awards Ceremony was amazing. It was an honour to compete against such fine people and the effort everyone put into the ceremony was incredible. It was also a great networking opportunity; as an active young member and recent graduate entering a career. Meeting representatives from the sponsoring companies like BP and BT, other competitors and IET executive members was really rewarding.’


Sachini Yapa - Present around the World International Final runner-up	Present around the World contestants with David Nicoll (chairman of judging panel) and Maggie Aderin (presenter)

IET awards ceremony stage	Maggie Aderin - awards ceremony presenter

Guests networking	Alexy Karenowska (winner of the Leslie H Paddle scholarship) with Chris Nott (IBM) and Maggie Aderin (presenter)