Graduate structural engineer awarded runner up prize in prestigious NCE competition

After graduating from the University of Edinburgh with an MEng (Hons) in Structural Engineering with Architecture, Marcin joined Ramboll in September 2015. As Ramboll’s current NLA NextGen representative, Marcin is helping to re-energise Ramboll’s UK graduate network. He has also recently been part of the winning teams for both Ramboll’s 2016 Graduate Challenge and Ramboll’s Better Bankside internal competition.

Entering the award

The award submission asked graduates to highlight academic work and extra-curricular achievements. Having managed Marcin on his first Ramboll project, John Hurle, Senior Structural Engineer, recognised Marcin’s strengths and passion for engineering and encouraged him to enter.

As a pro-active and passionate engineer, Marcin already had a variety of experience under his belt that he was able to draw from, including; initiating a long-term volunteer rebuilding programme at a Kenyan primary school; re-establishing and acting as president for the ‘Engineers Without Borders’ society at University of Edinburgh; working for Ramboll on the King’s Cross Cooling Pod and a high-end, flagship retail store on Oxford Street; and devoting out of office hours to designing a travelling performance pavilion in Ghana that combines bamboo and shell structures – two of his passions.

Reaching the final

From over 130 entries, Marcin was chosen as one of six finalists who were then required to be interviewed by the judging panel at ICE headquarters. During his interview Marcin displayed a clear passion for design and engineering.

‘I asked the panel to think of me as a building; from my foundations (my strong sense of integrity, empathy, and care for the environment) and walls (my belief that bringing people together from many different backgrounds is the key to success), to my roof (my career which is only just beginning).

My passion for engineering is based on my belief that it can provide solutions which all communities can benefit from by combining simple, yet ingenious, ideas with cutting edge technologies. I therefore also outlined my desire to organise industry-wide TEDx talks at which young engineers can describe how their work impacts the world, their successes and their vision for our industry. Ultimately, I would like to use these to breathe fresh air into civil engineering; to both inspire and reinspire future and current practitioners.

To make the presentation more memorable I used LEGO props to demonstrate the natural curiosity and problem-solving desire that most of us possess and that the TEDx talks would foster.’

Energising experience

Summarising the experience and his incredible achievement, Marcin comments:

‘Reaching the final, and then coming joint second, has been a great and energising experience.  All the hard work I’ve put into my studies, work projects and extra-curricular activities has been recognised and rewarded and has made me feel really appreciated. I’d certainly encourage recent graduates to be bold and enter the awards in 2017.

Meeting the other finalists – two from Buro Happold, and one each from Laing O’Rourke, Atkins and Opus International Consultants – and hearing about their achievements was also inspirational.