Techworks Awards 2021
15/12/2021
As a sponsor of the event, IC Resources had the pleasure of supporting and attending the TechWorks Awards and Gala Dinner 2021 last week at the Leonardo Hotel St Paul’s. The structure of the evening was great and a big thank you goes out to Techworks from the six IC Resources' attendees, as well as our 40 guests.
As someone new to the industry (I am currently doing a placement year at IC Resources) It was interesting to see the power of the Tech community and the encouragement that is given to collaboration across sectors. Techworks demonstrates that being open and involved in this community empowers companies with innovation, collaboration and ultimately business growth. The evening is a great opportunity for companies to lift their heads up from their daily activities and become more active in the community around them. The night identified some common challenges and some of the possible responses to tackling them, across industries, academia and government. Ultimately the goal has to be to ensure the UK is amongst the best locations globally to start, build and scale a deep-tech organisation.
A big thank you to the guest speakers, Simon Segars and Piers Linney!
Firstly Simon Segas, CEO at Arm. He joined us virtually, expressing the importance of new technology in solving global challenges. One example: low power IoT sensors which are able to listen out for indicators of deforestation, such as chainsaws and motorbikes. Distributing these across, for example, the Amazon is a step in the right direction to reduce deforestation.
Piers Linney, recognised for his appearance on the BBC show “Dragons Den”, shared his experience, insights and practical business advice. He was open about his business failures and successes which were relatable to the audience and gave an honest insight that the path you plan is never the path you end up taking. The Q&A offered an opportunity to delve into the Ex-Dragon’s business mindset. He provided great advice to his younger self, inspiring the students and graduates in the room.
The UKESF (UK Electronics Skills Foundation) does a great of a job of encouraging young people to study electronics and pursue careers in this sector. It was amazing to see the diversity in applicants this year and huge congratulations to everyone involved.
The winners are shown below:
- The young engineer of the year award: Joshua Crook (Diodes)
- The UKESF RF Engineer Student Competition: Patrick Hope (Univeristy of Surrey)
- The UKESF Scholar of the year awards: Oana Lazar (Siemens, UltraSoC, University of Southampton)
And a big congratulations to the Techworks 2021 winners:
- The Techworks Emerging Deep Tech Award: ITM Power
- The Techworks Disruptive Innovation Award: FlexEnable and Ultraleap
- The IoT Champion Award: Exploit
- The NMI Manufacturing site of the year award: Horiba
- The NMI manufacturing supplier of the year award: SPTS
- The NMI R&D Excellence award: Swansea University
- The Techworks green technology award: Aimsun
- The Techworks company of the award: Nquiring minds
At a personal level, I was impressed and surprised by the buzz of collaboration, communication and camaraderie amongst everyone gathered at the event. It was also great to get a chance to meet face to face some of the clients and candidates that IC-Resources support. The fact that so many people attended is a testament to the resilience of the industry. Next year will be even bigger and better!
If you would like to discuss this further, please contact me harry.jaquiss@ic-resources.com
