Innovative engineers awarded with top honours

The winners of the highly coveted 2013 Engineering Excellence Awards Sydney were announced on Friday night (20 September 2013), highlighting the industry’s capacity for creativity and innovation through the achievement of groundbreaking accomplishments.

The awards celebrated a broad range of projects from medical devices and software, to infrastructure developments and robotic systems.

Hosted by Engineers Australia, Sydney Division, over 450 engineering professionals gathered at The Star Event Centre.

Taking home top honours with the Bradfield Award, recognising highest overall achievement, was the Computer Aided River Management (CARM) Project by the State Water Corporation with joint entrant Water for Rivers.

The judges recognised the sustainable solutions implemented as part of the $65 million upgrade of infrastructure and operational processes throughout the Murrumbidgee River System. In addition, CARM won the Excellence Award for Engineering for Regional Communities and received a highly commended in the category of Software and Embedded Systems.

CSIRO with joint entrant Catapult Sports received the prestigious President’s Award, for revolutionary technology that is able to eliminate current limitations in GPS poor environments in order to track elite athletes; fulfilling a growing need by coaches and broadcast media for accurate results.

Personal Award winners included Dr Bronwyn Evans, Professional Engineer of the Year. As Senior Vice President of Global Quality, Clinical and Regulatory for Cochlear Ltd, she has had a critical role as the leader of a team of 90 engineers and scientists in ensuring the safe and reliable application of Cochlear implants around the world.

Matt Barrie, CEO of Freelancer.com, an online outsourcing marketplace which connects over 7.3 million professionals globally, was awarded Entrepreneur of the Year.