World travel and a high media profile goes with the territory for the holder of the CIBSE/ASHRAE Graduate of the Year award as Ewen Rose reports.
Since picking up her prize last October, Emma Marshall of RPS in Newcastle has represented the UK industry at the ASHRAE Winter Meeting in Orlando, Florida; travelled up and down the country speaking at various events; and made regular appearances in the trade press.

'People certainly seem to know who I am now,' she says. 'And professionally that has been really helpful.'

The finalists in the Graduate Award, which is sponsored by Baxi Commercial, each give a five minute presentation to a judging panel that includes the CIBSE, ASHRAE (American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air Conditioning Engineers) and IMechE (Institution of Mechanical Engineers) presidents and for the first time this year the panel will also include the holder of the award, so Emma will be the first to have that honour.

'It will be a lot easier watching than taking part, that's for sure,' she says. 'It is a great experience, but pretty nerve wracking, I can tell you!'

The theme of her presentation last year was: 'Energy Efficiency in existing buildings - the key to creating a sustainable built environment'. This was linked to the theme of the ASHRAE president Gordon Holness and he was particularly impressed with Emma's grasp of the topic and recognition that we are not going to achieve much in terms of reducing the impact of climate change if we do not improve the carbon footprint of our existing buildings.

Exemplary

Emma was awarded a first class honours degree from Northumbria University and her final year project work was described as 'exemplary' by her tutor and head of course. She carried out her work placement at RPS and was given wide experience of projects in a number of sectors ranging from education to healthcare. Her work on Project Faraday and the Cramlington Junior Learning Village (Educational Science Initiative) was picked out for special praise by her employer.

Before being put forward for the Graduate Award, she had represented RPS at a TopE European Conference in Oslo, where she gave a presentation on 'How the UK is developing and applying sustainable and renewable technologies'.

'Winning the award really boosted my confidence in meetings and in public speaking,' she says. 'I'm much more relaxed now going into an environment where I don't really know the people as I feel I can get my ideas over.'

She is currently working on a major project in the Middle East and several Building Schools for the Future schemes so, at the tender age of just 24, she is already taking on a lot of technical and management responsibility.

Stuart Long, technical director at RPS, said (when putting her forward for the award) that her 'professional approach promotes women in this male-dominated industry and has provided both insight to prospective engineers and inspiration to others'.

And she has not finished studying. She has just completed the first year of her Masters degree in Building Services at the University of Northumbria and is due to graduate again in 2011.

The award has increased her involvement in CIBSE and she has helped to set up a branch of the Institution's Young Engineers' Network (YEN) at her university. She hopes this will play a major role in improving links between potential employers and young engineers as well as building more professional links between former students.

When she took part in the ASHRAE meeting in Orlando, she was impressed by the strength of the student networks in the Society and was keen to see something similar develop over here.

'ASHRAE is really a big deal in the US and the student members take it very seriously,' she says. 'It is really important for UK students to get involved in their industry networks as it helps to build up their confidence and improve their work prospects.'

Mainstream

Emma was presented with a special commemorative plaque in Orlando and took part in a conference that showed just how much issues surrounding energy efficiency have become mainstream in the US.

Holness told delegates that the US would need to spend $170 bn a year retrofitting buildings to meet its climate change targets, adding that the return on that investment would far outstrip what President Obama has been trying to get back from Wall Street following the hugely controversial bank bailout programme.

Obama has also committed Federal buildings to a 30% cut in energy use by 2015 and Holness urged ASHRAE members to take the lead on that effort. He offered the Society's 'triple whammy' of a new design standard for sustainable buildings, a revamped standard on energy efficiency in buildings that raises the energy efficiency benchmark by another 30%, and the country's first building energy labelling programme as a toolkit for engineers to go out and capture the business of greening the US building stock.

'It was so helpful to get a feel for the bigger picture,' says Emma. 'Having an involvement with ASHRAE allows you to put your work into a much wider context. We tend to be a bit dismissive about the US attitude to energy over here, but it was clear from the meeting that it is a huge issue for US engineers.'

Since coming back from Orlando, Emma took part in a 'no holds barred' debate with other young professionals during the CIBSE National Conference in London.

The dinner/debate was organised by YEN and alongside Emma was a young architect; a QS and a developer/client. The sometimes heated discussion considered the increasingly urgent need for better collaboration between the various members of the construction supply chain.

Emma said engineers needed to be involved at the earliest possible point in the design process, adding that a lack of clarity and cohesion about the design intent often undermined the process.

In the end, each of the young professionals agreed that better teamwork was essential to deliver a sustainable built environment and the large audience added their voice to a proposal to 'just do it!'. This was subsequently taken up by both the CIBSE president Rob Manning and FETA president Paul Wenden.

'It shows that the voice of young engineers is being heard,' commented Morwenna Wilson of Arup, who is chair of YEN, and also won the CIBSE/ASHRAE Graduate Award in 2008. She organised the debate and continues to play a highly influential role within CIBSE.

'Since winning the Graduate Award, I have been really embraced by CIBSE,' she says. 'Obviously, as a woman I was delighted to see the award going to Emma after me, but equally I think the award helps all young engineers to have a voice.

'It has had a direct impact on my work and given me a much wider role in the industry.'

Vision

Morwenna was asked to serve as a representative of CIBSE and Arup on the Innovation & Growth Team (IGT), set up by chief construction adviser Paul Morrell. This pan-industry body was created to assess the state of the construction sector and it includes a group dedicated to young professionals charged with exploring the vision for the industry from 2020 to 2050.

'On behalf of CIBSE, and as an eligible member of the 'second generation', I sit on the IGT 2050 Group,' says Morwenna. 'This is despite the fact I am currently planning to draw my government pension in 2048 - no doubt legislative changes will keep me working well beyond then!'

Morwenna has worked in Arup's multi-discipline, building engineering team since graduating with an MEng in 2005. She is already a highly experienced engineer able to work with clients, architects and other project team members, earning positive praise for her contributions and dedication.

'Winning the award was a fantastic opportunity - I would say life changing,' she says. 'I am really grateful because it gave me the chance to be involved with the major industry issues and to have some influence over the big decisions we face on climate change and the future of the profession.'

· This year's CIBSE/ ASHRAE Graduate of the Year award takes place at the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, Westminster on October 7. The winner will be going to Las Vegas for the ASHRAE Winter Conference visit. For details of how to enter or nominate a young, graduate engineer visit: www.cibseashrae.org