Wow! Thank you for voting for me to win I’m an Engineer. I am thrilled and really honoured that you wanted me to win. I love my job and I hope that came across in the live chats and you feel you now understand what an engineer is a bit better. Maybe I have inspired a few of you to be one too? You have definitely inspired me! I’m in the middle of writing my PhD thesis, which is hard work, and talking to you all about my work has reminded me why I love my research.

I am very excited about winning the £500 as it will enable me to develop my Accident and Emergency Engineering Challenge and make it really amazing. It is a practical activity for students which asks them to design a device for fixing a broken bone. It takes them through the engineering process from designing through to building and testing their device. I’m hoping to be able to come and meet some of the schools involved in the Health Zone and do the challenge with them. It would be wonderful to meet you all in real life!

I just want to thank a few people involved in the event. The other engineers in my zone, Urvashi, Rachel, Billy and my opponent in the final Louise, all worked so hard and did such a great job that anyone of us deserved to win the zone. It was great to get to know them over the last two weeks and find out about their careers. I’d also like to thank everyone at I’m an Engineer HQ firstly for coming up with the idea for the event in the first place and secondly for running the event with such good humour and efficiency. Even when the gremlins were misbehaving and the site was running slow you handled it with such professionalism.

The last thing I want to say to the students is a bit of a cliché, but follow your dreams! Although I’d like to think some of you will become engineers now I know all of you won’t. I hope you saw that if you try your best and say yes to opportunities that come your way, you too can have a really rewarding career and have a bright future. I wish you all the best in whatever career you choose to do!