On 8 February, Alex Watts from our Ashby office won the Midlands Branch, PIG Sir John Parker Paper Competition at an event hosted by National Grid.
About the competitionEntrants were required required to write a 200 word synopsis on something in the pipelines industry, whether that be a new innovation or just an exciting project in which they had been involved. Alex chose to write hers on Metal versus Plastic pipes. Not coming from an engineering background, Alex felt this wasn't an obvious choice!The EventThe presentation part of the competition was hosted by National Grid in Hinckley, Leicestershire and began with a buffet and the opportunity to network. Then came the time for the final presentations, from the three girls who had made it through; Jennifer, who was a pipeline integrity engineer; Lucy, who was a water quality engineer for Severn Trent Water, and Alex, a Placement Student in Ashby's Utilities & Infrastructure team.The first two presentations were very interesting and different – one was about how to pig an un-piggable pipe and the other was on a computer system innovation within Severn Trent called Waterpedia.Alex was very nervous as this subject matter was not something of which she had great knowledge – her learning was purely based on her own research, but it turns out the presentation went very well!The AwardAlex was presented with the Sir John Parker Shield and a cheque for &500. She said: " Winning was amazing because I couldnt believe that I was able to beat such clever engineers! It was also nice that all my research and hard work was rewarded!"If you have any questions about this article, please contact Alex Watts on 01530 410689 or email here