2020 Judges

John manages the Business & Industry team at EngineeringUK, a not for profit organisation which works in partnership with the engineering community to promote the vital role of engineers and engineering to society. John studied Aeronautical Engineering Science at the University of Salford before joining BAE Systems as a Graduate Engineer, working on programmes including Tornado, Typhoon and Airbus A320. John then joined Lucas Engineering & Systems, developing Knowledge-Based Systems and Product Introduction software; whilst being sponsored for a Masters in Business Management Systems at Warwick Business School and for a Diploma in Marketing. John joined CSC and took charge of the Marketing and Strategic Planning for the Manufacturing, Aerospace and Automotive sectors. He then joined Management Consultants A.T. Kearney and managed the Marketing functions at a European level for their Aerospace & Defence, Automotive and Operations Practices and managed a major marketing campaign at a global level for A.T. Kearney’s Global Excellence in Operations (GEO) programme, collaborating with the Financial Times and Fortune.

Abbie was inspired to pursue a career in science and engineering by the Beagle 2 Mars lander programme, and gained her Masters’ Degree in Mechanical Engineering in 2010 at the University of Surrey. She joined Astrium at Stevenage, now Airbus Defence and Space, as a Mechanical Engineer in 2010, moving to the ExoMars rover team as a Spacecraft Structures Engineer in 2012. Abbie spent 5 years as the lead structures engineer for the Rover Vehicle, coordinating a team of design specialists, and responsible for producing a structure design meeting all of the functionality required of such a mission. Following successful delivery of the first full structure build, Abbie has recently taken on the role of Platform Delivery Manager for the Rover. In this role she is responsible for all of the subsystems on the Rover Platform being delivered, tested and integrated together to create the finished Rover, as well as the two non-flight test rovers which are being produced in parallel to demonstrate the design’s capabilities. Alongside the day job, Abbie takes on many STEM Education and Outreach roles, talking about the mission and her role to students and the wider public in order to promote engineering careers and the study of STEM subjects to the next generation.

Professor Andy Wright is the Director of Technology at BAE Systems. He has extensive experience in the development of strategy and delivery of large-scale domestic and international technology programmes. He has extensive experience in the use and development of Artificial Intelligence and Autonomy and has fielded large scale systems. In his current role he is responsible for the Technology programme for the company in the UK reporting into the UK Board. He is a Visiting Professor at the University of Southampton University in Computer Science. Member of the Royal Society College of Industrial Fellows and Fellow of the IET. BAE Systems develops technology-led defence, aerospace and security solutions

Samantha is a Deputy Director - Research Base at EPSRC. Her role covers Engineering, ICT, Monitoring the Portfolio and Research Infrastructure. Samantha joined EPSRC in 2007 after completing a Master’s Degree in Physics at the University of Bristol. Samantha has held a number of positions at EPSRC including; Cross-Disciplinary Interfaces Portfolio Manager, Head of Peer Review, Head of Balancing Capability and prior to this role, she was Head of the Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) Theme for three years.