Steve Vick International Design Engineer wins IGEM YPPC 2017

Matthew Maclennan, Mechanical Design Engineer with Steve Vick International (SVI), was announced IGEM’s 2017 Young Persons Paper Competition winner at a prestigious event held at the IET Birmingham, Austin Court, on Thursday 15th June.

The grand final of this year’s competition saw nine heat winners showcase the best engineering and management talent from around the industry and compete to be crowned the winner. The finalists were drawn from across IGEM’s District Sections in the UK as well as from New Zealand and Hong Kong.

Matt won the title for his Paper on the development of the SMARTester, a product developed by SVI as an NIA project for Wales & West Utilities, in which Matt played a key role amongst other members of the design team. He wins an iPad Mini and an all-expenses paid trip to the World Gas Conference 2018 in Washington DC.

In summarising the new gas pressure tester, Matt said, “This is a product that gives the engineer a highly accurate pressure sensor connected to a Smart Phone App, developed specifically to test gas installations and mains for tightness and strength. It allows evidence traceability and offers a simple, accurate way to report live pressure tests back to an office database.”

The sensor provides pressure readings up to four times a second using wireless connectivity. It has an on-board calibration certificate that is downloaded and checked every time the sensor is connected to a smartphone or tablet.

The App uses the latest IGEM standards and when a test is complete, the data is transmitted to the back office where test certificates can be generated and a live map of test activity viewed.
All finalists had already submitted an abstract on their chosen subject and made a presentation before judges to win their individual Section heats during March and April. To compete in the final, they had to prepare a 1,500 word report, make a 15 minute presentation and answer questions from the panel of industry experts.

YPPC 2017 judges Industry experts

This year’s YPPC judges have together clocked up almost 130 years’ experience in the Industry! They were Andy McPhee, Director and Partner of Rune Associates Limited and Chair of IGEM Professional Development Committee, Pauline Walsh, Director of Gas Transmission at National Grid, Graeme Cleeton, Vice President UK Operations, ULC Robotics, Inc, Sheila Lauchlan, IGEM President and Director of Edinburgh based consultancy Perfect Dimensions Ltd. and Rob Lumb, Mechanical Design Engineer with Synthotech and YPPC 2016 runner up.

Having won the South West & Wales Section heats on 21st March in Newport, Matt will now have his name engraved on the prestigious IGEM YPPC trophy and will receive a mini replica trophy to keep. All the competition finalists have their papers published in IGEM’s journal Gi.

Matt Maclennan is 34 and studied mechanical engineering. His career path has taken him via building engines for race cars and aircraft components for GKN Aerospace before joining SVI two years ago. Matt says, “I’m honoured to win the YPPC 2017, especially against such talent from all over the world, not just the UK.”