UK member qualifies for Speak Out for Engineering grand finale

Institution of Mechanical Engineers member Paul Yuile is set to travel to India in 2019 to take part in the grand finale of the Speak Out for Engineering competition after winning the UK heat.

Paul says he was first interested in the competition because it offered him something different to his usual university work, as well as free pizza.

“I heard about it through a social media post from a local IMechE young member, and thought it could be a good opportunity to challenge myself,” he says. “At the time I was bogged down with uni work and fancied doing something a bit different – as a bonus, there was free pizza on offer.

“Things sort of snowballed from there.”

The competition required Paul and the other finalists to give a technical presentation to the judging panel, with 90% of the points available awarded for a clear and engaging presentation, with the remaining 10% for technical content.

He says that is important for engineers to develop such soft skills, and that this competition is an excellent way of doing just that.

“Engineers need more than just technical skills,” he says. “Most engineers at some point in their career will be required to interface with people from other backgrounds, who may not have a technical grasp on the topic of conversation. Giving engineers a platform to practice presentations that are designed for a non-technical audience is a great premise for a competition.

“To stand up and give a speech to any audience, you need to be able to consider your topic matter from their point of view – you need to be able to disseminate your message in a way they will understand and engage with. As engineers, it can be very easy to fall into the habit of using acronyms and technical jargon that sometimes we don't fully understand ourselves, so I figured that this competition would give me a good platform to form good habits, and simplify things down to make sense to people from different backgrounds.”

Institution of Mechanical Engineers Engineering Policy Advisor Matthew Rooney, who sat on the judging panel for the event, says: “I congratulate Paul Yuile on being the UK and Ireland Speak Out For Engineering winner for 2018, as well as the other finalists for making it a very high standard of competition.

“Paul gave an engaging and clear presentation on the challenges of decarbonising Britain’s electricity system. The judges were impressed by his confident speaking style and how he made his talk accessible to a diverse audience.

“I hope he continues to use his obvious talent for communication in bringing engineering to as wide an audience as possible and wish him the best of luck for the global final in India next year.”