Nasrin Al Nasiri, a post-doctoral research associate at the Centre for Advanced Structural Ceramics (at Imperial College London), has won the Gold Medal and a £3,000 prize in the engineering section at this year’s SET for Britain research poster competition.

SET for Britain is an annual competition for young researchers that is organised by the House of Commons Parliamentary and Scientific Committee in collaboration with a number of organisations, including the Royal Academy of Engineering. The competition is divided into five subject areas: engineering, biological and bio-medical sciences; chemistry; physics; and maths.

Ms Al Nasiri impressed MPs and the judges with her communication skills and her poster display entitled: Environmental barrier coating for silicon-based ceramic composites.

The poster showcased her success in developing a cost-effective and efficient material with which to coat the
silicon-based composite materials that are used in jet-engine turbines in order to protect them against environmental wear.

David Zilli, a PhD student at the Uni-versity of Southampton, was awarded the Silver Medal in engineering and a £2,000 prize for his work on developing a mobile-phone app for amateur and professional entomologists.

The Bronze Medal and a £1,000 prize went to Agnieszka Dzielendziak, a PhD student in the faculty of Engineering and the Environment at the same university, for her work on how materials used in ship-building are degraded by the marine environment.

Volker Schultz, CEO of Essar Oil UK (the sponsor of the Gold Medal for engineering), said: “These awards are important, because they support the excellent work being undertaken by so many young engineers and technologists and promote this to a much wider audience. Innovation is essential in the continuing progress and development of the
UK’s research and development capability; I’m proud that this competition helps to encourage such impressive research projects.”