Cibse/Ashrae Graduate of the Year

Cibse and Ashrae have named Lee Tabis, a 22 year-old trainee design engineer with engineering, IT and facilities services business NG Bailey, Graduate of the Year 2012. He received his award from the Chartered Institution of Building Services Engineers (Cibse) president David Fisk during the Cibse Young Engineers’ Awards, sponsored by Lochinvar and Ruskin Air Management, held at the Institution of Mechanical Engineers in London on 11 October.

Another accolade at the event was the award of Employer of the Year which went to building services engineering consultancy JDP for its outstanding record of investment in the education of young engineers and its advanced apprenticeship programme.

Tabis, who is a graduate of Leeds College of Building, was selected from a shortlist of seven young engineers. Each finalist was challenged to give a presentation to an audience of over 140 and a judging panel that included the presidents of Cibse and the American Society of Heating, Refrigeration and Air-Conditioning Engineers (Ashrae, Cibse’s counterpart in America) and last year’s Graduate of the Year Angela Malynn.

Stephen Matthews, Cibse chief executive, said: “Winning the Cibse Ashrae Graduate of the Year Award is a significant achievement and Lee has done extremely well in what was a very high standard of competition this year. As an industry we need to encourage new talent into the building services engineering profession and recognise and support that talent, and this award is part of this.”

Tabis' prize is a trip to Dallas, Texas to attend the Ashrae Winter Meeting in January 2013. There he will be a VIP guest of the Society and will serve as Cibse’s ‘ambassador’ for young engineers.

There was a high quality field of seven finalists who were all winners and represented the very best of the young engineers starting out in their career. Chris Marien of Brunel University and design practice Calfordseaden was the runner up and received a cheque for £500 from the Rumford Club. Imran Shaikh, a graduate of BITS Pilani in India and a design engineer with CKR Consulting in Dubai, was placed third and received £250.

Also shortlisted were Dinachi Onuzo of Imperial College and AECOM; Georgina Donnelly from Cambridge University and Arup; Baljit Bhogal of Coventry University and WSP; and Tom Greenhill from Bristol University and Max Fordham.

Each finalist had just five minutes to address the topic: ‘How will I help to engineer better communities?’ This subject was chosen to complement the theme of Ashrae President Tom Watson’s talk to the UK industry on ‘Broadening Horizons’, which was another highlight of the packed programme at the event on October 11.

In the Employer of the Year awards Aecom was named the winner of the large company category; Max Fordham won the medium company section; with JDP taking the small employer award as well as the overall accolade. Shortlisted were Hoare Lea; Cundall Johnson and Method.