Engineer of the Year 2021
Dr David Fernandez Rivas
David Fernandez Rivas winner Prince Friso Engineer Prize 2021
Dr David Fernandez Rivas (39) has been elected Engineer of the Year and winner of the Prins Friso Ingenieursprijs 2021. Fernandez Rivas is associate professor of fluid dynamics at the University of Twente and also runs the companies BuBclean, for ultrasonic cleaning and InkBeams, for needle-free injections. In the digital presence of Princess Beatrix and Princess Mabel, the Royal Institute of Engineers (KIVI) presented the award in March 2021. It is awarded annually to the engineer who stands out in expertise, innovativeness, social impact and entrepreneurship.
Needle-free injection
Fernandez Rivas and his team from the University of Twente are working on a method to inject drugs without the need for a needle. The trick is to accelerate droplets in such a way that they go right through the epidermis.
"I prefer to work on biomedical applications, because you can improve people's lives permanently with these. Techniques come and go, but medicine will always remain." Last year showed that. Partly because of corona, society has become polarised and trust in many institutions has diminished, argues Fernandez Rivas. "To remove the risks of this downward spiral, I see it as my job to promote the importance of engineering and education as our best chance for a better future."
Engineer of the Year and Audience Award Winner
He received the Prince Friso Engineer Prize for Fernandez Rivas digitally from the hands of KIVI president Joanne Meyboom. Fernadez Rivas also turned out to be the public's favourite, winning him the Audience Award as well. Meyboom said the expert jury was struck by his inspiration. "He inspires enormously and has particular expertise on specific topics, but also looks at the breadth. He explicitly makes himself and his knowledge openly available and uses his entrepreneurship to actively pass on his knowledge. But above all, he wants to be an independent scientist, leading motivated professionals into challenging research at the intersection of physics and biomedical science."
Runner-up 2021
Dr Abeje Mersha, a lecturer in unmanned robotic systems at Saxion University of Applied Sciences in Enschede, the Netherlands, and his team developed a drone that can deploy immediately, 24 hours a day, seven days a week, when a call comes in. Completely autonomously, it can then determine whether or not it is a false alarm and which emergency service should deploy.
Third finalist 2021
Ir. Rob Dijcker senior project leader & consultant Circular Solutions, Witteveen+Bos, developed +CircularDesign, a design tool that shows the degree of circularity. The user can immediately see on a dashboard where all materials come from, but also where the materials can go when the design needs replacement.
Last year, the award went to hydraulic engineer Bas Reedijk, for his work on the Afsluitdijk, among others. A year earlier, Maja Rudinac, inventor and developer of care robot Lea, won.
