Engineer of the Year 2026

Excellent entrepreneurship, exceptional technical expertise and strong social commitment: Martijn Otten has it all.

Entrepreneurship is in Martijn Otten's blood. In ten years, he built a small family business into a global high-tech market leader with a turnover of tens of millions of euros. 'In a very specific niche, we made it to the world's top,' says Otten. That niche? Flexographic printing machines for the packaging industry in particular. 'Everything comes together in our machines, and we develop and produce most of it ourselves: precision mechatronics, mechanics, electronics, vision, software and robotics - up to and including laser technology and AI.'

According to Otten, the secret of his company's success AV Flexologic is not even so much in the specific technology, but mainly in the way it works. 'Listening carefully to customers, building prototypes, continuing late into the night until it works. Young engineers are given a lot of trust and responsibility in the process.'

It would have been obvious if Otten had ended up in the maritime sector. His parents went through nautical school and the family on his mother's side owns the large towing shipping company Multraship in Terneuzen. 'Playing with boats I have always liked,' Otten told De Ingenieur last autumn. But he ended up in mechanical engineering, where he was allowed to work with his hands. Now Otten is still making boats. Since 2024, the Delft alumnus has been leading a team of volunteers making unmanned boats on behalf of NGO Protect Ukraine, which are successfully used for resupply, rapid evacuations or other high-risk missions. As technical project leader and system architect himself, Otten went along to Ukraine to test the aquadrones with the soldiers. 'Based on that, we made the design more robust, easier to repair.'

Soldiers are in less danger thanks to the aquadrones, Otten says. He is also proud to be able to show in this way that a small team of volunteer engineers can achieve a lot even with few resources. 'Should I win the Prins Friso Ingenieursprijs, I see it mainly as a tribute to my way of working, with small, dedicated teams using engineering to make a difference.' As Engineer of the Year, he wants to set up 'Engineers for Impact': a platform where young engineers who want to contribute are quickly linked to social engineering issues. 'The idea stems from what I experienced around Ukraine: the will to help is often there, but the route is lacking. An engineering career is not only about successful products, but also about what you do with your knowledge and network for others, near and far.'

Text: Pancras Dijk, The Engineer