IGEM NEWS | Young Persons Paper Competition 2015 final 32 Reigning victorious SGN’s Richard Mason scoops the winner’s trophy at the YPPC 2015 grand final A lready winners of their regional heats, the pressure was on to see which of this year’s finalists would impress our judges and win an iPad mini plus a ticket to LNG18, the 18th International Conference & Exhibition on Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) taking place in Perth, Australia next April. IGEM President Elect Andy Cummings offered a warm welcome to all and thanked Rhead Group for their generosity in sponsoring this year’s final before introducing Richard Mason, Innovation Project Manager at SGN, to deliver the first presentation of the aſternoon entitled ‘Opening up the gas market’. Richard was followed by: • Harry Whitaker, Lead Analyst in Policy and Corporate Affairs, BG Group - Recent trends in wholesale gas price formation • Gloriane Kam, Network Development Engineer, The Hong Kong and China Gas Co. Ltd - Simple bolts are not simple • Katie Boxall, Energy Forecaster, National Grid - Improving short term demand forecasting in today’s commercially focussed gas industry • Alan Chiu, Assistant Engineer, The Hong Kong and China Gas Co. Ltd - Application of a water flow generator on a battery powered gas water heater • Shaun Bosomworth, Project Supervisor for Major Projects, Northern Gas Networks - Overcrossings – bridging the gap to ensure integrity • Eugene Gilmore, Engineering Officer, Phoenix Natural Gas - Alleviating the effects of subsidence within the Phoenix Natural Gas network • Thanos Avlonitis, MSc student, University of Salford - Use of microcontrollers in the gas industry • Morgan James, Asset Officer, Wales & West Utilities - Below ground modules: defining maintenance and intervention Having already submitted a 1,500 word paper about their chosen subject, each finalist presented for 15 minutes to the assembled audience of more than 60 industry representatives before taking questions from the judges. IGEM President Chris Clarke, Director of Asset Management and HS&E for Wales and West Utilities, was joined on the judging panel by Gregg Dadson, LNG Storage Engineer at National Grid, and winner of the 2014 YPPC, Ben Clarke, Business Centre Manager at Capita, retired Northern Gas Networks Network Operations Director Chris Gorman, and Clare Morley, Chief Executive of Policy Connect. Special thanks to Clare for stepping in to judge at the last minute. Aſter much deliberation, the judges decided to award first prize to Richard Mason for his work on widening the Wobbe index. When asked how he felt about his win, Richard said: “It’s fantastic to have been singled out from a group of such high calibre finalists. I was very lucky to be offered the chance to work on this project. As it’s an international piece of work, the opportunity to go to Australia is a massive plus.” “Richard was selected as the overall winner for a very good paper and superb delivery of his presentation combined with clear knowledge of his subject area,” said judge Gregg Dadson. “What impressed me was the potential impact of the work Richard has been involved in. It’s not just applicable to LNG but also to other types of gas and therefore could make a significant contribution to the green gas market,” added head judge Chris Clarke. Second place was awarded to Shaun Bosomworth and third to Thanos Avlonitis for their respective work on overcrossings and microcontrollers. Both took away a Kindle Fire HD for their efforts. “IGEM’s YPPC never fails to attract highly intelligent and talented individuals with interesting and engaging projects that make choosing the winners a tough challenge. This year was no exception,” said Chris. His sentiments were echoed by Luke Hollis, Chair of the Young Persons Network (YPN). He said: “The exceptional standard of presentations that we’ve seen here today demonstrates why this event is so important to us.” Looking ahead to next year’s competition finalist Katie Boxall’s advice to those considering entering was: “Just do it! Even if you don’t win, it’s worth it for the experience.” Last year’s winner Greg added: “You should definitely enter; the prizes on offer are well worth winning. “In June, I attended the World Gas Conference in Paris which exceeded all my expectations. I had a really great time meeting lots of interesting representatives from around the industry.” ■ ■ Details of how to enter next year’s competition will be released shortly. In the meantime why not take a look at Richard’s winning paper, on pages 34-36 for inspiration. All of the other finalist’s papers will be published here in Gi over the forthcoming months. Nine of the brightest young engineers and managers from the gas industry gathered at the Institution of Engineering and Technology (IET) Birmingham on Thursday 25 June to compete in the final of the 14th Young Persons Paper Competition (YPPC)