SMMI member Dr Katherine Kwa wins the Bronze Dyson Sustainability Award at STEM for Britain competition

SMMI member Katherine Kwa was selected to present her research on enhanced whole-life anchoring systems for floating offshore renewable energy infrastructure at the STEM for BRITAIN 2022 poster competition and exhibition. After presenting her research at the STEM for Britain competition, she was also awarded with The Dyson Sustainability Award (3rd prize) for her outstanding research towards a sustainable future.

STEM for BRITAIN is a major scientific poster competition and exhibition which has been held in Parliament since 1997. It is organised by the Parliamentary & Scientific Committee and aims to give members of both Houses of Parliament an insight into the outstanding research work being undertaken by early career researchers at UK universities.

Katherine’s poster (submitted in the engineering category) focussed on her research into enhanced whole-life anchoring systems for offshore floating wind, wave and tidal energy devices.

Her work has identified ways to improve efficiency and reliability of anchoring systems; by integrating beneficial seabed-anchor effects into the design process. Efficient anchoring systems are needed to support the future of upscaled floating offshore renewable energy infrastructure, which is critical for the decarbonisation of our energy supply, reaching net zero and tackling climate change.

Floating infrastructure unlocks enormous potential for harvesting clean offshore renewable energy to meet the worldwide electricity demand and produce new fuels such as hydrogen to replace hydrocarbons.

You can find out more about Katherine’s poster presentation here and more about the Parliamentary & Scientific Committee’s STEM for Britain 2022 competition here. Watch Katherine’s presentation here.