Katy Toms, Chair of the board of ICE South West, has been announced as one of the top 100 Most Influential Women in the engineering sector. The list was produced by board appointments firm, Inclusive Boards, in partnership with the Financial Times. Toms has had a love of engineering since she saw a video about the Falkirk Wheel as a child. Soon after joining Plymouth University, where she studied engineering, Toms joined the ICE Student and Graduate Committee, before going on to Chair the Plymouth City Club. She became Chair of the ICE South West board in September 2019.

Nerea Palacios, Maritime Structures Engineer at AECOM in Hampshire, has been announced as the winner of the ICE Emerging Engineers Competition 2019.  Entitled 'An analysis of flood risk and potential adaptations in Yarmouth, Isle of Wight', Nerea’s paper was based on research from her master’s dissertation at the University of Southampton and assesses the economic damage caused by flooding in Yarmouth and proposes potential innovative measures against flooding. She was applauded by the judges for her positive impact on an international level, and inspiring and motivating others, including coaching young engineers in the workplace and providing support to civil engineering students