I'm proud to be a Chartered Civil Engineer. It recognises that you have reached a marker in your career that indicates that your peers in the wider profession trust you to act as a professional engineer to represent the profession.

Sakthy Selvakumaran

The Forbes, inaugural, 30 Under 30 Europe list looks at the brightest and most talented under-30 year olds who are already shining in their chosen career, and changing our world. 

Sakthy at the time of being shortlisted was an Innovation Engineer with civil engineering contractor Laing O'Rourke from October 2013 to October 2015. Laing O'Rourke and National Physical Laboratory are currently sponsoring her to do an Industrial Case PhD at the Department of Engineering, University of Cambridge. During her time at Laing O'Rourke, Sakthy was in the Engineering Excellence Group, and spent time on site helping to deliver the ExCeL Footbridge. She has previously worked on the project leading on its design in her role as a Design Engineer for Ramboll.

She developed and ran an education initiative with Serious About Youth (SAY) called 'Construkt' on behalf of ICE who founded this scheme. She is now influential in the further development of the scheme to enable young people to better understand different career pathways, and is engaging with additional companies and institutions to encourage them to become involved.

Sakthy is pleased at the recognition that becoming chartered has meant for her saying: "I'm proud to be a Chartered Civil Engineer. It recognises that you have reached a marker in your career that indicates that your peers in the wider profession trust you to act as a professional engineer to represent the profession. It's by no means a mark that states that you've learned all you need to know about being a Civil Engineer, but I like that because it means that you're always learning new things and coming with new ideas."

Sakthy says she's still not sure who put her name forward and found out when someone contacted her on behalf of Forbes to say that she had been shortlisted. As part of becoming one of the '30 under 30' Forbes she has been invited to a Summit in April along with other members on the list.

A keen writer on her experiences, she has written articles in a several magazines and also has a blog slot for the Huffington Post.

Sakthy graduated with an engineering degree from  Department of Engineering (2006-2010) and has since worked as a civil and structural engineer in design consultancy and contracting applications across multiple roles,continents and cultures (including UK, Canada, Sri Lanka, Peru and Spain). Significant projects included the design and construction of ExCeL Bridge, (a 34 metre long bridge installed as part of the construction of the new Crossrail station at Custom House, linking the station with ExCeL London), inspection design and assessment of various rail bridges owned by Network Rail, the design of various UK highway bridges and civil infrastructure, and the design of a tunnel and approach structures in Gibraltar. In 2013 she was asked to join the Engineering Excellence Group of Laing O’Rourke, working on developing new design solutions and technologies to change the way infrastructure is designed, constructed and maintained. She re-joined the Department in 2015 to undertake a PhD in Engineering.