This milestone reflects not just professional experience, but the encouragement, challenge and support of many people along the way and I’m especially conscious of how much this journey has been shaped by others investing their time and belief in me.

Dr Sakthy Selvakumaran

To mark International Women in Engineering Day on Tuesday 23 June 2026 we celebrate Dr Sakthy Selvakumaran an Engineering Research Fellow in the Department of Engineering and Newnham College and the founder of BKwai, a technology company providing data-driven insights for infrastructure owners and contractors.

She was an undergraduate at the Department of Engineering between 2006 and 2010, then returned for her PhD in the Laing O’Rourke Centre between 2015 and 2019. Her PhD research explored how rapidly advancing radar satellite imagery technologies can detect millimetre-scale changes on the Earth’s surface. This research has outlined both the opportunities and limitations of using satellite measurements and developed methodologies for translating data into useful information for asset owners. The demonstrated potential of Sakthy’s research has attracted significant interest in her post-doctoral plans to carry this research agenda forward. She has established and leads a growing research group in satellite monitoring of infrastructure.

Since graduating, Sakthy has worked in a wide range of environments. “I have a somewhat unusual career path, spanning industry, entrepreneurship, academia, and urban search and rescue. It may not be the most straightforward route, but it has allowed me to make an impact on people and the built environment they live in.”

Sakthy was inspired by her father, civil engineer Selvadurai Selvakumaran, she says, “I was invited into his life as an engineer; in the office where he worked as a water/wastewater engineer, to construction sites and later, more strategic management. Through this, I learned a lot about how engineers can really make an impact on people’s lives (good and bad), and it clearly made an impact, and I’m keen to bring my daughter into this world to share what we can do as engineers.” 

Sakthy brought her young daughter to the ICE fellowship ceremony to inspire the next generation, explaining, “Fellowship feels less like an endpoint and more like a responsibility: to give back, to support others on their journeys, and to continue contributing to the profession with integrity and impact. Our industry still has challenges for women and ethnic minorities, and others. My own career has included ups and downs I could never have predicted.” 

BKwai, a spin-out from the Department’s Centre for Smart Infrastructure and Construction (CSIC), combines satellite, sensor and environmental data to support predictive asset management and resilience. This helps manage risk in structures like bridges, road networks and rail networks in a time where assets are ageing and deteriorating, accelerated by climate change.

Sakthy also co-founded the 'Construkt' Project, with Serious About Youth (SAY), which offers young people a pathway into the engineering and construction industry. The 'Construkt' project, which is backed by the Mayor of London, takes participants through the life cycle of an engineering project and explains the different career pathways in the sector.

She said: “We have a particular focus on engaging young people from Black, Asian, and Minority Ethnic (BAME) backgrounds and women, due to their underrepresentation in the industry. Over 80% of our candidates have been BAME and 25% female.”

Sakthy also volunteers as an urban search and rescue technician and engineer with SARAID, a British charity that provides disaster zone Search and Rescue expertise.

She is also a graduate of the Royal Academy of Engineering’s Shott Scale Up Programme. The programme nurtures and strengthens the leadership capabilities of senior decision-makers in high-growth engineering and tech SMEs to scale their business to the next level.

Sakthy is a chartered civil engineer with professional experience working in design, contracting, international development and R&D roles across various countries and project types - spanning mega-projects on the UK rail network to working on housing reconstruction following earthquakes. She was listed on the Forbes 30 Under 30 Europe List, served as an ICE President’s Apprentice (now ‘Future Leaders Scheme’) and served on the Young Professionals Panel of the National Infrastructure Commission in the UK.