Meet the 2024 ground engineering early careers challengers

The teams involved in this year's Early Careers Challenge, run by Ground Engineering and Mott MacDonald, met at a kick-off meeting this summer.

The 20 Early Careers Challenge (ECC) participants came together at a kick-off workshop in London on 26 July to find out the details of the challenge, as well as to meet their team members and mentors.

This year’s challenge is to design a deep underground shaft in a prestigious historical waterfront setting in the UK. The major role that ground engineering plays in delivering net zero is a key focus of this year’s challenge.

The teams will present the first draft of their solution to expert judges at the GE Sustainability conference on 18 September. They will deliver their final presentations at the GE Basements & Underground Structures event on 3 October, where the winning team will be announced.

The mentors are Mott Macdonald technical director James Codd, Aecom technical director Dimitri Daskalopoulos, Systra geotechnical team leader Caleb Parker, and Systra UK discipline lead for ground engineering Charlotte Woodhall-Jones.

“The kick-off meeting made for an energetic and inspirational day, with lots of ideas from industry’s leading young professionals on how to overcome difficult ground conditions in the alluvium, river terrace deposits and underlying bedrock in East London’s Docklands,” commented Codd.

“It was a pleasure to meet the other mentors and so many aspiring young geologists and engineers.”

The four teams include:

Team 1

Abdulraouf Abdussalam, University of Bradford

Abdulraouf Abdussalam recently graduated with a civil and structural engineering master's degree from the University of Bradford. While at university, he worked as an elected sabbatical officer for two years in a row. He is looking to expand his knowledge and gain experience in project planning and engineering in general.

Imogen Adshead, Leap Environmental

Imogen Adshead is a geoenvironmental engineer at Leap Environmental. Since joining the industry in 2022, she has focused on building a broad knowledge base of geoenvironmental and geotechnical practices, learning valuable skills from those with more industry experience and working towards chartership. Outside of work, Adshead is a keen triathlete, driven team player and outdoor enthusiast.

Oliver Cowen, Mott MacDonald

Oliver Cowen is a graduate engineering geologist at Mott MacDonald with two years of professional experience in a range of ground engineering projects. He is currently an earthworks designer on High Speed 2 (HS2), a job that involves geotechnical design in a collaborative multi-disciplinary environment. Outside of work, Cowen’s hobbies include running, cooking, and finding interesting rocks out and about.

Zara McCorkindale, Stantec UK

Zara McCorkindale is an assistant geotechnical engineer at Stantec UK. She joined the company in September 2021 after achieving a first-class BEng in engineering geology and geotechnics from the University of Portsmouth. As an assistant geotechnical engineer, she has worked on large-scale infrastructure and pumped storage projects and has spent the last year geologically mapping and assigning rock support for the Coire Glas exploratory tunnel.

Lydia Blackburn, Jacobs

Lydia Blackburn is a graduate geotechnical engineer with Jacobs’ Birmingham office. Originally from Sheffield, Blackburn has spent most of her career seconded on site. She has worked on HS2 earthworks as a site engineer and is currently at Hinkley Point C as a design coordinator for the tunnel shaft connections.

Team 2

Petra Fatér, UCL

Petra Fatér is a Ground Engineering student editor and has recently graduated from UCL with a BEng degree in civil engineering. During her studies she became interested in geotechnical engineering, and is planning to pursue a master’s degree in geotechnical and structural engineering at ETH Zürich.

She worked as a geotechnical consulting intern at A-squared Studios during her last year at university, gaining professional experience on various projects in London and in the UK.

Anjana Gopan, Bam Ritchies

Anjana Gopan is an assistant geotechnical engineer at Bam Ritchies. She has a master’s degree in engineering geology from the University of Portsmouth and is currently involved in mine mitigation efforts for the Transpennine Route Upgrade project.

Matthew Culley, Aecom

Matthew Culley is an engineering geologist within Aecom’s Newcastle ground engineering team. He joined the company after completing an MSc degree in engineering geology at Newcastle University. His dissertation focused on sustainable drainage solutions. Culley has worked on a variety of projects, mostly specialising in mining risk mitigation and railway infrastructure.

Rebecca Gulowsen Ekeberg, Multiconsult UK

Rebecca Gulowsen Ekeberg is a geotechnical engineer/engineering geologist at Multiconsult. She has a master’s degree in engineering geology from the University of Leeds and a bachelor’s in geology from the University of Bristol. Gulowsen Ekeberg has a range of project experience, from hydropower projects, to slope stability schemes, and retaining wall and foundation design on major infrastructure projects in the UK and Norway.

Jessica Leung, Arcadis

Jessica Leung is a graduate civil engineer at Arcadis, where she is part of the design joint venture on HS2. Leung works on site within the instrumentation and monitoring department of the construction services team. She uses a wide range of sensors and instruments to monitor in-ground and structural movements to check whether they are moving as expected and to help optimise construction.

Team 3

Julien Jiang, Menard

Julien Jiang is a design engineer at Menard. He joined the company in France in April 2021, starting as a design engineer in the company’s design support office. In his role, he provide assistance on technical designs and helps to develop and design tools. In August 2022 he was offered a position at the company’s UK office as a design engineer.

Harriet Pascoe, Wardell Armstrong International

Harriet Pascoe is a senior geotechnical engineer currently working in the mining sector. She has previously worked on the Long Itchington Wood tunnel for HS2 and with a geotechnical consultancy based in south-east England. Pascoe has experience in geotechnical design from her consultancy work and master’s dissertation in tunnelling.

Mayowa Oyedara, Amazon UK Logistics

Mayowa Oyedara is a sortation associate at Amazon UK Logistics. He has a master's degree in environmental and engineering geology from University of Plymouth and is the founder of Solve Resources. He specialises in geological and geophysical investigations, water well drilling and treatment, and has successfully managed numerous projects, drilling water wells in challenging terrains across Nigeria.

Jonathan McDonald, Gall Zeidler Consultants

Jonathan McDonald is a graduate geotechnical and tunnel engineer at Gall Zeidler Consultants, currently working on the Lower Thames Crossing. McDonald has an undergraduate degree in civil engineering and a postgraduate degree in geotechnical engineering, both from Newcastle University. Additionally, he is a is a Ground Engineering student editor.

Elen Falkingham, Amey Consulting

Elen Falkingham is an assistant geotechnical engineer at Amey Consulting based in the company’s York office. She has a bachelor’s degree in geology and Earth science from the University of Leeds. She enjoys using the skills that she learnt on her course in her day-to-day work, whether that is writing reports, doing site-work or running models.

Team 4

Annisa Salsabila, Atkins Réalis

Annisa Salsabila is an assistant geotechnical engineer at Atkins Réalis. She joined the ground engineering team at the company after graduating with an MSc in geotechnical engineering. She also holds BEng in civil engineering. She enjoys learning any kind of design works related to the ground and is currently working towards her chartership.

Samuel Akinola, Pile Designs

Samuel Akinola is a graduate design engineer at Pile Designs. Following the completion of his master’s degree in engineering geology he started his career in geotechnical consultancy and foundation design with Pile Designs. He has enjoyed being involved within a wide variety of projects, which has given him great exposure to the challenges of foundation design in the UK.

Jola Brown, WSP

Jola Brown is a geotechnical engineer in the WSP geotechnical and tunnelling team. She graduated with a civil engineering degree from Cardiff University in 2021. Brown has experience working on a variety of projects across the UK, within both contracting and consultancy settings.

Charlotte Day, Ramboll

Charlotte Day is a graduate geotechnical engineer at Ramboll. She has been in the industry for a year, in which time she has worked on a variety of projects, including pile and retaining wall design, slope stability assessments and settlement analyses. A highlight of her career so far has been going to Montenegro to supervise a ground investigation.

Unamba Vienna, University of Hertfordshire

Unamba Vienna is a BEng graduate from the University of Hertfordshire and a senior technical officer. She supports research on reducing concrete's carbon impact and her undergraduate research project investigated alkaline activation of glass cullet powder as a cement alternative.