Promoted by Ineco, the Spanish Engineering Institute (IIE) and the University-Business Foundation Network (REDFUE), these awards aim to recognize the excellence, talent, and real impact of projects developed by students during their internships.
The talent that is building the future of engineering took center stage at the annual awards ceremony for the 4th Ineco Internship and Scholarship Awards and the 6th Engineering Student Internship Awards, an event that once again places innovation and young talent at the heart of the sector.
Promoted by Ineco, the Spanish Engineering Institute (IIE) and the University-Business Foundation Network (REDFUE), these awards aim to recognize the excellence, talent, and real impact of projects developed by students during their internships. A firm commitment to the future that also translates into financial rewards: €4,000 for the winning project and €1,000 for each of the two runners-up in the case of the 6th Competition promoted by the IIE, and €6,000 in training grants and two runners-up prizes of €2,000 each to enhance their knowledge in the case of the competition organized by the public engineering institute.
José Miguel Atienza, Director of the School of Civil Engineering (ETSI de Caminos, Canales y Puertos); and Vicente Negro, Professor of Environmental Technologies at UPM, were in charge of opening the event. In his speech, Vicente highlighted how he saw the School of Civil Engineering become the birthplace of the Movida madrileña, and explained how Los Urquijo contacted the institution to hold their founding event there because of its capacity to host large crowds for a concert, as well as because of the character of the engineers, “desperate with differential equations and mechanics”. Later on, bands such as Los Pegamoides, Nacha… and even Depeche Mode performed there.
Ineco rewards the best internship projects
As part of Ineco's 4th Excellence in Internships and Scholarships Awards, the jury awarded first prize to Celia García, Lucía Álvarez, and Aída Arquero for their project aimed at promoting advanced techniques for measuring fatigue and workload enhanced with AI. The work was particularly valued for its practical application in complex environments and for its contribution to improving decision-making and error prevention.
Alongside the winning project, three other projects were recognized as finalists for their technical quality and their impact on improving processes and services: an initiative focused on training and the work of a multidisciplinary team for the development of BIM projects in the railway sector; an evolutionary development, support, and maintenance service for Aena's GIS Business Management applications; and a model for incorporating artificial intelligence into the public procurement system throughout the entire contract cycle.
Talent and innovation at the service of Spanish engineering
The 6th Competition for Distinctions in Engineering Student Practices has recognized Juan Modesto Espinosa, from Nokia Spain, a student of the Master's Degree in Industrial Engineering at the Pontifical University of Comillas, as the winner for his project “Scene analysis for robotics and immersive telepresence applications.” The jury highlighted a proposal that explores new ways of combining digital technologies to improve the autonomy of systems and facilitate more natural interaction between people and machines, opening up new opportunities in areas such as robotics and telepresence.
Jaime Vaya, from Ferrovial, and Joanes Peña, from Industrias Lan-Bi, were awarded first and second runners-up, respectively. Their work addresses, on the one hand, the role of batteries in the future of the Spanish energy system and their contribution to the decarbonization process, and on the other, the improvement of manufacturing and quality control processes in the automotive sector.
During the event, Ineco organized an interactive exhibition where attendees could learn about and experience some of its main innovations: air mobility simulators with drones and vertiports, and the use of technologies such as EEG and eye-tracking for human factor analysis. The exhibition was rounded off with immersive virtual reality experiences for the validation of airport infrastructure design.
With these awards, Ineco reaffirms its commitment to developing young talent, innovation, and technical excellence, promoting projects that not only anticipate the challenges facing the sector but also provide real solutions for safer, more efficient, and more sustainable engineering. It is a firm commitment to the people who will lead the transformation of engineering in Spain tomorrow.
