The Secretary of State for Transport, Mobility and the Urban Agenda, Isabel Pardo de Vera, presented the awards for the two competitions for excellence in student internships aimed at recognising excellence in business internships in a sector of recognised international prestige, such as engineering.

During the ceremony, the Secretary of State acknowledged the good work of the winners and highlighted "the value of awards that reinforce the prestige of Spanish engineering, a benchmark throughout the world, and which also highlight the value of training future engineers in our country".

Young people, engineers and women 

The first prize in the 3rd Edition of the Contest of Distinctions for Excellence in Engineering Student Internships, promoted by Ineco, the Spanish Engineering Institute (IIE) and REDFUE, went to Alicia de la Gándara, Master in Aeronautical Engineering from the Polytechnic University of Madrid, and an Airbus employee. The engineer from Madrid won the top prize for her work on reticular structures with morphing capabilities. During this study, she analysed the feasibility of implementing these structures in commercial aviation to improve aerodynamics and command control and reduce consumption and costs. Juan Antonio Ruíz, from Acciona, and Antonio Giménez, from UIC, were the two runners-up in this third edition.
The first prize in the Internal Distinctions Competition, organised by Ineco, went to María Macías, a civil engineer with a master's degree in Road, Canal, Port and Structures Engineering from the universities of Granada and Seville. With this award, Mitma engineering and consultancy recognises the work of this engineer from Seville in railway bridges through the application of innovative technological solutions, in line with the predictive maintenance strategy of programmes such as the Innovation Challenges Map 2022. Sergio del Pino and Javier Mencías received the first and second runners-up prizes, respectively. 
With a first prize of 4,000 euros, and two runners-up prizes of 1,000 euros for second and third place, both competitions highlight projects that have achieved significant and verifiable improvements in processes, products, services and technological innovation.

Ineco's commitment to young talent

With this award, Ineco aims to promote not only engineers, but also any of the 300 or so graduates who work in this company, which already has more than 5,000 people on its team. In 2022, the company received 265 scholarships from 96 different centres, including universities, institutes and foundations. The president of Ineco, Sergio Vázquez Torrón, pointed out that this is a relationship in which both parties learn and stressed that "interaction between different profiles is key to both innovation and evolution, which is why we decided to open up the awards to more disciplines". Finally, he concluded that "young people are not the future, they are the ones whose mission is to ensure that the earth remains a habitable planet. No generation before was better".