Christian Grech and Raisa Chetcuti are the first winners of the Bank of Valletta award for engineering students for 2016. The award is a grant given to engineering students who show excellence and innovation in their final year projects.

Grech is a graduate in electrical and electronics engineering who is currently pursuing a PhD degree. He is carrying out research on magnetic modelling, system identification and real-time magnetic measurements in synchrotrons in a collaboration between the University of Malta’s Department of Microelectronics and Nanoelectronics and the Magnetic Measurement section at Cern. Grech’s project, which is focused on human-machine interfaces, is investigating how a robotic arm manipulator could be used to assist in the movement of people who have lost the use of a limb.

Meanwhile, the project of Chetcuti, a mechanical engineering graduate, is looking at surface engineering of implant-grade stainless steel to mitigate corrosion and wear damage to the surfaces of metallic hip implants and increasing their longevity. She is studying the tribocorrosion behaviour of coatings to be applied to the artificial hip joint in conditions which replicate more closely the human body environment. She is currently in the final year of a Master of Science in mechanical engineering.

The following students have been shortlisted for the 2017 edition of the award: mechanical engineering students Daniel Aquilina, Marlon Attard and Daniel Farrugia; electrical engineering students Rachel Cauchi, Jeanluc Mangion and Geraldine Mifsud; and ICT engineering students Nicholas Bonello, Leander Grech and John Napier.

This year’s winners will be announced later this month during the annual engineering conference of the Chamber of Engineers.