AMPP 2023 VISIT – DENVER
The 2022 YEP programme was chaired during the year by Hooman Takhtechian FICorr, and has been previously documented at: https://www.icorr.org/young-engineers-programme-yep-winners-night/ and see also (24) Post | LinkedIn
AMPP 2023 VISIT – DENVER
The five winning YEP delegates listed below all attended the 2023 AMPP exhibition, full conference, and leadership programme. The Institute of Corrosion is extremely grateful to AMPP, and to BP (our key sponsor) for making this all possible. Each of the YEP participants has produced a comprehensive journal, and these will be published in subsequent issues of the magazine (the first appears in this issue), as we move towards the start of the YEP 2024 programme.
YEP delegates at AMPP in 2023 were:
• Christopher Slater
• Eilidh MacDonald
• Jamie Hillier
• Lee Hunter
• Praveena Nanthakumaran, (who was on the winning team for the 2020 YEP competition but was unable to attend at that time)
Rosie Bird (from the 2022 winning team) was unfortunately not able to go to the AMPP event this year but it has been agreed that she will attend AMPP in 2025, alongside the 2024 winning team.
During October 2023, the winning students will make a presentation of their experiences to Aberdeen branch, and this will be available to all ICorr members, as a hybrid event to which AMPP and Young ICorr members will be invited.
AMPP Retiring President
During the AMPP 23 event, a “thank you” plaque was presented to retiring AMPP CEO – Bob Chalker. Bob will be succeeded by Alan Thomas with a 2 month handover until July 2023.
The YEP wishes to express its gratitude to all the AMPP, BP and ICorr management teams, for their support and assistance provided for their 2023 visit, which was a huge success and greatly enjoyed by all. Some of the YEP winners’ comments are extracted here below, and their full journals will be published as space permits
YEP / AMPP – Delegate Feedback
• The YEP programme was a huge success. I developed my technical, communication, leadership, and teamwork skills, to a huge extent. I got to play so many different roles that I simply would not get exposure to during my usual day job as subsea engineer. At times I felt like a leader, a follower, a technical consultant, and a salesman. The value of the programme was really demonstrated to me through the opportunity to play these roles, (Jamie Hillier – Senior Subsea Engineer at Xodus Group, Aberdeen).
• If you are just starting your career as a young engineer and are interested in corrosion, I highly recommend applying for the ICorr’s YEP. It was an eye-opening experience. I have learned from SMEs in the industry, made fantastic friends along the way, and gained new and exciting opportunities through the programme. Additionally, the AMPP conference (and Leadership programme) winner’s prize, is incredibly valuable for knowledge transfer, networking, and potentially finding new clients or services for your company, (Praveena Nanthakumaran – Mechanical Engineering Graduate at Worley, London).
YEP – AMPP Visit prize – Leadership Programme / Conference / Exhibition / Awards
• On arrival at the event, we participated in a team building activity after being familiarised with the Drexler-Sibbet team performance model. This was a great way to get involved with other participants and build connections with them. The ‘carpet maze’ required us to work as a team to figure out the correct route to cross the mat without being able to talk to each other, in a limited time frame. This exercise was a practical way to teach us certain things that are directly applicable to the problems we face in a professional setting. Often, we just see our end goal, but to achieve this, mistakes will be made, side steps will need to be taken, and sometimes you even need to go backwards – it’s never just a straight route! (Eilidh MacDonald – Coatings Engineer at Subsea7, Aberdeen).
• The leadership programme experience left me feeling much more confident to go forward with my leadership and management skills, as I was able to develop effective communication skills. It gave me a good understanding of effective leadership, to make me feel much more confident going ahead as a leader to manage change. Also increasing my experience on how to navigate situations with heightened emotions effectively, being able to read a room and recognising what actions to take, through better emotional intelligence, depending on scenarios faced in professional and personal situations, (Christopher Slater – Project Engineer at STORK, Aberdeen).
AMPP 23 Conference – Participant Feedback
• I realised just how busy this conference was when I tried go to the Surface Preparation lectures – there wasn’t even standing room left! (Eilidh MacDonald – Coatings Engineer at Subsea7, Aberdeen).
• The AMPP seminars provided practical tips and strategies for overcoming challenges, and the opportunity to learn from industry experts was invaluable. I left the conference feeling inspired and motivated to apply the knowledge and insights I
had gained to my work, (Lee Hunter – Operations Manager at
AIM Group, Aberdeen).
AMPP 23 Exhibition – Participant Feedback
• Highlights of the exhibition for me were spending time discussing technologies on the market with various vendors. This included talking through pigging solutions to wax-filled pipelines, retrofit ICCP system solutions, and remote UT monitoring sensors. Being able to discuss these technologies and then bring back learnings from them into projects I’m working on would’ve been worth the trip to Denver alone, (Jamie Hillier – Senior Subsea Engineer at Xodus Group, Aberdeen).
• I was impressed by the diversity of the AMPP exhibitors and the range of products and services they offered. From coatings and corrosion protection solutions to equipment and instrumentation, the exhibitor hall had something for everyone, (Lee Hunter – Operations Manager at AIM Group, Aberdeen).
AMPP 23 Awards – Participant Feedback
• The EMERG Leaders Awards Ceremony at the Filmore in Denver, sponsored by BP was absolutely fantastic, and we were invited on stage to receive our ICorr YEP awards from Stephen Tate. It was also great to celebrate the achievement with the friends we had made on the MDLP earlier in the week, some of whom were also receiving awards that night. The atmosphere, the band, and the food (and drinks!) were great, and the night was definitely my highlight of the trip, (Eilidh MacDonald – Coatings Engineer at Subsea7, Aberdeen).
• The evening of entertainment and networking that followed the ceremony was a great opportunity to connect with like-minded professionals and learn from their experiences. Overall, it was a truly memorable event, and I feel privileged to have been a part of it, (Lee Hunter – Operations Manager at AIM Group, Aberdeen).
YEP 2024
We look forward, of course, to the next YEP competition, starting in January 2024, which will be managed by our very successful YICorr division, and take place in London. This 11-month programme provides a great opportunity for young engineers to expand their knowledge in corrosion management and engineering, and to combine it with their experience in energy and other industries.
The programme is designed to offer the following benefits:
1. Attendees will gain practical skills and knowledge on key issues in the energy industries, including Net-Zero technologies.
2. The lectures and workshops will form part of Continuing Professional Development (CPD) for the Institute of Corrosion. Additional attendance at local branch technical meetings will be encouraged where possible.
3. Attendees will develop teamwork and presentation skills from the workshops.
4. CPD points will contribute to participants’ progression to MICorr and Chartership.
5. Excellent opportunities for networking.
6. Increasing the skill level for engineers and decreasing the gap in knowledge between new and senior engineers, overall facilitating a better working environment within the sector.
All students will go through a series of evening lectures and be given a case study. Events will be held once a month from January to November (excluding August). Following is a list of the topics covered during the programme:
• Fundamentals of Corrosion • Cathodic Protection.
• Coatings & Linings
• Corrosion under Insulation/Fire Proofing
• Integrity Management / Fitness for Service
• Materials / Welding • NDT and Corrosion Monitoring
• Production Chemistry / Chemical Treatments
• Presentation Skills, (in the form of ‘How to solve a corrosion case study’ – This will cover the basics to presentation skills anecdotally but importantly teach the participants the keys to problem solving in the corrosion world)
James McGladdery will co-ordinate the next programme on behalf of YICorr, who can be contacted at:
James.McGladdery@uknnl.com, Tel: +44 (0)1946 556 600
Denver Conference Centre, Colorado.
YEP Winners, BP Sponsor and President at AMPP 2023 – (L to R),
Praveena Nanthakumaran, Eilidh MacDonald, Jamie Hillier, Timothy Bieri, Stephen Tate, Lee Hunter and Christopher Slater.
Presentation of the YEP Awards at the Filmore.
Plaque to Bob Chalker, retiring CEO of AMPP.
