Petar Kotsev receiving his Award from HRH The Princess Royal, with Master Engineer Andrew McNaughton, at the Engineers Trust Awards Dinner on 9 June 2026

Winner 2026 (£6000 per annum for 3 years) – Petar Kotsev

Petar Kotsev’s PhD research, entitled “Towards Trustworthy and Efficient Computer Vision for Industrial Applications,” addresses the automated detection of defects on optical sensors produced at scale, a process where millions of units are inspected daily and where errors in quality control carry significant consequences. As AI-driven inspection systems are increasingly adopted across manufacturing, a critical gap has emerged: despite significant efforts, bringing the full benefits of AI to industrial production has been hindered by what may be called the “last mile of trustworthiness” – the inability of modern machine learning methods to meet the interpretability and verification standards that industrial environments demand.

Production line imagery differs fundamentally from standard computer vision settings: defect patterns are highly unpredictable, labelled training data is scarce, and novel defect types may emerge without warning. His PhD seeks to directly unlock this last mile: developing a new class of interpretable, self-organising inspection systems that are designed for verification from the ground up and that bring the productivity gains of data-driven systems to manufacturing in a form that manufacturing across industries can trust and deploy.  He is currently in the second year of his PhD at the University of Edinburgh.

Established in 2012 from the generous bequest of Livery member Dr David Leete for the purpose of making awards in what Dr Leete called Production Engineering Research, but defined sufficiently broadly to encompass the whole field of what is now known as Advanced Manufacturing Research. The Award provides a “premium” above normal Departmental Training Awards. UK engineers who are either UK citizens or working or studying in the UK for a period of not less than three years immediately before the year of the award are eligible.  The award is for £6,000 per annum for the remainder of the PhD (up to three years) subject to sustainment of satisfactory performance.

Fifteen applications were received this year resulting in our first award to a student from the University of Edinburgh (School of Engineering).

The Worshipful Company of Engineers Charitable Trust (the Engineers Trust) promotes the contributions of engineers to benefit society, education and research, and the relief of hardship and poverty.

Award photo courtesy of Mark Witter Photography