Yesterday, on 10 January 2023, at a gala event at Cankarjev dom, our alumna, Rosana Kolar, a graduate mechanical engineer, and aircraft mechanic at Adria Tehnika, was named the Engineer of the Year 2022.
Photo: Andrej Križ, Tadej Majhenič
By selecting the Engineer of the Year, the organisers of the 10th-anniversary event presented 10 fascinating women engineers to the public. Those whose personality and work can encourage, inspire, or motivate young people to decide to study or pursue a career in engineering. The selection is based on the interestingness of the women engineers, their narrative, their stories, and their contribution to the development of technology, society or the economy, that their work and their personality, be an example and inspiration for younger generations of girls so that they can make better choices for promising.
The Committee recognised Rosana’s modesty and respectful attitude to work – her awareness that to be safe and comfortable journey above ground, every employee is key. She already knew she would be an aircraft mechanic “I feel honoured to be standing on this stage today, and I am very proud to be here. I am proud to be on the podium with nine outstanding women engineers. This award is a tribute to all of us. All of us nominated are winners. I would like to thank my family, who recognised my difference and supported me throughout and Adria Tehnika and my boys in the hangar, who have selflessly given me their precious knowledge and experience.”
Photo: Andrej Križ, Tadej Majhenič
The nominees for Engineer of the Year were addressed by the President of the Republic of Slovenia, Nataša Pirc Musar: “Only passion and love for the profession you are in can bring quality and top results. That’s why we really should not divide professions into men and women, but encourage everyone to do what they love, where they find joy and live their dreams.”
The Minister responsible for Digital Transformation, Emilija Stojmenova Duh, addressed the audience as one of them, as a nominee of the first generation of Engineers of the Year: “The road to success is not easy. It is not easy to achieve success. We need something more. I have always had the support of a loyal companion, an uncle from the background who never leaves me. This uncle in the background is knowledge. We all have it, engineers. It is our strength that no one and no one can ever take away from us.”
Among the candidates for Engineer of the Year was Neža Guzelj, Project and Product Development Manager at Mahle Electric Drives Slovenia, who also completed her studies at our faculty: “I enrolled at the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering to get an answer to the question of why things work in a certain way. Of course, during my studies, new questions came up – that’s how curiosity works.”
The Faculty of Mechanical Engineering of the University of Ljubljana is proud to support the selection project Engineer of the Year and would like to congratulate Rosana on receiving the coveted title of Engineer of the Year 2022.