Ahead of the closing date on 23 May 2016, we caught up with Michael Colyer, the winner of the 2015 award.

He has just returned from Rome where he was working as a vision engineer for the ATP Tennis championships.

Since winning his career has gone from strength to strength.

He says “I won when I was a special camera engineer at F1 management. I went on to win the award and (…) In time I was able to go back to my employer and ask for a bit more responsibility. I got promoted to the role of Camera Engineer and then Special Cameras Engineer.”

Winning, he says, “has definitely had a strong role in getting people’s attention and getting that interest in the projects I am working on.”

“As the industry continues to expand it is becoming more competitive, having an organisation as strong as the RTS supporting you is an absolutely massive advantage when you're trying to seek a job role,” he added.

Every year the RTS sends the winner of the award, to IBC in Amsterdam.  

Following his visit to the conference, Michael wrote a piece about his experience. He said “I made a lot of contacts out there, but the highlight for me was the lectures I could attend. There’s a lot of insight that isn’t commercially available.”

“As somebody who develops cameras, it is good to know what kind of trends are emerging. We were talking about VR which is something that I’m starting to address in my work. It was useful to get that in slightly ahead of the curve.”

His involvement with IBC didn’t stop there however, he says “I had a phone call from IBC today asking me if I’d like to go and speak at another one of their presentations.”

“Having the young technologist award was great this year, and it doesn’t stop being an accolade -even past the point of 2015/16” he finished.

“The RTS is a very well-known organisation and winning has certainly opened doors.”

If you’re interested in applying for the RTS Young Technologist of the Year then more information and application forms can be found here.