At a virtual meeting, the board of the Estonian Association of Engineers selected the Engineer of the Year and the Engineering Student of the Year from candidates submitted in a public contest. The Engineer of the Year 2020 is Arvi Hamburg. The Engineering Student of the Year 2020 is Erik Teder.
Arvi Hamburg is a doctor of technical sciences who has been the voluntary head of the Estonian Association of Engineers for 14 years and has greatly contributed to the development of Estonian engineering. He has been a member of TalTech's board of trustees, a professor, and the dean of the Faculty of Power Engineering. Thanks to him, in 2020, the project of the Estonian Science and Technology Center Nobel, launched and long-prepared by the Estonian Association of Engineers, became a candidate to be a cultural object with national recognition. If the project is realized, it will become a landmark for Estonian engineering.
Erik Teder is a 5th-year student of TalTech's structural engineering and construction management program. He has stood out both academically and as a student activist. He has been the chairman of the Student Parliament, chairman of the Student Council of the School of Engineering, participated in different councils and senates for the past five years, and organized many entertaining and educational events for all engineering students every year. He is also a mentor in the university and offers younger students tutoring sessions in math and physics, organizes feedback surveys on the quality of education, and helps to develop his curriculum and program. In addition to all of this, he has previously worked as an object manager at AS YIT Eesti for two years and has worked as a civil engineer at Ehitusekspertiisibüroo OÜ for almost a year now. In 2018, Erik Teder was also selected as Student of the Year at Tallinn University of Technology.
The Engineer of the Year has been selected since 1999 and Engineering Student of the Year since 2007. Past winners can be found at insener.ee.
The Estonian Association of Engineers (EAE) is a non-profit organization acting in the public interest which comprises engineering institutions and companies in Estonia. EAE was re-established in 1988 and is the successor of the Estonian Union of Engineers, which was founded in 1921. Since 1996, EAE has been a member of the European Federation of National Engineering Associations (FEANI).