SARAH Teliani is showing the way for women in engineering after winning a national award.

The University of Brighton final year civil engineering BEng (hons) student beat off competition from competitors around the country to take the ICE (Institution of Civil Engineers) – Balfour Beatty Student Innovator of the Year Award 2017.

Her ideas and innovations to help improve the health, safety, environment and sustainability in the construction and engineering industry were considered the best and her reward is a fully-paid three-month summer placement with the Balfour Beatty, the international infrastructure group.

Sarah, 20, will be integrated in onsite teams to work on real-life major construction projects where she will have the opportunity to make a difference to the way things are normally done.

Her safety ideas included the use of drones, building information modelling and virtual reality to identify potential hazards on live, working sites and utilising offsite manufacturing to reduce overall risk.

Sarah, who plans to continue her studies with a civil engineering MSc course, said: “I was really surprised when I won – it’s an honour and I am excited to start my placement with Balfour Beatty.

“I have definitely enjoyed studying at the University of Brighton.”