University of Glasgow alumnus named among the world's top 25 early-career engineers
Published: 14 July 2026
Ashvin Selvakannan has been named to the American Society of Mechanical Engineers' (ASME) 2026 Watch List - "from innovative influencers to professional athletes, cutting edge researchers to startup founders, and many more, Mechanical Engineering honours 25 trailblazers who are reshaping engineering."
For Ashvin Selvakannan, engineering has never been only about the systems he builds - it is about the people, ideas and opportunities he can connect through them. It is an outlook that has now placed him among the most promising engineers of his generation anywhere in the world. Ashvin works in the defence industry, contributing to complex naval programmes. That work has carried him well beyond the technical and onto the international stage: he has represented his organisation at exhibitions to high-level delegations from Japan, Canada and NATO, and has featured in films broadcast across global channels.
Throughout his journey, he has used his own position to lift others. He leads a nationwide reverse-mentoring programme that brings early-career engineers and senior leaders together, and judges the work of the next generation around the world - from the STEM Racing World Finals in Singapore to Engineers Without Borders sustainable-design challenges spanning Makers Valley in South Africa and universities across the United States.
He is just as invested in leading the future of the profession itself. Within the Institution of Engineering and Technology (IET), he co-leads national initiatives on entrepreneurship, convening innovators and founders to help close the UK's innovation gap. That same instinct has taken him to the frontiers of the field: he was among the first in the UK to test Autodesk's Fusion 360 and generative-modelling software, and has since contributed to emerging areas of engineering, from electrification in motorsports to national policy discussions on EV charging infrastructure. Volunteering internationally, from Hong Kong to Dublin, he has helped reshape professional engineering communities, champion STEM education and bring younger voices to the table - a breadth of connecting engineering networks worldwide, and of giving his time to the profession, that saw him profiled in 2025 by the IET's award-winning Engineering & Technology (E&T) magazine.
"Engineering, to me, has always been less about the things we build than about the connections they make possible - between people, between ideas, between what is and what could be. To be recognised for that on a world stage means a great deal. My hope is that it reminds someone just starting out that this profession can take you almost anywhere and that its truest measure is not how far it carries you, but how much good you do along the way."
First published: 14 July 2026
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