Royal visit at the award ceremony for the Prince Friso Engineering Prize 2026

Princess Mabel and Princess Beatrix were present at the TU/e campus for the presentation of the annual engineering award, an initiative of KIVI.

Royal visit to our campus last night. Princess Beatrix, Princess Mabel, and her daughter Countess Zaria attended the presentation of the twelfth Prince Friso Engineering Award, which took place in the Auditorium. The award is an initiative of the Royal Institute of Engineers (KIVI) and is named after Prince Friso, Mabel's husband and brother of King Willem Alexander. Friso died in 2013 and was a mechanical and aerospace engineer.

Martijn Otten, mechanical engineer and director of printing technology company AV Flexologic, was chosen as Engineer of the Year and received the award from Princess Mabel. The jury praised him for his authenticity and his exceptional commitment to the engineering profession. "His career and social involvement fit seamlessly with the criterion Engineer your Career - Improve your Society," according to the jury report.

Student Team Award

EduQuation, a team from TU/e and Fontys, was one of three nominees for the KIVI Engineering Student Team Award. The goal of this student team is to make quantum mechanics more accessible and intuitive with the help of (video) games.

The jury and audience award ultimately went to Project March, a TU Delft student team that distinguishes itself by creating an innovative exoskeleton prototype every year.

Role of engineers

The Auditorium was not only the setting for the Prince Friso Engineering Award, but also for the KIVI Annual Conference, which had Blueprint for a Stronger Europe as its theme. Rector Silvia Lenaerts welcomed visitors on behalf of TU/e and spoke about the role of engineers in Europe's technological independence. "They must not only be able to solve problems, but also provide direction. They need to understand the bigger picture in which their work functions."

Responsibility university

According to Lenaerts, the university has a responsibility in three areas: "Firstly, talent: we want to train engineers who understand what is at stake. The second responsibility is excellence in research. Technological sovereignty starts with fundamental knowledge. Without its own research base, Europe has nothing to build on. The third is valorization: the step from knowledge to social impact."

"Brainport shows how this can work. What has been built up here over decades of collaboration between universities, industry, and government cannot be taken for granted. It is the result of patience, trust, and shared ambition. Together with our partners in Europe, we want to further strengthen that foundation."

Ecosystem engineer

Other speakers also shared their views on the changing role of engineers. TU/e alumnus Nick Hol spoke about the ecosystem engineer. "As an engineer, you have to be multilingual. You need to speak not only the language of mathematics or physics, but also that of politics. And you need to have a feel for talent, culture, policy, and capital. Technology is the enabler of social prosperity," says Hol.

"Engineers are good systems thinkers and can therefore make an important contribution as connectors." According to Hol, student teams, such as SOLID, of which he himself was a member, are good examples of such an ecosystem in which engineers can operate. "In such a team, people from vocational, higher professional, and university education come together. There, they learn to think differently."

More visibility

Meike Nauta, winner of the engineering award in 2025 and, in addition to being an entrepreneur, also a university lecturer at TU/e in the field of responsible and explainable AI, argued for more visibility for engineers. "The voice of technical people needs to be heard more."

According to her, this can only be achieved if engineers make themselves heard outside their technical world. As an example, she cited the rise of AI and the 'experts' who speak out about it. "There are many people who talk about AI, but who offer little substance. There are more than 200,000 engineers in the Netherlands who do offer substance and talk less." Nauta would like to give them a platform.

She spoke from her own experience about how winning the award in 2025 helped her in this regard. "It gave me a boost, extra confidence, motivation, courage, and drive. I also speak up more and hope to be a source of inspiration for others."

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