Rebeka Kropivšek Leskovar, a development engineer working for Interblock, a developer and supplier of electronic table gaming products, has won the Woman Engineer of the Year title for 2024.

Kropivšek Leskovar has been interested in technology since childhood. As a little girl she would take phones apart, draw comics and rave about science fiction.

Her curiosity was further sparked at an computer science summer school where she discovered robotics, and her career path was set.

She completed mechatronics studies at the Ljubljana Faculty of Mechanical Engineering and then went on to obtain a master's degree in information and communication technologies at the Jožef Stefan International Postgraduate School.

She currently works with Interblock group, where she is developing human-centric applications of machine vision technologies.

"When you develop new technologies, you have to develop them in line with the situation and needs of today's society," she said on receiving the award in Ljubljana on 16 January.

Stressing the importance of interdisciplinary approaches, she believes cooperation between science and the humanities is essential to grasp the long-term effects of technology on people.

She is a true believer in the power of research and imagination as well as teamwork and strives to remain creative. "If I had all the resources at my disposal, I would develop a device to communicate with my cat."

This year's competition was the seventh in a row. Organised by the technology magazine IRT3000 and the marketing agency Mediade in cooperation with partners, it is part of a project encouraging students to take up careers in engineering, technology, science and innovation.

The jury found Kropivšek Leskovar a person able to inspire the young to find a way in themselves to enter a "brave new world" of the engineering future.

"Rebeka's story shows us that it is still possible to stay true to yourself and openness in today's high-tech world and build a career path based on this," they said.