Women in Engineering

Tina was in work but decided to explore higher education options after the birth of her third child. She wanted to start something new, as opposed to going back to old her job.

Read Tina's story

Zoe has written a number of blogs about her experiences at Bradford:

Changing lives with Biomedical Engineering

Making Bradford home

Peer Assisted Learning: the ultimate course hack

Moved away from home for the first time.

Enjoys hands-on lab work the most.

Member of the Equestrian team.

What is your area of study/research?

I am a Mechanical Engineer and lecture predominantly in mechanics. My main area of research focuses on applying ultrasonic technology in varied ways to both understand the behaviour and influence the properties of different materials, and in particular to polymers, and I also research thermal measurements and characterisation of polymer processing.

What influenced you to study/research in your field?

At school I liked most subjects, but my favourites were Maths, Physics and English. I wanted to study something with a scientific bias, but that involved working with other people, solving problems, understanding how and why things happen the way they do, and what might be done to improve them.  This led me to study engineering, as it involves both science and people.

I chose mechanical engineering because I felt it would give me a broad cross section of skills and knowledge – in all honesty I did not fully understand then the roles of different engineering disciplines, having no family or friends who were engineers, and I wanted to keep my options open. I have since come to understand that the boundaries between disciplines are indistinct, and I now work across the disciplines of mechanical, chemical and medical engineering.  My research interests have developed over time – I was always interested in materials, and became interested in how and why we need to measure properties of materials and the difficulties associated with doing that accurately. I then realised the potential for using ultrasonic technology to make measurements in difficult to reach spaces, that there were many gaps in the knowledge and this would be an interesting topic for more research.

What inspires you to continue in your field?

Engineering research is interesting and varied – for me it involves scientific discovery, constructing experimental assemblies and developing techniques, working in teams with other engineers and scientists, and ultimately new discovery and learning. Engineers contribute to knowledge, the economy and many different aspects of human life.  The tiny individual steps we can all make, no matter what field we work in, add together and help to positively change the world and improve the environment for all.

What would you say to young females to encourage them to progress into your field?

Engineering is a great combination of science and social science.  Characteristics are often described in popular media as ‘female’ such as multitasking and compromise are really great attributes in an engineer, but in fact I don’t think like that. Ultimately it’s a combination of personal characteristics and skills that make a good engineer, and gender is not a major influence.  

Men and women can make equally great engineers. It takes good analytical and communication skills to practise successfully, and varied backgrounds, experiences and viewpoints are vital to the success of a project. The preferred engineering solution is not always the most technically desirable; other things including cost, aesthetics, politics, sustainability, available resources and personal preferences can play a part.  As the balance of genders changes over time, the working environments are adapting to suit - an interesting and rewarding career in engineering does not have to be at the expense of other life ambitions, interests or family commitments.  If you like maths and science and you like people, engineering could be just the job for you.  

Interestingly…

I have never regretted choosing to become an engineer, and have always felt that being an engineer means I am constantly learning and gaining new experience – technology does not stand still.  When I was a student I was the only girl on my course in my year, and although women are still in the minority in the engineering world, this should not be a barrier to anybody considering it.  When solving any problem, tackling it from diverse viewpoints is a real advantage, and so naturally a mix of people with different opinions and perspectives is healthy, and I would encourage all who are interested to consider engineering as a career, regardless of gender.

Many years ago when I was first on industrial placement as a student I recall that the safety shoes that the company chose to supply to me had high wedge heels, because they were women’s shoes.  Clearly I wasn’t going to find it easy to work and climb amongst equipment wearing them, so managed to source a more suitable pair of men’s shoes.  I don’t think Personal Protective Equipment is supplied in such a gender specific manner any more, times of course have changed.  The number of women who choose to enter the engineering professions is growing, but we can always benefit from more.

What is your area of study/research?

I am a newly appointed Lecturer in Computer Science at the Faculty of Engineering and Informatics. My research focuses on information visualization, an area at the intersection of computer graphics, data analytics, and Human-Computer Interaction (HCI). Through my research, I aim to enable domain experts and decision makers to understand data and open the black box of machine learning. Through promoting the human-in-the-loop principle, my work focuses on ways to leverage computational powers of commodity hardware in order to support a highly interactive data exploration experience. This, in turn, leverages the expertise of visualisation users and complements their ability to tackle the most challenging data-intensive problems.

What influenced you to study/research in your field?

Visualisation is everywhere. From communicating experimental results in high throughput genome sequencing to presenting election results or COVID-19 updates to the general public, humans are increasingly consuming visually encoded information in ways that help us understand the world around us and make better informed decisions. This high impact of visualisation research and the power of visual communication have been the main driving forces behind my choice of studying and continuing to explore this area of research. The unique combination of human factors, software engineering and design methods in this area have constantly led me to realise that there is always much more to learn in this exciting field.

What would you say to young females to encourage them to progress into your field?

The visualisation community feels like a perfectly sized welcoming and friendly neighbourhood for newcomers. In addition to being an exciting area of research, there is a great sense of community in visualisation conferences. Over the years, I have met brilliant researchers and built friendships that have lasted years. Together we toured the streets of Paris, Berlin, Chicago and other cities where the IEEE VIS conference and other conferences have taken place. We brainstormed ideas and built collaborations that were an incredible addition to my career path as well as to others’. Being part of this community has therefore been a wonderful and very rewarding experience.

What is your area of study/research?

My area of research is wireless communications network technology and applications.

What influenced you to study/research in your field?

I received several offers after graduating with a 1st class BSc Honours in Mathematical Sciences, including a bursary from the University of Cambridge to study for a post graduate taught course. However, I was attracted by the DTI studentship for a PhD degree in the then Electrical and Electronics Engineering Department of the University of Bradford, as it was in the top 10 EEE departments in the UK.

What inspires you to continue in your field?

I worked as a System Engineer in a satellite consultancy firm after I completed my PhD but left one year later for a post-doctoral fellow post in the University of Leeds, and then Bradford.  I was fortunate enough to be able to work on a very good EU funded project, where  I gained some very valuable and fun experience in engineering.

What would you say to young females to encourage them to progress into your field?

Engineering is practical art; engineers are down-to-earth artists with imagination that knows no bounds. Engineering is philosophy in practice; engineers are practitioners of philosophy.

It is cool to wear high heels and make up to go to work as an engineer; it is even cooler when you see the products that  you designed are practical, useful, beneficial to mankind. There is a purpose that men and women are made different. Let’s make good use of these differences to shape and inspire the engineering world.    

Interestingly…

I am the first female professor in engineering in the University of Bradford. When I was interviewed for my professorial title, I was asked what I understood about ‘equality’. I told the panel that I would definitely treat my male colleagues as equal. 

What is your area of study/research?

I am a recently appointed artist and lecturer in the faculty of Engineering and Informatics and although not an engineer myself, some of my interests and experience converge with engineering. My area of expertise is design, which regularly overlaps with a variety of aspects of engineering.

Building on a recent sculptural life-size piece, ‘Man and Machine’, executed for the 2011 British Science Festival which depended upon reverse engineering processes implemented by colleague Dr Fin Caton-Rose, I am currently designing an art piece in association with the ‘Fragmented Heritage’ project being undertaken by University of Bradford archaeologists.

What influenced you to study/research in your field?

I am interested in our ability as humans to communicate ideas and cultural values through the making of artefacts. This current art piece, conceived in spring 2014, involves the creation, ceremonial destruction and subsequent refitting of fragments of an eleven foot high figurative sculpture, which I am currently sculpting in clay.

What inspires you to continue in your field?

The sculpture is being constructed on an armature built by the engineering workshop to accommodate up to 1500 kilos of clay. It is fascinating yet terrifying to feel the sculpture sway in one direction or another as more weight is applied to the piece.  I am always aware that if the armature was inadequate, the sculpture could topple over at any time. It pleases me to know that this project shows how engineering research can feed into sculptural practice.

The sculpture will be cast in a special mortar mix which has been developed for purpose within the faculty. The mortar had to have a high compressive strength and not require an internal structure. Now the challenge is to build a trestle bridge to function in the sculpture’s ceremonial destruction.  The ceremony will be filmed using the expertise of faculty and students from the School of Media, Design and Technology, and the fragmented pieces will be put back together using cutting-edge refit technology being developed by university archaeologists.

What would you say to young females to encourage them to progress into your field?

It is important that women never stop venturing into spheres which men have traditionally dominated. There may be significant prejudices to overcome, but it is necessary for women to be functioning in those spheres.

What is your area of study/research?

My main research interest is software testing, however, I have been active in two communities: software engineering and theoretical computer science.  This allowed me to combine my passion for automated testing of real-world systems with the development of rigorous formal methods that underpin them.

What influenced you to study/research in your field?

In school I enjoyed Maths a lot and I was dreaming to become a Maths teacher.  Further on, I've discovered computers and the joy of solving different problems, by writing computer programs.  So, during my high school and undergrad years I've competed in both, national Mathematics Olympiads and student programming contests, where I've managed to transfer skills and enjoy taking the challenges, in individual and also team competitions.  It was great to see that the success in a programming contest was sometimes due to the elegant way of solving the underlying Math problem or designing an appropriate algorithm. Also, it was fun to travel with the colleagues to other places and to work together to solve the challenges we received.  

What inspires you to continue in your field?

The software industry evolved with huge steps in the last decade, the applications are everywhere around us, and consist not only of traditional programs, but also of software used by robots, autonomous systems or self-driving cars.  Testing these systems is an absolute 'must' and represents a big challenge previously referred to as "testing the untestable", due to their continuous interactions with the environment, system uncertainties, deep intertwining of software and hardware, and inclusion of safety critical deep learning software.  Attempting to find new methods to tackle these challenges and to automate the test generation are main catalysts.

What would you say to young females to encourage them to progress into your field?

Software engineering, and software testing in particular, are domains in which you will never get bored. There are always lots of questions to answer, different angles to tackle the problems and new challenges ahead.  And there are many iconic portraits of women in Computer Science, such as Margaret Hamilton, a symbol of a "generation of unsung women who helped send humankind into space".

Interestingly…

Although my job involves learning programming languages, I also have a passion for spoken languages.  As Erasmus student in Granada, I could improve a lot my Spanish and develop over the years close collaborations with research groups in Seville and Madrid.  Working for a German company from the automotive industry was a nice incentive to learn German.  Also, travelling to conferences, working in research projects with many international partners allowed me to meet new people and get familiar with other cultures.

What is your area of research?
In the Faculty of Engineering and Informatics, my research expertise is in the areas of sustainability assessment of the built environment with a focus on water and waste water infrastructure, buildings, transport infrastructure and noise reducing devices.

What influenced you to study and research in your field?
From an early age, I have always liked and been aware of the built environment, but the drawings of houses I created as a child clearly showed me that I did not have a flair for architecture. However, I was always attracted to physics, chemistry and mathematics, and achieved high grades in these subjects. This led me towards a profession with an emphasis on engineering and so with an interest in buildings and the environment, I decided that civil engineering would provide me with a fascinating and stimulating career.
After studying civil, industrial and agricultural construction engineering at university in Romania for five years, I gained practical experience over a period of three and a half years working for a major contractor on large construction projects, including a chemical engineering plant, in the roles of site manager, project manager, and site engineer. It was unusual for a professional woman civil engineer to perform in such roles. Typically, women then did not undertake site management activities because at that time women worked in an office and it was rare to see a woman at the heart of a major project. But I was prepared to take on the challenge and so I worked hard and grasped the opportunities to become a pioneer in what was and, still is, a male dominated profession.
After gaining practical and managerial experience on projects, I decided that a career in academia would enable me to share my experiences and knowledge with others, and I have been in an academic role ever since. I gained my first academic appointment in Romania, but over the years I have undertaken teaching and research in Germany, France and the UK. In 1994, whilst in England I applied for a lectureship in building surveying in Dundee, Scotland, but my concern was whether being Romanian, I would require a work permit and a visa for the interview. I was subsequently invited for an interview, and was successful in achieving my first academic appointment in the UK. In 2003, I was appointed a senior lecturer at the University of Bradford and in 2015 promoted to a Personal Chair in Sustainable Built Environment.

What inspires you to continue in your field?
Throughout my entire career I have always been research active. To me, it is impossible to contemplate being an effective academic and not to undertake research. My research activities underpin my teaching and in so doing I push the frontier of engineering knowledge. The concept of continual discovery and removing limiting beliefs and boundaries is crucial for the development of people in all walks of life, and particularly in the engineering profession. This is a whole life learning process, and in the academic role is centred on advancement and the transfer of knowledge – and this is what I particularly love about my role.
Engineering is a very creative and satisfying profession. Few professions give people the opportunity to design and /or build a structure, such as a tunnel, a bridge, a railway, a dam or a complex building structure, with the satisfaction of knowing it may stand and be in full use for a century or more.
As an academic with roles in teaching and research, I transfer what I know and have experienced to students of all ages and backgrounds, and from around the world. These students then create buildings and infrastructures to satisfy the needs of the built environment in their countries and this is highly motivating for me since the work they do has a huge impact on communities and society.

What would you say to young females to encourage them to progress into your field?
Reflecting on my early career, I can say that for a woman to become an engineer was difficult. However, there are still challenges that women face but, hopefully, increasingly more and more women will find that with determination, ambition and indeed stamina, highly qualified and professionally competent woman can achieve senior and exciting roles in engineering. But women must be encouraged to study science and mathematics from the age of 11 to provide them with the necessary grounding, and the time to take these subjects to an advanced level; it is too late for a student to start these subjects during the sixth form education.
When women, and men, realise how rewarding and satisfying a career in engineering is, it is important for them to follow role models from an early age. This is what I did, and throughout my life and particularly during my earlier life I was inspired to follow my dream of working on projects. And now, I am gratified by those men and women that chose engineering and I see them transferring their skills and knowledge, to which I sometimes contributed, on projects that will serve the needs of the next generation.

Interestingly…
I believe that one of the most important aspects of engineering is the satisfaction that can be gained and knowing that you have contributed to the creation of something that impacts the lives of others. Coupled with this is the fact that engineering and academia
is continually changing - new technologies are developed, new construction methods are introduced, and materials are discovered, and these can change our methods of construction. But through all of these changes, the engineering principles remain the same.
The advent of the digital world helps us to rapidly explore alternative engineering design and manufacturing systems in an increasingly environmentally-conscious way. It is crucial that as we create new structures, and undertake repairs to existing ones, the environmental protection of our planet and the consideration of sustainable development and the impact of climate change, are of paramount importance.
It is engineers that have always been at the forefront of change over many centuries and this will continue to be so in the foreseeable future. There are wonderful opportunities waiting for engineers to serve the future needs of society, and women should strive to take a major lead in this role, and when they do they will soon realise what an exciting and stimulating career is open to them.

More about Professor Crina Oltean-Dumbrava
Prof Crina Oltean-Dumbrava is an international academic with over 43 years’ professional experience of which 40 years have been in academia with teaching and research experience in the UK, France, Germany, Italy, Greece and Romania. She has masters’ qualifications in civil and building engineering, and economics, and is a Fellow of ICE, a chartered civil engineer, a chartered builder, a charter construction manager and a chartered surveyor.
Prof Oltean-Dumbrava is a member of the JBM Visiting Accreditation Panel and a member of the Education for the Built Environment (E4BE) Group, a partnership between the Construction Industry Council and the Construction Industry Training Board. She is a Past Chair of the UK’s Association of Civil Engineering Departments. At the University of Bradford she is a past member of University’s Council, Senate and Past Chair of the Standing Committee of the University’s Assembly. She is a member of the University Court.
Prof Oltean-Dumbrava has been research active for 40 years, has authored/contributed to 17 books, published over 1200 papers, and is or has been Principal Investigator, Co-Investigator or Collaborator of 42 research and teaching grants worth over £11m. She has been leading multi-national research projects and contributing to course development in several countries.
She was appointed the BSI (UK) expert, ISO and European Committee for Standardisation Road Traffic Noise Reducing Devices (RTNRD) CEN/TC 226, the CEN/TC 226/WG6 TG4 Convenor and Co-Convenor to implement sustainability in RTNRD standards and the Liaison officer between CEN/TC 226 and CEN/TC 350 Sustainability of Construction Works. She is Visiting Professor of the Technical University, Cluj-Napoca, Romania, an External Expert Evaluator for the Italian Ministry of Universities and Research, EU Horizon 2020 Programmes, and for the Romanian Agency for Quality Assurance in Higher Education. In 2017, as part of a team of five,
she was awarded the Vice--Chancellor’s Award for Outstanding Achievement for her contribution to the EU FP7 GENOVATE Grant.
She is proud of being invited in 2017as a Partner and Expert of the United Nations Sustainable Buildings and Construction (SBC) Programme of the 10--Year Framework of Programmes on Sustainable Consumption and Production (10YFP). In 2019 she has been nominated by BSI for one of the prestigious BSI Standards Makers Awards for Representing the UK and leading the development of the first European product sustainability standard: Road Traffic Noise Reducing Devices - Sustainability: Key Sustainability Performance Indicators (KSPI) Declaration.

What is your area of study/research?
My area of study is computer science, with a central focus on artificial intelligence (AI) and niche research area of conversational AI and natural language processing (NLP).

What influenced you to study/research in your field?
My journey really started after completing my ‘O’ level in ‘Computer Science’ and I was fascinated that I could write some code in the programming language Visual Basic on my ZX81 computer to solve the mathematical quadratic equation – ax2 + bx + c.  I explored this interest by continuing my ‘A’ level, undergraduate and postgraduate study in Computer Science and Mathematics. In my lecturing role – the Internet explosion; vast technology opportunities and the potential of communicating with computers and processing natural language – I found this very exciting, interesting and inspiring.  I pursued a part-time PhD in conversational agents over 6 years. With the evolving opportunity of chatbots becoming smarter my interest is now in the conversational AI space.

What inspires you to continue in your field?
Communication and language are fundamental to humans.  Interacting with computers by speech or text to make life easier for everyone in their jobs, daily life, and businesses is a great digital transformation opportunity worldwide.  My work in the conversational AI space is one way pathway to achieve this. I feel my insights, dedication and research work will provide a valuable contribution to this field. 

What would you say to young females to encourage them to progress into your field?
Firstly, reflect on what interests you, inspires you,  what you are good at, what you like and what makes you feel good.  Secondly, collate them as a mind map and have a dialogue with your teacher, friend, role model or somebody who understand the area/field. Thirdly, devise a plan to help you to embark on the journey.  Finally, just believe you can do it, empower yourself and make it happen.     

Contact

Email

[email protected]

What is your area of study/research?

My area of research is Structural Engineering, with a particular focus on steel-concrete composite structures. Prior to this, I studied Civil Engineering for my bachelor degree, before choosing to focus on Structural Engineering for my MSc and PhD.

What influenced you to study/research in your field?

Mathematics and physics were among my favourite subjects at school and I chose to study engineering as I preferred the practical applications of these subjects to the purely theoretical forms.  I was particularly attracted to civil engineering not only because of my interest in structures, but also owing to the variety of careers available within this field

What inspires you to continue in your field?

Although civil/structural engineering is one of the oldest forms of engineering, new challenges continuously present themselves to engineers owing to an increasing global population, demand for robust structures, limited availability of resources, etc.  New materials and arrangements of structural components must be developed in order to improve the efficiency, resilience and sustainability of engineering structures.  The outcomes from structural engineering research have an immediate and highly visible impact on the surrounding natural and built environments.  Inspiration to continue my research is provided by constant reminders of its necessity and by the opportunities to directly witness the impact that it has on my surrounding environment and society as a whole.

What would you say to young females to encourage them to progress into your field?

There is absolutely no reason for women to not succeed in engineering.  Every environment that I have studied/worked in has been highly supportive of female engineers.  An engineering degree is an extremely valuable qualification enabling you to not only attain the core technical knowledge of your chosen engineering field, but also to develop a wide range of transferable skills which you will use throughout your working life, whether you stay working in this field, or move to working in a different area.  If you are interested in engineering, just go for it!

What is your area of study/research?

I am a Post-doctoral research scientist. My research focuses on characterising and understanding the structure-property relationship of polymeric soft matter in different environments, this covers a broad range of materials we use every day from plastics, food and pharmaceuticals. This requires preforming experiments to investigate the physical and chemical properties under different temperature and force fields. 

What influenced you to study/research in your field?

Nature, I always wanted to know how and why certain objects behave the way they do!

From my early years in school I realised I wasn’t thrilled about memorising all those dates in history textbooks. I enjoyed all science subjects but didn’t have a favourite one which made choosing a university course to study slightly challenging.

Throughout my degree I discovered the joy of being in the lab, performing experiments and anticipating results, even the ones my peers found disgusting and involved dissections and analysing faeces.  My curiosity wasn’t fulfilled with the knowledge I obtained after my undergraduate degree but I noticed my fascination with a certain class of materials ‘semisolids (soaps, gels and creams)’, which led me to pursuit a masters and then a PhD mainly studying these systems.

When I started my engineering PhD I found myself at the intersection of all sciences frontiers. Engineering is the strong bond holding all sciences together and the force enabling their advancements. Although people perceive it as the science of making, it offers way more than that. It seeks to provide practical solutions to real life problems and questions how can they be avoided in the first place.

What inspires you to continue in your field?

Each day in research is challenging and rarely boring, it comes with myriad of problems to be solved. There are a lot of gaps in our scientific knowledge and tonnes of questions waiting to be answered. Knowing my research can provide some answers, therefore have an impact on people lives and will help understanding our universe better is very satisfactory.

What would you say to young females to encourage them to progress into your field?

We are faced by new challenges every day that require all scientists on board to solve, regardless of their gender or background. Mental abilities have no connection to gender and female scientists are equally capable to male scientists.

We wouldn’t have made it to the moon or discovered the structure of the DNA without female engineers and scientists!

Although females make up half the population, they only occupy 23% of STEM core occupations, imagine where we’d go and what will be discovered if more join in.

Interestingly…

I was trained as pharmacist and studied an industrial technology MSc before finishing a PhD in chemical and process engineering.

My engineering studies and work introduced me to a whole fields of science (e.g . particle physics) I have never even considered before, by using X-rays and neutrons I was able to learn a wealth of information on the systems we’ve been studying.

Joining engineering faculty had made me more vocal about gender and minorities representation in science. Last autumn I completed the British Science Association (BSA) media fellowship, where I worked as science journalist for The Daily Mail and the BSA, where I’ve written stories about medicine, environment, AI and of course.. gender!

Great memories…

Reading Cristina’s profile earlier... I totally fangirled over a couple big names when I met them , one was filmed by a friend.  

What is your area of study/research?

Biomedical engineering with specialisation in: surface characterization, surface chemistry modification, surface structuring of polymers, material properties modification via processing, stretchable conductors, biomedical devices. 

What influenced you to study/research in your field?

I always liked maths and physics best at school, but didn’t really wanted to be a teacher, so I choose engineering after I studied economics. After few years studying semiconductors and having a PhD in microelectronics, the interest turned towards medical applications. A concoction of engineering with medicine it was appealing to me so I applied for a Marie Curie fellowship. My project looked at early detection of pressure ulcers, a hot topic then and now for the NHS and for all the medical systems around the world. 

What inspires you to continue in your field?

My move to the University of Bradford opened a new avenue in my career. The interface with industry and the possibility to see research turned in real life applications gives high satisfaction and motivation to continue. When high class research helps saving lives or improves the quality of life is enough inspiration to dedicate your professional life to that field.

What would you say to young females to encourage them to progress into your field?

Girls and young women today are pretty familiar with science and technology, and it may seem they don't need encouragement anymore. But, to keep girls interested in science, as well as believing they have something to contribute to areas like technology, hardware and software development, scientific research, and many other areas of technology is still an important task. 

What I would say to the young students and scientists is that this is one of the most rewording jobs you could have. The everyday challenges that you face will strengthen your technical skills and your human skills. Biomedical engineering it is an area that looks to convert engineers into carers. You will need empathy and that kindness to treat human related technical issues in an environment that is very dynamic and divers. This are lessons not just for your professional life but as well helps you to become an all-around human with special qualities.

Interestingly…

I'm proud to be female and an engineer, though this is getting more and more run-of-the-mill these days, thank goodness! In my group I was the only woman for quite a while. I get to create things which help people feel or do better! This should be enough to be proud to be an engineer. I am certainly not embarrassed to be an engineer.

Great memories…

I remember being a young researcher and meeting the Titans – it happens to all of us in science; it is a memorable moment to meet somebody that wrote history in your area. In 2009 I met the two inventors of stretchable conductors. That was memorable!

Joanna Wood – Lead Engineering Technician

What is your area

I am a Lead Engineering Technician supporting laboratory classes, research and testing in Engineering. My main area is Civil Engineering, but I support all areas.

What influenced you to study

I achieved a degree in design before I decided to change my career path to Civil Engineering at the University in 2008. I’ve had an interest in Civil Engineering from A-levels when I visited Bradford University for an event aimed at encouraging women into engineering.

I was awarded the QUEST Technician Scholarship from the Institution of Civil Engineers while doing my HNC in Civil Engineering and was featured in the Bradford college prospectus. I am a Technician Member of the Institution of Civil Engineers (MICE, EngTech) that I am very proud of.

What inspires you to continue

Lab classes with students are the most enjoyable/rewarding part of my job as it’s great to encourage students and provide help when needed. I get on really well with our students and they sometimes come to me for advice. I hope that I am a good influence for the female students and that I can help to encourage more women to choose engineering as their path. 

What would you say to young females to encourage them to progress into your field?

I would say that if you want to make a difference and be involved in a career with so many opportunities in so many different areas then engineering is the way to go. It might be a male dominated subject but being a female in engineering you provide a different perspective. If you prefer to get involved, be more hands on, like science, technology and solving problems then it’s a good choice.

Interestingly…

I am a STEM Ambassador and go to events around the region, taking part in activities to help encourage and inspire young people to think about choosing science and engineering.