women’s engineering society vol 18 • no 18 • … engineer spring... · young people and...

. Happy New Year! Iwish you all the

best year ever andhope you will achieve

your goals and dreams.We often make new year resolu-

tions that are difficult to achieve andhard to sustain long term. My plansfor this year are to deliver achiev-able goals that will contribute tomembership growth and raise pro-file working in partnership with ourmembers, friends and other stake-holders. At present women engi-neers are a precious commodityneeding to be nurtured and pro-moted. We hear from our industrialpartners that they cannot getenough women engineers to filltheir jobs. Gender parity is still faraway in STEM but progress is beingmade. We need to put in someoomph and accelerate it.WES student conferences “Engi-

neering Inspirations” are good ex-amples of accelerating growth. Lastyear, over 100 female engineeringstudents and early career engi-neers descended on Aston Univer-sity in Birmingham to celebrate theirsuccess and share their enthusiasmfor their chosen careers. We want torepeat it this year and the 5th stu-dent conference will be even bigger.We want to grow your membershipto show the world we are here tostay and going to achieve greatthings. We have the support of ourindustrial sponsors who can see thebenefits of being involved in grow-ing this young and enthusiastic tal-ent and are following it up with aresearch project funded by RAEngfocusing on what the young womenengineers have to say. Watch thisspace. The results of the ’Voice ofwomen engineering students’ willbe launched in March with publica-tion of a poster.Energy underpins the success of

all human endeavours. That’s whyWES bi-annual conference (4 Octo-ber 2013) has a theme “Harnessingthe Energy” and will showcasecareers of women working in the

president’smessage

the~

.....continues on page 2

THE WOMAN’S HOUR list of the100 most powerful women in theUK was announced on 12 Febru-ary. Over the preceeding 3monthsWoman’s Hour listenershad been invited to nominatewomen who had the greatest in-fluence and ability to change theway we live our lives today. Anadjudicating panel chaired byformer Sunday Express editorEve Pollard assessed the recom-mendations and took evidencefrom expert witnesses in differentareas. The expert witness on sci-ence and engineering was Scot-land’s chief scientific advisorMuffy Calder. Other panel mem-bers were formerWoman’s Houreditor Jill Burridge, Labour peerOona King, crime writer Val Mc-Dermid, journalist Dawn O’Porterand Conservative MP Priti Patel.

Top of the list was HM TheQueen followed by Home Secre-tary Teresa May and Ana Botin,chief executive officer of San-tander UK. At number 6 in the top20 was Professor Dame SallyDavies, chief medical officer forEngland. Two other scientistswere in the top 20. ProfessorDame Nancy Rothwell, the firstwoman Vice Chancellor of theUniversity of Manchester andprofessor of physiology, was No15 and Dr Anne Glover, first chiefscientific advisor to the EuropeanCommission, was No 19.

Amongst the remaining 80,who were not classified, were twoWES members – WES PatronProfessor Dame Ann Dowling,head of the Engineering Depart-ment at the University of Cam-bridge and Dame Sue Ion, anexpert on nuclear fuel manufac-ture and technology and chair ofthe EU Euratom Science andTechnology Committee.

Three other scientists were in-cluded. Professor Sue Black, aleading forensic anthropologistand the director of the Centre forAnatomy and Human Identifica-

tion at Dundee University; Profes-sor Dame Jocelyn Bell Burnell,who discovered the first radiopulsar and Professor DameWendy Hall, Dean of the faculty ofPhysical and Applied Sciences atSouthampton University and oneof the world’s leading computerscientists.

Twenty-five of the women werein the business and finance sec-tor. These included AngelaAhrendts, CEO of Burberry andNo 9 in top 20, and Moya Greene,CEO Royal Mail at No 12. Formerengineer Ann Cairns, presidentInternational Markets Master-Card Worldwide, appeared in theList. Ann was the first woman whoqualified to work offshore in theoil technology industry.

Other notable entrepreneursincluded are Dame Mary Perkins,

co-founder of SpecSavers, andJustine Roberts and Carrie Long-ton, co-founders of the websiteMumsnet (No 7). The site hasplayed a prominent role innational political debate andleading politicians take part inregular webchats.

The average age of those onthe list was 53 – the youngest wasthe singer Adele, who is aged 25.Three-quarters of those includedhave children and about halfwere privately educated. Only 7percent – and none in the top 20– were from ethnic minorities.

� Top left: Dame Sue Ion; bottom left: Dame Ann Dowling ;top right: Professor Dame Nancy Rothwell; bottom right: Dr Anne Glover

Two WES members on Power List

Specially forSpecially forstudents ...seestudents ...seepage 4page 4

WOMEN’S ENGINEERING SOCIETY VOL 18 • NO 18 • SPRING 2013

WE Spring 13:Layout 1 6/3/13 19:25

ON 3 NOVEMBER President JanPeters and Pip Ayton were inter-viewed on Women’s Hour on BBCRadio 4.

The topic was women engi-neers and their work clothes. Pre-senter Jane Garvey asked Jan tooutline the problem and whatWES was doing about this.

Jan explained that there wereover 65,000 women working in en-gineering, technology and con-struction, approximately 10% ofthe workforce. Women were ex-pected to wear the same protec-tive clothing as men. Womenwere built differently from menand many were finding theirworkwear unsatisfactory, and be-lieved that inappropriate and ill-fitting clothing could compromisetheir work.

Pip was introduced as a civilengineer who often had to go outon site to inspect bridges. Pip ex-plained that as a slight womaneven the smallest size of overallswere much too big for her. Shedescribed trying to scramble intoa cradle so that she could behoisted up to inspect the under-side of bridges in too large over-alls.“It always makes me feel

clumsy and awkward – not asnimble as I usually am,” said Pip.“I try to hitch them up with a beltbut then they tend to pull and tugas I bend over.”

Jan then told Jane about theWES Workwear Survey and theresponses that were being re-ceived.

“Some members have said

that it makes them feel aged 6wearing their dad’s suit,” saidJan. “This undermines their pro-fessionalism, self-confidence andself-esteem.

“We would like to work withfashion designers and manufac-turers to produce comfortable,well-fitting and stylish workware,”Jan concluded.

Jan Peters, WES

President reports on

the latest

developments

WHAT A FANTASTIC autumn andwhat an amazing range of engineer-ing and technical women I have metin the last three months. The confer-ence speaker programme was out-standing, thanks in part to Maria deMagalhaes and Emily Spearman.Thanks too to Carol Marsh for

making the Doris Gray event workso well. This is an integral part ofour student strategy of inspiring andconnecting women at the start oftheir careers. We are also workingwith the Engineering Professors’Council on a report about what is in

place in universities and to defineWES’ next steps. Members havealso organised two highly effectiveschools outreach events, inspiringover 200 girls and boys.The next year sees us building on

our 90th anniversary with improve-ments to the website, developmentof the student programme and part-nerships as well as beginning tosell work boots for women throughour website. Initially we have justone supplier – Dunlop – who hasresponded to our clothing survey ingreat style. We are also working onregional events with a list of ap-proved speakers/trainers andwould love to hear from you if youcan help to organise a company tohost the event – let us know!Don’t forget you can hear the re-

sults of the survey on 15 Decemberat the IET for our last celebratoryevent of 2009, connecting and in-spiring technical women.


the

“ Next year sees us buildingon our 90th anniversary withimprovements to the website,

development of the studentprogramme andpartnerships”

WES on Women’s HourWES on Women’s Hour

WES is organising a cross-net-work event for women in STEMand the built environment on 15December at the IET in SavoyPlace, London. Our partners inthis venture are Women andManual Trades, the Associationof Women in Property, Arup andthe WISE Campaign and theevent is sponsored by the IET.

Features of the evening willbe the presentation of the 2009WES Karen Burt Award and theresults of the safety clothingsurvey. A keynote speaker willtalk about managing a majorengineering project and the

diversity, teamwork and talentfrom across all the disciplineswho are needed to deliver suc-cess. You can also buy your ownpair of WES safety boots.

Registration commences at18.00 and the presentations willstart at 18.30. There will be abuffet serving hot food, wineand soft drinks. A registrationfee of £15.00 is requested as acontribution towards the cost ofthe event and will include entryinto a draw for great prizes.

To register for the event con-tact event manager Tanvi [email protected].

AS WES COUNCILmember MargaretAjibode continues hertravels courtesy of theWinston Churchill Fel-lowship, an article ap-peared in the Indianmagazine The Hindu inOctober on her work.

The article said:It is difficult to have

an uninspiring momentwith Margaret Ajibode.As a Winston ChurchillFellow travelling toIndia, the United States

and Australia, Mar-garet is on a mission topromote engineeringas a profession, espe-cially among women.Her eyes come alive asshe starts talking abouther work and her tripto India.

The WinstonChurchill Fellowshipenables her to travel toother countries, look atbest policies in organi-sations around theworld and interact with

women engineers. InIndia, she chose Delhi,Bangalore and Thiru-vananthapuram. She isespecially interested indocumenting bestpractices in organisa-tions that recruit andpromote women engi-neers.

In India, engineeringcontinues to enjoy astar status amongyoung people andMargaret is especiallydelighted to see thehigh number of womenengineers in Kerala.She has been meeting

with women engineersacross various levelsfrom several organisa-tions in Technopark.

UNESCO is workingwith Margaret on thismission and will re-lease her findings afterFebruary 2010.

MMaarrggaarreett iinn IInnddiiaa

Shape the Future: Step upto the Challenge

WOMEN’S ENGINEERING SOCIETY VOL 18 • NO 6 – WINTER 2009

WE Nov 09:Layout 1 1/12/09 23:46 Page 1

thewomanengineer – spring2013 www.wes.org.uk2

The Women’s EngineeringSociety is a charityregistered with the CharityCommission No. 1008913 anda company limited byguarantee registered inEngland No. 162096.

All correspondenceregarding membership andthe work of the WES shouldbe addressed to:

The SecretaryWomen’s EngineeringSocietyc/o IETMichael Faraday HouseSix Hills WaySTEVENAGE SG1 2AY

Tel: 01438 765506e-mail: [email protected]

The Woman EngineerEditor: Pat Battamse-mail: [email protected]

Editorial Board: EkpedemeAkpanudoh, Sonya Chan,Jacky Crook, RoseniDearden, Petra Gratton,Dianne Patterson

The Woman Engineer ispublished by the Women’sEngineering Society. It isdistributed free of charge tomembers of the Society andto selected professionalwomen engineers, scientistsand women undergraduates.

Printed by: A Local Printer,Robell Way, Storrington,Pulborough RH20 3DN

Subscriptions: the journal isavailable to non WESmembers in the UK at asubscription price of £25pa(inc postage). Please sendsubscription orders to WES.Cheques should be madepayable to: Women’sEngineering Society.

Overseas subscriptions:price by surface mail is

£30pa. Sterling cheques orbank drafts should be madepayable to: Women’sEngineering Society. All itemsfor inclusion in The WomanEngineer should be sent to theEditor at the same address.

The views expressed in thisjournal are not necessarilythe views of the Society.

© The Woman Engineer 2013

celebrating90 years 1919-2009

Insidethis issue

3 JLR programme toencourage girls to follow

engineering careers

3 Jo Parker leads an awardwinning project

4 Busy times for GreenCouncillor Nina Baker

4 Specially for Students

5 Interview with JuliaHumpidge of Aker Solutions

6 Young Woman Engineer ofthe Year award winners

7 Great growth inapprenticeships

8 New Engineer Councilexecutive Caroline

Sudworth

9 2012 WISE award winners

10 News – engineering andemployment issues of

interest

11 WES news – news of WESmembers

11 New members

11 Diary

12 Green news

12 INWES – latestdevelopments

It was perhaps disappointing that only two practis-ing engineers appeared on theWoman’s HourPower List – although encouraging that both were

WES members. It was interesting to learn that thiscountry’s chief medical office and the chief scienticadvisor to the EC were both women. A quarter ofthose on the list worked in business and finance, in-cluding chief executive officers of some high profilecompanies. Women are slowly getting there.

Woman’s Hour has been promoting women in sci-ence and technology recently. Katie Perry of theDaphne Jackson Trust appeared on a programme inFebruary explaining how the Trust helped women toreturn to careers in science and engineering. An-other welcome advance has been WES companymember Jaguar Land Rover’s course, developed inpartnership with Birmingham Metropolitan College,to encourage more young women to consider work-ing in engineering.

Aker Solution’s head of engineering, JuliaHumpidge, has also committed her company todevelop a work experience programme for girls in

Years 10-12 to show them that it is possible to have aninteresting and fun career in engineering. Julia be-lieves that we need more role models of women whoare enjoying successful engineering careers andcombining this with raising a family.

An exciting new development is the advertising ofjobs on the WES website. If you already haven’t doneso, go on-line and investigate. Recently there havebeen some interesting discussions in the WES groupon LinkedIn. Do sign up and find out what is goingon.

Finally we urgently need new members for theWES Editorial Board. If you are interested in helpingto advise and guide WES publications and the web-

site, do contact me [email protected].

� Next issue contribution deadline: 10 May 2013

PatPat Battams – editor

Successful role models – more needed


the

cont.....energy industry as well as pro-vide insight into new technicaldevelopments in the field.Energy is also something WES

members have in abundanceand the proof of this is thetremendous amount of voluntarywork being carried out by them.You must have noticed the WESwebsite is now buzzing withnews items, new pages havebeen added on, someone re-cently commented that it wasvery fresh and full of changingcontent. It is. Yes it is very muchalive! To give it even more buzzwe need to know what you areall doing on WES’ behalf. Doshout about it and send yournews items about your activities,large or small, to the office sowe can show the world howgood we are and how much‘stuff’ is going on.

Regional events are importantbecause they bring people whoshare the same interest togetherfor great networking with otherprofessional institutions, influen-tial groups and industrial repre-sentatives. We need to bring WESto all communities. We havemany great events ongoing,suchas a presentation by HaifaTakruri OBE MWES to the coun-cillors and EU partners on an EUfunded Leonardo Project atTameside College. This projectshares good practice and ad-dresses barriers to the low num-ber of young people, and womenin particular, taking up STEMsubjects. If you know of events inyour area that WES could takepart in, do tell us about them.WES is working in collabora-

tion with many organisations andsupports other charitable events,such as Oxfam’s ‘Get Together’campaign. We are involved inpartnerships and research appli-cations for various projects suchas STEM GEAR EU. We con-

tribute to current government is-sues –the latest is a WES re-sponse to BIS inquiry into Womenin Work last December.We are forging partnerships

with other women’s networks, in-dustrial companies, such as Air-bus and BT to name just a fewrecent ones, and other organisa-tions with similar aims, such asWISE.I am calling on all members

and friends of WES to invite oth-ers – individuals and companies -to join us in promoting our aimsof inspiring girls and women intoengineering, encouraging andsupporting them throughout theircareers and finally celebratingtheir achievements.WES advises employers on

recruitment, retention andadvancement of women engi-neers and scientists, so companymembership can be especiallybeneficial.Join us and have a great year.

Milada Williams


thewomanengineer – spring2013www.wes.org.uk 3

JAGUAR LAND ROVER (JLR) offers female stu-dents interested in engineering, technologyand manufacturing careers, a unique insightinto the world of work at the UK’s largest lux-ury automotive manufacturer. The ‘InspiringTomorrow’s Engineers: Young Women in theKnow’ course has been developed in partner-ship with Birmingham Metropolitan College tochange outdated perceptions of engineeringand to encourage more young women to fol-low engineering and manufacturing careers.

JLR, a WES corporate sponsor, provides aweek-long programme of events at their man-ufacturing, design and engineering sites inGaydon, Whitley, Solihull and CastleBromwich. Participants meet female appren-tices, graduates, engineers and managers tofind out about their education and career his-tories and will spend a day on work experi-ence at the Solihull plant. They also find outabout Jaguar Land Rover’s apprentice andgraduate schemes and participate in work-

shops on jobapplications,assessmentcentres andinterview tech-niques.

Bob Joyce,JLR engineeringdirector, said:“We offer awide range ofeducation pro-grammes withthe aim of get-ting young peo-ple excitedabout engineer-ing and cru-cially, toencourage

them to make theright subjectchoices atGCSE-level andbeyond. The‘Young WomenIn The Know’course has beendeveloped to encourage female students toconsider engineering careers and we hopesome of the students on the course today willjoin Jaguar Land Rover as engineers in thefuture.”

Danella Bagnall, project planning and inte-gration director at JLR, who joined the com-pany 25 years ago as an apprentice added:“It is a very exciting time to join our business.We are investing more than £2 billion a yearin research and development and we needtalented young people to deliver new tech-nologies, new applications, new approachesand new ideas. I would thoroughly recom-mend a career in engineering to girls andhope this programme inspires lots morewomen to become engineers.”

The ‘Inspiring Tomorrow’s Engineers:Young Women in the Know’ course is part ofthe ‘Inspiring Tomorrow’s Engineers’ educa-tion programme which Jaguar Land Roverruns across the UK to promote STEM subjectsand engineering careers.

The VISTA project, supported by£0.9 million funding from the Tech-nology Strategy Board and led byproject manager Jo Parker on be-half of UK Water Industry Re-search, has developed a prototypesystem to deliver integrated utilityinformation from any electronicdata base. This is a real challengeconsidering the large number ofutilities and variety of data record-ing practices. Initial trials provedhighly successful; it was thereforedecided to proceed with imple-mentation across the whole ofScotland. The Scottish VAULT wentlive in March 2012.

Until VAULT was launched, those requiringaccess to utility records of buried apparatus,such as pipes/cables etc, in order to plan orperform street works had to contact all organ-isations owning apparatus in an area of inter-est, a process. This could take a week andfrequently longer due to the manual systemsinvolved.

In a world first, VAULT takes the information

directly from individualorganisations’ Geo-graphical InformationSystems (GIS) and trans-forms it into a commonformat, enabling com-plete information of allrecords in an area to bedelivered to a user withinseconds. It means, forexample, that with theaid of a hand-helddevice or laptop, anyoneneeding to dig in a roadcan access the records

on site and instantly seewhat pipes and cables are likely to beencountered, providing significant safety ben-efits when excavating.

The Scottish VAULT was short-listed for twoareas under the IET Innovation awards, the ITaward and the built environment award andwon the Built Environment Award which waspresented at the awards dinner in London on22 November. It also won the National JointUtilities Group ‘Avoiding Damage’ award pre-

sented at the Houses of Parliament on 20November.

A demonstration is available:www.youtube.com/watch?v=ncK0nsDo_gQ.

New company memberWES welcomes new member DP WorldLondon Gateway one of the UK’s largestjob creation projects.

London Gateway will be the UK’s first21st Century major deep-sea containerport and Europe’s largest logistics park.The development is the most significantUK port development for 20 years. Situ-ated on the north bank of the River ThamesEstuary in Essex, just 25 miles from centralLondon, London Gateway will provide un-rivalled deep-sea shipping access for theworld’s leading businesses to the largestconsumer markets in the UK.

For the latest job opportunities at Lon-don Gateway visitwww.londongateway.com/aboutus/community

-and-employment/careers or see the Jobspage on the WES website.

WES member leads award-winning project

Jaguar Land Rover offers girls aJaguar Land Rover offers girls aunique glimpse into engineeringunique glimpse into engineering

� Jo Parker talks about VISTA



DR NINA BAKER has had a varied career as amerchant navy deck officer, research engi-neer and now as a part-time university admin-istrator.

WES member Nina Baker is also very in-volved in the lively activities of the West ofScotland circle. As such she was invited torepresent WES on the judging panel of theScottish Engineering Primary Special LeadersAward. This is a scheme aimed at primary

children in Scotland and challenges them todraw or write what they would do if they couldbe an engineer in Scotland. They start out byeither interviewing a practicing engineer orby looking at the engineering ‘heroes’ on therecently established Scottish Engineering Hallof Fame website. These are to inspire the chil-dren for their ideas for their designs. Hun-dreds of designs were submitted as drawingswith a brief written description.

Nina joined Peter Hughes, the retiring chiefof Scottish Engineering and his replacement,Bryan Buchan, for an intensive selectionprocess to identify 10 winners from across allthe age groups 7-12 years.

Married with two adult children, she has re-cently been elected to the Glasgow CityCouncil as a member of the Greens andtakes a particular interest in governance,recycling and food issues. She is councillor inthe multimember ward of Anderston and Cityin Glasgow. She is a bailie, helping the LordProvost with civic duties, and sits on thelicensing board and planning committee. Shealso takes a particular interest in the RiverClyde and those who use it.

Nina says “Fly tipping of bulk refuse andmisuse of domestic bin areas continues to bea big problem across the ward. Much of it isassociated with badly run private rented flats,where the landlord takes no interest in theresponsibilities that come with the income hereceives. I will always follow up any com-plaints made to me and will generally visit thelocation and take photos, so that I can getcouncil officials on the case effectively. If it wecan identify who did the dumping, they can becharged for the costs of the clearing up. A re-peat offender who is also a landlord can losetheir licence and their right to make moneyfrom other people’s misery.”

Specially forStudents Engineering students who get

three grade ‘A’s at A Level, orequivalent qualifications, are noweligible for a scholarship of £1,000per year.

The new Diamond JubileeScholarships initiative from theInstitution of Engineering andTechnology (IET) will rewardstudents who achieve three grade‘A’s at A Level, or three ‘A’ gradeAdvanced Highers, or five ‘A’grade Highers, and who start anIET accredited engineering ortechnology degree course thisautumn. They will be entitled toan annual scholarship of £1,000for up to four years.

The IET launched the DiamondScholarships initiative toencourage bright young studentsto consider studying engineeringand technology, and to go on toenjoy very rewarding andchallenging careers.

Prof Andy Hopper, IETPresident, said: “Engineering andtechnology are thriving in the UKbut there is a very real problem

with skills shortages to fill the jobsavailable. The IET wants toencourage young people to studyengineering and technology andgo on to pursue careers in thesesectors. Job prospects in thesesectors continue to look strong,with companies continuallyseeking talented graduateengineers and scientists, as wellas technicians and apprentices.”

The IET’s 2012 Skills andDemand in Industry Survey showsthat, for the first time since therecession, companies are moreconfident in expanding theirengineering workforce.

Starting salaries for graduateengineers and technicians areamongst the highest of allgraduate salaries, but there stillremains a national shortage ofengineers. This new scholarshipinitiative is one of the many waysthe IET is helping to address thatshortage.

Students can apply for thescholarships by visitingwww.theiet.org/diamond.

Students set to benefit from newengineering scholarships

Connecting studentgroups

Our student group affiliate packsare nearly ready. Join up to helpgive your group sustainability,including opportunities to runshared events and lectures andbe part of something bigger.

You need two student WESmembers and a member of staffas a champion. We can help youfind speakers and sponsors.Your group members can be inscience, technology, engineer-ing, maths or computing.

We are also looking for volun-teers to help set up the new areaon the WES website. Just get intouch. [email protected].

Shout out to sixthformersIf you have some words ofadvice for the next cohort ofwomen students then shout backat us.

We are doing PHONE INTER-VIEWS and an on-line survey tocollect your thoughts and experi-ences and shape them into aposter. One lucky participant willget a free place at the 2013 con-ference. Sign up link at the endof the survey.

Jan Peters is doing the phoneinterviews so call, leave a mes-sage or text now to book a slot.07974011278

2013 Student Conference15-16 November, Aston University

Busy times for Councillor Nina � Nina (2nd on left) with fellow Glasgow Green councillors



Julia Humpidge is head of engineering forAker Solutions and manages a team of 170.She joined Aker Solutions in May 2012 whenthey opened their UK HQ in Chiswick, Lon-don. Aker Solutions provides oilfield products,systems and services for the oil and gas in-dustry world-wide. The company started as asmall workshop in Oslo more than 170 yearsago. Today it has operations in 30 countries.Five of the 12 directors of the main board arewomen and include Anne Drinkwater fromthe UK.

Julia trained as chemical engineer atNottingham University.

“I became a chemical engineer more byluck than grand design,” she explained. “Iwent to a girls’ school where the only careerchoice offered to girls who were good at sci-ence was to become a doctor. My father wasan engineer and a family friend who greatlyenjoyed his job and earned the most was achemical engineer.”

Her first job was with an oil and gas con-tractor for 18 months and then she left with adesire to be on site.

“After university, I went travelling to Aus-tralia. Upon my return I went to a job fairwhere I met company representatives fromthe oil and gas industry including M W Kel-logg, who offered me a job.”

She has never regretted her choice.“The oil and gas industry has proved to be

the most interesting and challenging of indus-tries - and continues to be so.”

After 18 months, she moved onto a job withUOP where she spent most of her time travel-ling to oil refineries throughout the world act-ing as a troubleshooter.

“My speciality was isomerisation units thatincrease the octane in naphtha to replace thelead in petrol. These units use a platinum cat-alyst that is expensive and quite easy to kill if

mistreated. A big part of my job was educa-tion and communication.”

Julia recalls an occasion when she arrivedin Sicily to face a board of 24 Italian men, allimmaculately turned out whilst she was in herworking clothes.

“They understood the problem butcouldn’t communicate with their en-gineering team who needed to solvethe problem.

“It was amazing and life-shapingto have experiences like this so earlyon in my career.”

After two years, Julia moved onto Tamoil inSwitzerland where she met her husband andhad two daughters. She found that maternityand childcare arrangements in Switzerlandwere not good.

“Statutory maternity leave was 6 weeks un-paid. Fortunately my employer gave me 8weeks on full pay, then I took 3 months unpaidleave. I was only the second person at the re-finery to have taken maternity leave.”

Switzerland is culturally still very traditionaland not many professional women chose towork when they have children. However, Julianegotiated with her employer to work 32hours a week and managed with a mix ofchildminders, nurseries and au pairs.

“My mother was a life-saver and flew overwhenever there was a crisis. I don’t know howI would have managed without her.”

In 2002, after 10 years in Switzerland, Juliareturned to the UK to work for M W Kellogg asproject manager. She was excited to join AkerSolutions in 2012 as she enjoyed the chal-lenge of setting up a new office and team.

“If you join an established organisation,you can only make minor changes, but herestarting from scratch you can build up theorganisation as you want it to be.

“I was attracted to Aker Solutions because

the people here believe, as I do, that workshould be interesting and fun – and that peo-ple should be respected as individuals.

“I have the full backing of senior manage-ment. We have 170 people in the EngineeringDepartment now and are looking to increasethe London office employees by 1,500 as proj-ects develop, both in the North Sea andbeyond.

“Currently we have 10 women engineers inthe disciplines and a couple more in projectengineering roles, and me, so a grand total of13 women engineers. We definitely need to upthe ratio in oil and gas across the board.”

Julia has not experienced any prejudiceagainst her as a woman and has only felt un-comfortable on rare occasions.

“In the breakout room at the refinery inSwitzerland there were photos of nakedwomen on the walls. I asked them to takethem down and they did so.”

One long term aim that she is committed tois to try and encourage more young girls tobecome engineers.

“We want to get a proper work experience

programme going for Years 10-12 in localschools to show them that engineering can belife-changing and exciting.

“We operated a scheme in my last work-place with a local girls’ school. After a week70% of the girls were keen on engineering.

“It’s vital that we all do something to raisethe profile of engineering. Faced with presentskill shortages if we don’t do something soonwe won’t have anywhere near enough engi-neers.”

She recently went with her eldest daughterto see the school careers advisor. Althoughher daughter was good at maths and science,engineering was not mentioned as a potentialcareer until Julia raised it.

“Nothing seems to have changed since Iwas at school. We somehow need to get intoschools before children make their GCSEchoices.”

Julia believes that she has reached thepoint in her career where she would like to doa bit more to change things.

“Engineering has a bad press in the UK.We need to show girls that it is possible tohave a rewarding career as an engineer andraise a family. We need role models, acrossall engineering disciplines, who are seen as‘normal people.”

“It was life-shaping tohave such experiencesso early in my career .”

EEnnggiinneeeerr iinngg ccaann bbeeiinntteerreesstt iinngg aanndd ffuunn

� Julia Humpidge showsit is possible to combinemotherhood with a topmanagement career



THE IET YOUNG WOMAN ENGINEER OF THEYEAR Awards were presented by TV sportspersonality, Gabby Logan, at IET London:Savoy Place on 6 December. The winner ofthe WES prize* was Charlotte Tingley.

Charlotte joined BAE Systems in 2006 as anadvanced technical apprentice after finishingher GCSEs. She completed a three year ap-prenticeship gaining experience and qualifi-cations in the aerospace engineeringindustry. During her apprenticeship she was afinalist for the BAE Systems Apprentice of theYear 2010 and won the Category for Commu-nity Achievement.

Charlotte first became interested in engi-neering when she took part in ‘Take your sonor daughter to work day’ at her father’s work.

My father is a training provider of electricalinstallations. At the time I was 14 and hadn’treally been exposed to the world of engineer-ing but after a day of challenging hands onwork and fault finding/ problem solving, I justknew I would have a career in engineering,”said Charlotte.

Upon completing her apprenticeship,Charlotte worked as a test technician for hel-met production at Rochester. Within threemonths she was promoted to leading hand,being the youngest ever to achieve this role atRochester.

“I have worked on on some fantastic tech-nology such as the Harrier Jump Jet Helmetand am currently working within the Euro-fighter Typhoon Helmet Production Team,analysing data for corrective improvements tothe product.”

After two years as a leading hand, Char-lotte was selected from the entire pool ofmanual workers to harness test knowledge byelectronically analysing test failure data andrecommend corrective actions that contributeto product reliability and safety, this known asReal Time FRACAS (Failure Review and Cor-rective Action System) at Rochester. Duringthis time she also I studied at the University ofKent where she achieved a Higher NationalCertificate.

“On a daily basis I monitor the anomaliesoccurring during the manufacture of the Euro-fighter Typhoon Pilot Helmet, these anomaliescould have a massive impact to productionbut by capturing them at an early stagemeans I can suggest the improvements re-quired to eliminate and stop any reoccur-rence. I thoroughly enjoy my work, knowingI’m a part of the production team working onthe most advanced fighter pilot helmet in theworld is extremely rewarding.”Charlotte said upon receiving her award:

“Receiving theWES award is com-pletely overwhelm-ing, beingrecognised by WES,the IET and BAE Sys-tems for my contri-bution to theengineering industryis fantastic.”

Outside workCharlotte likes to vol-unteer and giveback something tothose less fortunate.She spent 12 weekson a remote island inFiji last October, in-volved in a marineconservation projectto educate the localFijians about their surrounding marine life onthe coral reefs, this being their primarysource of food. During this time Charlotte con-ducted daily reef surveys utilising her scubaqualifications.

Charlotte is the also lead vocalist for theband Charlie and the Stone Ages heroes andplays gigs at functions and pubs around thelocal area.

Yewande is Young WomanEngineer of the YearYewande Akinola, an environmental servicesengineer with ARUP, won the overall titleYoung Woman Engineer of the Year. She wonthe award for her commitment to sustainabil-ity and innovation regarding water supply

technology, including water sanitation meth-ods for developing and underdevelopedcountries. Her notable achievements includeher contribution to the large brownfield rede-

velopment and sustainable regeneration ofCentral St Giles, one of the first city centreprojects with a site-wide biomass heating sys-tem, extensive green roofs and recycling ofrainwater and grey water. Yewande alsostarred in Channel 4’s Titanic: The Mission’ inwhich a team of engineers reproduced a 30ftsection of the steel bow to scale, and erectedit at the Belfast dock from where Titanic waslaunched.

Upon receiving her award, Yewande com-mented, “Winning this has encouraged me towork even harder to put all the effort I can intospreading the message about how successfulwomen in engineering are and can be. I’mhoping this will help me tell an effective storythat will inspire young girls to consider acareer in engineering and will demonstratethe diverse and fantastic opportunities thisindustry has to offer.”

Jessica wins entrepreneurshipawardWinner of the 2012 Intel Inspirational Awardfor Entrepreneurship was 18 year old JessicaLeigh Jones, who is studying electrical andelectronic engineering at Cardiff University.

Jessica is currently in the process of patent-ing a form of fibre optic sensing technologyand setting up a limited company to marketthis product. In her free time she is an enthu-siastic STEM Ambassador and promoter ofwomen engineers.

*The WES prize is awarded to the runner-up to

the Young Woman Engineer of the Year award.

Charlotte winsCharlotte winsWES awardWES award

� Gaby Logan (left) presents Charlotte with her award; below – Gaby withYewande



]\\\\

n engineering and advanc in engineeringmanufacturing manufacturing have increasedby more than 85% in the past two yearsaccording to new figures released by SEMTA(the Sector Skills Council for Science, Engi-neering and Manufacturing Technologies).SEMTA chief executive Sarah Sillars said thatto have 31,070 new starters in 2011/12 is en-couraging but there is no room for compla-cency. She fears there will be a lostgeneration and missed opportunities for UKbusiness if the momentum is not maintained.

“We shouldn’t rest on our laurels. Engineer-ing and manufacturing still has an imageproblem. The sector needs to recruit 82,000people just to cover retirements up to 2016 sothere is a real opportunity for young people.So much more needs to be done to attractthem into engineering and advanced manu-facturing. We cannot stress enough how morework needs to be done to educate teachers,parents and even some employers.”

Sarah continued, “Although these figuressuggest the message may be getting throughthat apprenticeships are once again a real al-ternative to going to university, we also needto see more graduates coming into industrytoo.”

Great growth in apprenticeships

BRITAIN’S recently crowned top Higher Ap-prentice has no regrets about entering theworld of work rather than going to univer-sity.

Beth Sherbourne, of Lostock, Bolton wasnamed the Higher Apprentice of the Year in2012. At just 22 she has become a seniorprocurement officer at MBDA missile sys-tem’s plant in Bolton, having studied for herdegree (BA Hons in Business Management)during the four-year apprenticeship.

“The apprenticeship at MBDA hasopened so many doors for me,” said Beth.“I have gained work experience; been chal-lenged personally resulting in a huge in-crease in my confidence; and gained a

number of high level academic qualifica-tions. I cannot praise apprenticeshipsenough and would strongly encourage oth-ers to take on the challenge.”

Beth had originally intended to go to uni-versity but seeing many graduates in low-paid, unskilled jobs, opted for a higherapprenticeship. “I would encourage any-one to think about becoming an appren-tice,” she said. “I was able to earn whilelearning and still achieve a degree but ithas given my career a head start.”

� Photo shows SEMTA chief executiveSarah Sillars presenting Beth with her award.

Beth shows the way

THIS YEAR’S WES conference and AGMwill be held on 4 October. The theme willbe Harnessing the Energy.

We will have a stream of technical pre-sentations and one session will be dedi-cated to a block of ten 8 minutepresentation by young female workers inthe energy sector, in order to give them ataste of conference speaking, and get avariety of interesting angles. If anyyounger members would like to beinvolved in this session, please contactDawn at [email protected]. Similarly, anymore experienced energy sector employ-ees who would like to speak on subjectsincluding nuclear, oil and gas, renew-ables, energy storage, energy from waste,energy efficiency, and future opportunities,should contact Dawn to express their inter-est

Make sure your students or your company

don’t miss the 5th WES Student conference 15-16

November 2013, in association with Aston

University.

2013 WESConferences

and advancedAPPRENTICESHIP STARTS



THE ENGINEERING COUNCILhas appointed Dr Caroline Sud-worth in the newly created role ofEducation and Skills Senior Exec-utive. She will play a valuablerole in the Policy and Standardsteam, taking responsibility for theHE, FE and Skills areas of theEngineering Council’s work, inc-luding academic accreditation.

She will be working closelywith professional engineeringinstitutions and other relevantstakeholders, focussing onunderstanding and developingthe number of pathways and flex-ible learning packages leading toprofessional registration as Eng-ineering Technician (EngTech),Incorporated Engineer (IEng) andChartered Engineer (CEng).

Caroline joins the EngineeringCouncil from the Cogent SectorSkills Council where she wasHigher Education Manager, resp-onsible for a range of pro-grammes primarily related to

employer engagement in STEMeducation. These included routesinto, and progression throughuniversity; working with employ-ers to develop flexible learningpackages and courses; devisingprogrammes of activity to en-hance employability and profes-sional development; and workingwith professional bodies toensure compliance with profes-sional standards.

Prior to this Caroline workedas research director in the Med-ical Laser Institute, Lasers for Lifeand business development man-ager for the Faculty of Scienceand Engineering of ManchesterMetropolitan University. Sheholds a PhD in medical physics,was a Post-Doctoral ResearchFellow in the Centre for MedicalImaging Research at the Univer-sity of Leeds and has lectured inboth the Universities of Leeds andLiverpool.

Of her new role, Caroline says;

“I am looking forward to workingas part of the Engineering Coun-cil team, to meet the challengesfaced by a changing skills andeducation landscape and work-ing to support Government priori-

ties on progression in STEMcareers as well as its recognitionof the need for skilled and com-petent engineers in the future tosupport business growth and in-novation.”

New IED Design Ambassador

The Institution of Engineering Designershas appointed Eleanor Fosberry MEngIEng MIED to the post of Design Ambassa-dor for 2012-2013.

Eleanor graduated from the Universityof Southampton in 2007 and since thenhas worked for engineering consultanciesin Hampshire. Her varied experience in-cludes highway and drainage design,flood risk, and transport planning, includ-ing some time working on behalf of local

authority. She plays an active role in thelocal branch of the Institution of Civil Engi-neers.

As the IED’s Design AmbassadorEleanor will be promoting engineeringdesign as a career choice, increasing IEDmembership and encouraging engineer-ing professionals to pursue professionalregistration such as CEng, IEng, EngTech,RCADMan, and CEnv status.

She has also been tasked with buildingon the IED’s network of industry and edu-cation liaison officers who provide supportto members, and prospective members, ata local level.

David Maffin, IED Chairman, said: “TheIED’s Design Ambassador has a key partto play in delivering our primary objectives– to promote excellence in the industry, tosupport our members and to facilitate theadvancement of engineering and productdesign.”

Eleanor said: “Taking on the role of De-sign Ambassador is a fantastic opportunityto instil in others my enthusiasm for des-ign. I’m keen to encourage young peopleto consider engineering as a career op-tion, particularly young women in what isstill a male dominated profession. I alsothink there is tremendous scope to pro-mote all branches of engineering and todemonstrate how the many different disci-plines of engineering can learn from oneanother.”

Woman Engineer –New Editor Wanted

The Woman Engineer is seeking anew Editor, initially on a 6 month

contract from 1 July 2013.

The person appointed will haveexperience of writing, subbing

and layout.

Knowledge of WES principles andactivities is desirable but not

essential.

The job involves acting as secre-tary of the WES Editorial Boardand attending WES conference.

This is a freelance position.Remuneration and other

contract terms are by negotiation.

Please contact WES office,[email protected] if you are inter-

ested.

Deadline for applications is8 April.

Caroline’s executive role atEngineering Council



WISE (Women into Science, Engi-neering and Construction) held itsprestigious annual awards for2012 on Thursday 29 November.

These awards celebrate theUK’s most inspiring organisationsand individuals actively promot-ing STEM to girls and youngwomen.

Four women received Womenof Outstanding AchievementAwards: Tomorrow’s World pre-senter Maggie Philbin, molecularneuroscientist Fiona Marshalland TV presenter and architectAngela Brady. Belinda Swain, achief engineer at Rolls Royce, re-ceived the prestigious LifetimeAchievement Award.

Maggie Philbin said: “It’s sogratifying to witness momentswhere young people are en-thused by the possibilities of whatthey themselves can do. Theysuddenly understand how STEMskills give them real power.

“And never underestimate theresonance of role models. It’s notonly teenage girls who can beput off industries that seem to bemale dominated. Having visiblerole models at all levels of an org-anisation and making sure effec-tive mentoring programs arethere to support, encourage andretain talent makes a difference.”

The 2012 awards went to:

� The WISE Excellence Award– researcher Jia-Yan Gu (shownabove). She said: “The advice Iwould give to any girl or youngwoman considering a STEM

career is tospend time todiscover the truebreadth of op-portunities thatthis can lead to.Expect that tech-nology will con-tinue to advanceso choosingSTEM subjectsto study is thefirst step to gain-ing those essen-tial skills so thatyou can makean impact andbe part of thatevolution.”

� The WISEAdvisor Award –Helen Heggie.She set up her

own company, STEM First Ltd,based in Blackburn, to promotescience, technology, engineeringand mathematics to young peo-ple. STEM First Ltd provides in-spirational opportunities andforges a link between schoolsand employers in order to in-spire, excite, and grow the STEMknowledge and understanding ofyoung people.

� The WISE CEO CharterChampion Award – Nick Lang-don, CEO of Card GeotechnicsLtd. This new category, spon-sored by EADS, champions lead-ers in business who have avisible commitment to positivepractices in gender equality fromthe very top.

� The WISE Diversity Award –Dr Gordon Mizner, CEO of EDT.The award was for the activework EDT is doing to address theWISE mission – to encourageyoung people into STEM educa-tion and related careers. Eachyear, over 20,000 young peopletake part in EDT’s activities. Morethan half the students taking partin their First Edition programmeare girls and 40% are from ethnicminority backgrounds. Dr GordonMizner said: “This award recog-nises the hard work and effortsmade by all in EDT over manyyears to encourage more girls,ethnic minorities and a wideningparticipation in general intoSTEM study and careers.”

Congratulating the winners,Trudy Norris-Grey, chair of WISE,

said: “Our eight winners all madea significant difference to the suc-cess and contribution of technol-ogy, science, engineering and thebuilt environment – sectors thatare critical to the UK’s economicgrowth potential. We applaudtheir achievements. If we harnessthe energy and passion of every-one involved in the WISE awardsas nominees, nominators, spon-sors, champions and role mod-els, we can and will makesignificant progress towards avision that will benefit all stake-holders in the UK – a tippingpoint of 30% of the UK STEMworkforce being female.”

2012 WISE2012 WISEAwardsAwards

� Belinda Swain, chief engineer atRolls Royce, winner of the LifetimeAchievement Award.

Jobs are now being advertisedon the WES website. Log on to:wes.org.uk/job-listing/all to see the

jobs on offer.

We have a vast amount ofarchived material held at theIET Savoy Place Archive inLondon. A list of what is avail-able in the archive can be

found by logging intowww.iet.org/resources/archives

then clicking on researchresources and women in engi-neering.

To see descriptions of theWES collection, simply typeUK0108 NAEST 092 into thesearch field in library &archives/archives.

Jobs on-line & archives


Follow us on:

Twitter: @LondonGatewayUK Facebook: London Gateway Jobs www.londongateway.comw

London Gateway is the UK’s first 21st Century major deep-sea container port and Europe’s largest logistics park. Situated on the north bank of the River Thames near Thurrock in Essex, London Gateway will provide unrivalled shipping access for the world’s leading businesses to an integrated road, rail and sea network.

We are now recruiting for a world-class engineering team to be part of a major and complex infrastructure project. We are 100% committed to the development of a strong team that will provide outstanding customer service, efficiently and reliability in its operations. We are looking for ambitious, hardworking people to join a 30,000 strong global team.

If you would like to find out more information about the roles available and to apply online please go to our website at www.dpworld.com/careers

COMMITMENT – INNOVATION – GROWTH – RESPONSIBILITY

Get ready for your biGGest challenGeGet ready to join a world class team

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We are currently recruiting for:

• ElectricalTechnician• MechanicalTechnician• StoresOfficer• EngineerMaintenancePlanner• EngineeringTeamLeader

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� Keep usinformed of thelatest news in yourarea – [email protected]

EMPLOYERS WHO cre-ate healthy workplacescan reduce employee

absence and boost productivity,according to a new TUC report.Entitled, ‘ Work and Well-Being’,it aims to promote healthierworking and help union safetyreps identify what within theirworkplaces are making staff ill.

Every year around 170 millionworking days are lost becausepeople are too poorly to go intowork – 23 million of these aredown to work-related ill healthand 4 million as a result of inj-uries suffered at work. The bestway of tackling ill health is tostop workers from getting ill inthe first place, says the guide.

Work and Well-Being says thatthe best method for improvingthe general well-being of a work-force is to change the way thatwork is organised and man-aged. For example, reducingworkplace stress is far moreuseful than providing on-sitemassage for stressed workers.

The report suggests a numberof ways that employers andunions might try to encourage ahealthier attitude amongst emp-loyees, including:

� Providing an on-site gym orsubsidised membership of alocal fitness centre

� Encouraging employees tocycle to work by providing asecure storage place for bikes.

� Offering healthy options inthe canteen and encouragingstaff not to eat lunch at theirdesks.

� Giving staff the chance toaccess employee assistanceprogrammes that can help themcope with personal problemsthat could impact on their per-formance at work.

Commenting on the guide,TUC General Secretary FrancesO’Grady said:”‘Healthierlifestyles are something weshould all be aspiring to and,given the amount of time wespend at work, the workplace isa good place to start. Sensibleemployers who are able to iden-

tify problems at an early stage,and who introduce changes toprevent ill health and promotewell-being, will reduce sicknessabsence and increase productiv-ity.”Work and Well-Being is available at:

www.tuc.org.uk/wellbeingguide

ENGINEER LORRAINECLARK has made foot-ball history by becoming

the first woman to officiate in a

match at Ibrox, the home groundof Glasgow Rangers. Lorrainefrom Thornton, has been a ref-eree for 10 years and was an as-sistant in the Rangers v BerwickRangers football match in Janu-ary.

Lorraine, an electrical engi-neer with Fife Council, was re-cently promoted to the FIFA list ofreferees. She is a regular officialat junior games and hopes even-tually for a role in the ScottishPremier League.

She was a line referee in frontof almost 45,000 fans at the Ibroxstadium – a very different propo-sition from the usual crowd of 200

supporters at the junior matchwhich she had previously refer-eed.

Lorraine said: “I have alwaysloved football and this is every-thing I have worked and aimedfor over the last 10 years. Myambition is to work in the ScottishPremier League and this is hope-fully the next step.”

Alan Paul, senior manager ofproperty services at Fife Council,said: “We are extremely proud ofLorraine’s achievements in foot-

ball, especially as it ispredominately a malesport. She has managedto juggle the demands ofher job as an electricalengineer in propertyservices, working on sus-tainability projects forschools and care homes,while undertaking herduties as a referee. Wesee her out running atlunchtimes and she’s aninspiration to us all to domore.”

Rangers won thematch 4-2.

FAMILIES WILLlose over £1,000as a result of

child benefit freeze andcap.

A TUC study – ‘ChildBenefit: a bad case of

neglect?’ – shows that just bypreventing child benefit from ris-ing in line with RPI (Retail PriceIndex) inflation families with twokids still in receipt of child benefitwill be £1,079 poorer by the endof the financial year 2015/16.

In June 2010 George Osborneannounced that from April 2014the government would be usingthe lower CPI (Consumer PriceIndex) when up-rating benefits. Inaddition families would also havetheir child benefit frozen from2011 for three years.

The TUC calculates that thereal-term annual losses to fami-lies with two children will be asfollows:

Outstanding IncorporatedEngineer rewarded

Every year the most outstandingindividual registered as an Incor-porated Engineer (IEng) is to re-ceive a new award. This award isnamed after Baroness Platt ofWrittle CBE FREng in recognitionof her work in support of the en-gineering profession and Incor-porated Engineers in particular.

It consists of a £1,000 prize, amedal and certificate and will bepresented at a dinner in the Cityof London in July 2013 by the Wor-shipful Company of Engineers.

Each professional engineeringinstitution is being invited tonominate up to five individualswho were registered as IEng dur-ing 2012.

Nominees should have dis-played outstanding commitmentto the engineering profession,have excellent written and oralcommunication skills and havedemonstrated the qualitiesrequired to manage teams ofengineers.

Further details can be found at:www.engineerscompany.org.uk.

� Lorraine in action

Financial year Loss in real terms

2011/12 £80.602012/13 £183.562013/14 £234.002014/15 £268.322015/16 £313.04Total loss £1079.52

TUC General Secretary Des-ignate Frances O’Grady said:“The government’s decision tofreeze child benefit has alreadyhit millions of families at a timewhen real wages and living stan-dards are falling. Many low-income households face evengreater losses in the near futureas a result of George Osborne’srefusal to keep child benefit inline with RPI. Cutting the value ofbenefits for families means thosein greatest need will get less,with the poorest children suffer-ing the most.”

Emily has leadershippotentialWES member and formerKaren Burt Award winnerEmily Spearman, wasawarded ‘Highly Commended’in the Sky and ManagementToday Future Leaders Awards.



� Keep usinformed of

the latestnews in yourarea – email:

[email protected] or

write to: theWomen’s

EngineeringSociety,c/o IET,

MichaelFaraday

House, SixHills Way,

StevenageSG1 2AY

Newmembers

� AdrienneHouston

� BrendaMshiu

� CharlotteTingley

� ClaireBorton

� EllenDocherty

� JoannaSobon

� Kemi Lawal

� LaurenMiller

� LisaMorgan

� MagdaKonkiewicz

� ObianujuOdezugo

� PreeyaLakhani

� Rita Edoga

� SenamiZamba

� SusanScurlock

� VeronicaWilliamson

Hilda’s 80th birthday

On Saturday 2 February KateWard & Betty McCarthy wereprivileged to join others fromHilda Blount’s family, village,church and choir to which she isthe secretary to cele-brate her 80th birth-day.

We enjoyed an ex-cellent dinner beforesharing her birthdaycakes.

We were royallyentertained byImmanuel’s Ground West GalleryQuire to which Hilda is the secre-tary. Accompanying themselvesold English instruments (includ-

ing a serpent), the choir per-formed various hymns, car-ols and secular songs. One

highlight was a specially com-posed praise song for Hilda; thismentioning her many interests inher life, including President ofWES and was sung to the musicof ‘On Ilkla Moor Baht ‘at’ which,like Hilda, comes from Yorkshire.

The choir also per-formed a hymn herfather wrote for Re-membrance Dayduring the 2ndWorld War basedon the theme ‘Let usnow praise famousmen’.

It was lovely to be among goodcompany of all ages and cele-brate the life of someone who isan example to us all.

Hilda Blount was WES Presi-dent 1988-1989 and during the70th AGM Conference at TheSwans Nest Hotel, Stratford uponAvon when the theme was ‘TheWoman Engineer at Work’. Hildahas a lot to answer for as it wasat that conference Kate Wardand Jan Peters had

their first experience of WES.

Members’ news

WES member Maria Petrou hasdied of cancer aged 59. Mariawas a leading authority on digitalimage processing. The applica-tions of this are wide-ranging;from helping doctors to identifyincipient tumours to producingevidence of environmental degra-dation.

She was born in Thessaloniki,Greece, where she took a degreein physics. She then gained aPhD in astrophysics from Cam-bridge University. In 1981 she be-came a lecturer in astrophysicsat the Kapodistrian University ofAthens. Then, in 1983, she movedto the UK with her husband, a

British astronomer, and workedin Oxford as postdoctoral re-search assistant in the Depart-ment of Theoretical Physics.When government funding forapplied sciences increased inthe early 1980s, she movedtowards research in roboticvision and remote sensing, atReading University and thenthe Rutherford Appleton Labo-ratory before joining, in 1988,the Department of Electronic andElectrical Engineering at SurreyUniversity, where she becameprofessor of image analysis.

She moved to Imperial Collegeto become professor of signalprocessing. She headed thecommunications and signal-pro-cessing group until 2009, whenshe took a position at the Institute

of CERTH in Thessaloniki; retain-ing a part-time post at Imperial.

She was best known for herdiscovery of the ‘trace transfor-mation’. This was a powerfultechnique used to encode essen-tial information in an image, re-gardless of scaling or rotations,and it has had important practi-cal benefits, such as the develop-ment of face-recognition systems.

She received numerous hon-ours, including a Royal Academyof Engineering fellowship . Anunfailing advocate for women inengineering, she was active inWomen in Science and Engineer-ing as well as WES. She also-campaigned for human rights.

Her sense of fun was obviousin her newsletters, illustrated withher own cartoons, and on herwebsite, where she challengedcolleagues to develop a robot forironing clothes to meet the exact-ing standards of her great-aunt.

Diary 2013� 22 Mar The engineeringbehind the large hadroncollider, Sheffield; 18.30-21.00. Contact [email protected]

� 27 Mar Jaguar Land RoverTechnical Visit, Liverpool;www.iet.org

� Please sendall diary itemsby the nextissue deadline:10 May 2013.

� 4 Apr BCSWomen LovelaceColloquium for womenundergraduate computingstudents in Nottingham. [email protected]

� 4 Apr Ig Nobel Prizes. Theseare intended to celebrate theunusual, honour theimaginative — and spurpeople's interest in science,medicine and technology atIET London, Savoy Place.

� 4 Oct WES conference:Harnessing the Energy at theIMechE, London.

� 15-16 Nov WES studentconference at the University ofAston.

Obituary

Sadly Rosemary West who wasWES President from 1982-83has died.

Obituary: MariaPetrou



nn

Latest developments in green technologies

www.inwes.org

Margaret Ajibode reports on the latestdevelopments

The INWES Annual GeneralMeeting was held online from28-31 December. An annualreport of INWES activities and afinancial report was sent tomembers for approval.

An Executive Board meetingwas held on 25 January viaskype, which was attended byKong-Joo Lee (President),Monique Moutaud (President-elect), Sue Bird(Past president),Jung Sun Kim(Secretary Gen-eral), Joan Graf (Treasurer),Liette Vasseur(Vice President).Discussions included the

signing of the Memorandum ofUnderstanding (MOU) with theSociety of Women Engineers(SWE) to hold the International

Conference of Women Engi-neers and Scientists (ICWES16)in Los Angeles, as part of theSWE conference from 20-25October 2014. This will be 50years since the first ICWES,which was also held in the USA.Preparation for a regional meet-ing in November were also cov-ered plus plans to develop anew web portal.

Events taking place this yearare the Asia and Pacific NationNetwork Meeting (APNN) ofINWES on 14 September inTaiwan (hosted by TWiST andKWSE in conjunction with ICon-WIST) and an INWES RegionalMeeting on 6-7 November inNairobi, Kenya.

WORKING AS part of anEU research consortium,the Paint Research

Association (PRA) has developeda food packaging coating prod-uct, called PlantPack, which canreplace current packaging coat-ings based on petrochemicalsconsidered bad for the environ-ment. PlantPack is an eco-friendly food packaging coatingproduct made from seaweed ex-tracts and starch. It can be ap-plied to paper and cardboard asa spray.

Ian Claris, director of PRAsays: “PlantPack is a real break-through for packing technologyas it means that at last there is acost effective, sustainable alter-native to petroleum derived coat-ings. And because it’s abiodegradable product, it can becomposted and recycled easily.So it’s better for the environment

and performs at least as well asthe existing products. We expectthere to be a big demand for itfrom day one.”

Food packaging coatings areused on paper wraps, cartonsand cardboard. Coatings providephysical barriers which protectfood products in the packagingcontainer during storage andtransportation.

Although seaweed extractshave previously been used todevelop sustainable barrier mat-erials for food and pharmaceuti-cals products, they have neverbeen applied as a coating forpackaging products as theyhaven’t been as flexible or strong.To overcome these physical limi-tations, the scientists working onthe project blended seaweed ex-tracts with starch and starch de-rivatives (which have goodflexibility and strength) so it could

be applied to paper packaging.Current packaging coatings

are based on petrochemical de-rived waxes and polymers. How-ever, with increasing petroleumcosts and recent instability andvolatility in some oil producingcountries, the food-packagingsector is searching for an alter-native reliable and sustainablepackage coating product.

PROFESSOR FURONGLI, from the University ofBath’s Department of

Electronic & Electrical Engineer-ing, is one of 24 new Royal Soci-ety award holders.

The award recognises Profes-sor Li’s research contributionaimed at accelerating the UK’smove towards low-carbon living.Her work aims to reduce the costof integrating renewable energysystems, and the use of cost

Who’s shapingour future?THAT WAS the question posedby WES past President Jan Pe-ters during a presentation givenat Malvern St James Girls’School (MSJ).

Jan’s passion for informinggirls of the excitement of acareer in engineering capturedthe imagination of an audienceof Year 9 girls from her firstword. The presentation inc-luded mention of numerous

women engineers and theirinspiring inventions, a glimpseinto the future of interactive,holographic technology plus in-sight into innovative building so-lutions from around the world.

“The timing of Dr Peters’ visitcouldn’t have been better,” saidPatricia Woodhouse, Head-mistress, MSJ. “Year 9 studentsare just about to choose theirsubject options for GCSE andmany are undecided. This re-freshing look at the huge rangeof interesting and exciting car-eer opportunities within thissector was inspiring. Dr Petershas certainly banished any re-maining misconceptions asso-ciated with women pursuing acareer in engineering.”

Jan said, “I was delighted tobe able to introduce the girls toso many inspiring women andopen their eyes to the variety ofsubject areas within engineer-ing. Hopefully, I have helpedsome girls start to see them-selves as a mathematician oran engineer.”

reflective economic incentives toshape future energy use.

Professor Li’s work has led tothe development of pricing meth-ods that promote efficient energynetwork development that willmeet customer needs.

As a result, 80 per cent of theUK’s distribution network opera-tors have adopted her method-ology and the way the UK’selectricity network is managedhas been fundamentallychanged.

Professor Li said: “A key ele-ment of any solution to decar-bonise our electricity generationwill be micro generation, whereindividual households use tech-nologies such as solar panels,wind turbines, combined heatand power methods and homeenergy storage to generate someof their own power from renew-able sources, which they willconsume and store when theprice is at its cheapest.”

The Wolfson Merit five-yearaward will allow Professor Li tofocus on mapping out the currentenergy network infrastructureacross the UK, highlighting areasthat most lend themselves tomicro generation and homeenergy management.


women’s engineering society vol 18 • no 18 • … engineer spring... · young people and...

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