Ingenious Women

​​Ingenious Women : Communicating a Passion For Engineering

Ingenious Women : Communicating a Passion For Engineering was an exciting opportunity for 20 early to mid career women engineers to get free training and it supported to enable them to raise their profile and share their passion for engineering.

The participants were also linked up with 12 communication mentors, it enabled them to develop their competence and confidence as communicators to a range of audiences.

Only eight per cent of engineers are women. Successful female engineers are so few in number that they are almost invisible. This project helped the participants raise their profile in order to inform and inspire the media, employers, learning providers, the wider public and the next generation of engineers.

Ingenious Women started in September 2010 and ended March 2011.

We have written a good practice guide to support organisations, professional bodies and associations in SET who recognise the under representation of women or other groups in their sector, and who would like to take steps to address this by creating a bank of visible role models. The model created by the UKRC for this project could be transferred to other sectors and it could be focused on a range of diverse groups.

The 19 Ingenious Women Engineers

Angela Crowther is a civil and architectural engineer with a passion for solving problems and buildings that move – who started by inventing ice cream flavours.

Carmen Torres-Sanchez is a chemical engineer researching porous materials and lecturing at Heriot-Watt University on design and manufacture.

Chloe Agg is a building services engineer, ensuring safe air and piping for pharmaceutical factories and food and consumer production (including chocolate).

Dr Nazish Aslam is a computing and electronics engineer and Edinburgh-based hi-tech entrepreneur.

Helen Macadam is a civil engineer working with Network Rail to build a 300m viaduct through a crowded and historic part of London.

Jem Hamzelou is a trainee rehabilitation engineer, helping people become more mobile and exploring medical robotics.

Kate Grant is an electrical engineer working with E.ON to bring exciting and sustainable energy concepts into people’s homes.

Kayleigh Messer is a motorsport engineer working for the Renault F1 team – thanks to determination and work experience opportunities.

Leonie Baker is a structural engineer with a background in art, working on art galleries, theatres and museum projects and mentoring young potential engineers.

Yewande Akinola is the star of the Channel 4 series ‘Titanic’ and environmental services engineer working on sustainable rainwater harvesting and other sustainable systems.

Danielle Clissold is an engineer in advanced product creation - working with Jaguar to creat future sports cars that will be more beautiful, faster and more efficient.

Rachel House is a mechanical engineer who has gone from Lego and Meccano to working on a new commercial aircraft for Atkins.

Katy Deacon is an energy engineer with Kirklees Council, delivering renewable energy systems to schools, colleges and council buildings. Award-winning creator of the Renewable Energy Toolkit.

Barnali Ghosh is a Chartered Civil Engineer with a passion for designing safe and efficient foundation for structures in seismically active areas of the world.

Kat Richardson is an Engineer, currently working for the Environment Agency as a Regulatory Officer for chemical, pharmaceutical and power plants.

Kate Coleman is an integrity engineer working with large power station boilers for E.ON UK. 

Constance Chakanyuka is a civil engineer working for the Environment Agency in the Asset System Management team.

Nicola Ashworth works at Parsons Brinckerhoff in the dynamic field of construction on various environmental projects.

Judith Packer works at Parsons Brinckerhoff in the infrastructure and power generation field on various environmental projects.

The media mentors

For the Ingenious Women project we lined up 12 exciting, interesting and highly experienced media mentors. Women engineers who took part were able to ask mentors for ideas and advice. They included:

Marilyn Booth works at the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills where she supports the Science and Society Policy/Science and Trust Expert Group Secretariats. She is an enthusiast for new media with an overview of SET outreach activity in the UK. Her areas of media expertise/experience include Twitter, Facebook, PowerPoint presentations, Second Life and LinkedIn.

You can follow Marilyn on Twitter at @marilyneb and @trustsci. She runs the BIS UK Science and Society Facebook page, and her Second Life name is Mar Foxtrot.

Sarah Castor-Perry works for the ‘Naked Scientists’, which is broadcast on BBC radio. The Naked Scientists are also running an ‘Ingenious’ project funded by the Royal Academy of Engineering: ‘The Naked Engineers’. You can follow them on Twitter at @NakedScientists. They are also active in Second Life.

The Ingenious Women engineers can get help from any staff at the Naked Scientists. Sarah's media experience/expertise includes radio, books, Twitter, websites, podcasting, public sepaking and SET events.

Jonathan Drori CBE is a Trustee of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, Wildscreen, Culture24 and The Woodland Trust, and Chair of the Wingate Foundation. He is a Visiting Industrial Professor at Bristol University, specialising in science misconceptions and uses of technology in learning. Jon was formerly Executive Producer of science television programmes for the BBC and Channel 4, and Editorial Director for BBC Online.

Georgina Ferry is a science writer, playwright and broadcaster, and is author of a number of biographies of scientists. She is writer in residence at the Oxford University Museum of Natural History and is a trustee of Science Oxford, where she is interested in planning events and activities to promote science and engineering to young people and the public. She writes on the dodology blog and has a website.

Her areas of media expertise/experience include magazines, radio, books, Twitter, websites, TV, film and theatre.

Anne Grikitis is Head of STEM Skills and Diversity, Science and Society, Department for Business, Innovation and Skills. She has extensive experience of marketing and new media, with a special interest in online games, virtual worlds and experimental environments. She is also very interested in the use of role models to interest girls in engineering qualificiations and careers: she works with STEMNET on these issues.

Her areas of media expertise include blogging, public speaking, PowerPoint presentations, Second Life, virtual worlds and LinkedIn.

Sue Hordijenko is Director of Programmes, British Science Association. She heads up communications for the BSA, with expertise in media, events and public speaking.

Oliver Morton is Energy and Environment Editor with the Economist, based in London.

Sue Nelson is an award-winning Radio 4 and World Service presenter, writer and a former BBC science and environment correspondent: in 2006 she made a four-part series for Radio 4 called 'Britain's Modern Brunels'. She is co-founder of Boffin Media. Her first job for the BBC was as a sound engineer (radio studio manager). Sue also provides media training.

Sue's media experience/expertise includes newspapers, radio, books, Twitter, websites, TV, film, blogging, Facebook, podcasting, public speaking and SET events. You can follow Sue on Twitter at @supersue.

Lesley Paterson is Head of Public Engagement at the Royal Academy of Engineering. Her role includes oversight of all the Ingenious projects.

Angela Saini is an award-winning science journalist/broadcaster and a former reporter for BBC London News. She has a Masters degree in engineering science from Oxford University, where she specialised in chemical engineering. Angela runs a blog ('nothing shocks me, I'm a scientist'), has a website, and looks after the Women in Science Forum on Nature Network. Her forthcoming book is called Geek Nation, and has a Facebook page.

Angela's areas of media experience/expertise include: magazines, newspapers, radio, books, websites, public speaking and LinkedIn.

Joanna Scott works for the Nature Publishing Group and is one of the team of Editors of Nature Network (online forums and blogs). She has expertise in Second Life and virtual realities. She has a blog at Nature Network, a Facebook page, is on LinkedIn. Her Second Life name is Joanna Wombat.

Her areas of media expertise/experience include magazines, Twitter, websites, blogging, Facebook, public speaking, PowerPoint presentations, SET events, Secondlife and LinkedIn.

Tom Sheldon is Engineering Press Officer with the Science Media Centre, handling any engineering, technology and physical science issues that hit the headlines. He has degrees in Artificial Intelligence and Bioinformatics. The Director of the Science Media Centre, Fiona Fox, runs a blog.

Tom's media experience/expertise includes magazines, enwspapers, radio, websites, TV, podcasting, public speaking and PowerPoint presentations.

The project is funded by the Royal Academy of Engineering, as part of its Ingenious grants programme.