International Women's Day 2014

We have been recently involved in organising the celebration of International Women’s Day at Sheffield Town Hall, together with other organizations, all put together by Councillor Jacqueline Drayton.

The structure of the morning was very simple: firstly we listened to Kathleen Roberts, one of the Women of Steel. She discussed her experience during the Second World War when the men were called up to war and the women had to work in the steel industry. It was a moving story where she explained that there was not a choice, it was hard work and she did not like it. The only bit that she liked was the actual engineering behind her manual work: she loved tearing the machine apart to understand a problem or to change the roll. She fell in love with engineering but she did not have the opportunity to pursue an engineering career as the men retook the women’s places in the steel industry, once the war was finished.

‘I loved every minute of dismantling a machine, a bit of engineering involved there! I wish I had the chance to do engineering but we didn’t get the change to do it!’
Kathleen Roberts

Afterwards, the women present chose specific workshops to attend. As a society, we volunteered to organise a workshop regarding ‘Gender Traps’ in the work place. Attendees read a brief biography of successful business person and then they discussed the likeability and abilities of these characters. 

The story was the same but the gender of the main character changed. People who read the story where the main character was male, described him as a nice guy, approachable, skilled and focused. People that read the female version, described her as an opportunist, career-focused and bossy person, not very friendly. Good discussions followed to reflect on the barriers that we, as women, put in front to ourselves in the workplace. Different generations and various work environments present different challenges and the feedback that we received was very mind opening.

The morning was concluded by five amazing women that talked about their journeys from their home countries to Sheffield, UK. Journeys caused by various reasons, from escaping the nazists during the Second World War to seeking political asylum or to start a Master degree. They were inspirational and it was useful to remember how privileged and protected we are to grow up in Europe.

Ultimately, Councillor Drayton auctioned a Jessica Ennis signed poster to raise money to build a statue of the women of steel, just outside Sheffield Town Hall. They are short 20k and need all the help that they can get! Prof. Rodriguez-Falcon won the auction and the poster will be in the Faculty of Engineering of the University of Sheffield. 

The prototype of the statue is as the picture:

To help fund the statue,University of Sheffield Enterprise are running a unique fundraising challenge: Can you turn a tenner in to 100 quid? If 200 staff or students in the Faculty can do it, the Women of Steel fund will reach the final twenty thousand pound target for their campaign. 
If you  think you can do it, test your mettle and find out more about how to sign up and get enterprising here: 
http://enterprise.shef.ac.uk/event/women-steel-university-challenge

If you want to know more about the Women of Steel:

https://www.sheffield.gov.uk/planning-and-city-development/urban-design--conservation/public-art/women-of-steel.html

http://www.storyingsheffield.com/project/women-of-steel/

http://www.justgiving.com/womenofsteel

Trip to the Jaguar Land Rover Plant

Aekta is a Master Student in Biomaterials and Regenerative Medicine at the University of Sheffield and she, along with other members of the Women in Engineering Student Society visited Jaguar Land Rover Plant.

It was a bright, sunny morning on 4th March and thank heavens for that! The last thing any of us would have wanted was for the weather to dampen both the skies and our spirits.

I had signed up to the Women in Engineering Student Society at the beginning of the year. A society that represented the disproportionately low numbers of women and encouraged more women to take up a career in engineering sounded appealing and I had always intended to go to one of their meetings but never found the time or the inclination – that is until I saw an email titled “Trip to the Jaguar-Land Rover plant”. They had me at the subject line itself!


I have been a car aficionado for as long as I can remember, in fact, one day I hope to have enough money to buy a Range Rover (a decision I am deliberating over ever since I saw the jaguar F-type manufactured). After an hour and half, we arrived at the Castle Bromwich assembly plant of Jaguar. I was taken aback! Their plant was colossal, almost the size of Manchester Airport! (A quick Google search revealed that the plant covered a massive 1.6 million square feet).


We were taken into a seating area where we were shown a small presentation on how the operations of the company have progressed over the years and all the cars they manufactured. We were also shown some of the swanky custom made vehicles they have made for the rich and the famous. My personal favourite was the Land Rover Evoque that they did for Victoria Beckham, complete with gold leaf on the tyre rims and oak wood panelling on the insides.


After a subsequent question and answer session, we wore high visibility vests and we were ready for the plant tour (no pictures were allowed once inside the plant)! We were divided into two groups and we each had a tour guide. Ours was a nice, retired chap who had spent a large part of his working life at Jaguar and knew the ins and outs of the company well. We were shown around the entire workings of the plant, right from how they fit the engines to the final painting process. Unlike other large car manufacturers, Jaguar only starts assembling a car once an order has been placed at any one of their retailers across the globe. The customer picks almost all of the parts that go into their car. This means that no two Jaguar cars are effectively the same. Unsurprisingly, most orders for the F-type Jaguar (the most extravagant of the lot) came from China.


Walking around the factory really gave me an insight into how cars are brought to life. Rarely do we imagine how many processes, people and parts are involved in building a safe, comfortable ride. Jaguar has collaborated with some world renowned companies to really ensure a satisfying customer experience. For instance, their engines are made by Ford, their wheels by Pirelli.


This trip was not only informative but also a whole lot of fun! I am never going to look at a car the same way again. Each time I now look at a vehicle I am going to know and appreciate the amount of hard work, care, concern and engineering that has been put into its making.

Human Smoothie-Maker Takes to the Road

Our Women in Engineering Student Society will be taking a pedal-powered smoothie making machine on the road to The Big BangFair in Birmingham in a bid to encourage children to get excited about engineering.

The four-day event from 13-16 March 2014 will be represented by committee members Giulia Gigliobianco and Lindsey Dew and, aided by a strong volunteer force, will be teaching children how much energy is used making a smoothie drink as well as how much energy is wasted using a state-of-the-art thermal imaging camera.

The children can try out the pedal-powered bicycle for themselves and it takes around 30 seconds to a minute to create enough smoothie drink for around five children to enjoy whilst learning about how energy is created and converts itself into something useful.

The Society aims to bring engineering to life for young people and smash the illusion that engineering isn’t fun or something that is heavily embedded in maths.

The pedal-powered cycle has been provided by Engineers Without Borders (EWB) who showcased the bike to highlight the physical impact that engineers have on the world.

The Big Bang Fair is about encouraging young people to take an active interest in STEM subjects whilst being supported by teachers and parents. It is also about considering the future and where a career that is STEM based will take you. 

Masses of time and energy has gone into organising the event so show your support by following the Society on their adventure to Birmingham on Twitter @EngWomen (look for #wieshef  #bigbangfair) and there will be daily diary entries on their web-site www.womeninengineering.org.uk

Making the Invisible Visible

Bob Levene has been a part of our Faculty for the past six months. You may have seen her last blog post for EngingineeringUs in July or seen her poking around labs resplendent in her orange ‘Artist in Residence’ t-shirt asking a myriad of questions. Indeed she has spoken, at length, to around 30 engineers from our departments giving her a well-rounded view that engineering isn’t just about the Hotpoint man.

“I had some idea of what to expect with Civil, Mechanical & Electrical but was not prepared for Computer Science and Automatic Control Systems Engineering and that whole area of system control and data mining. I have also been massively bowled over by the level of medical connections. I found out about a project that records and banks peoples voices before having a tracheotomy, so afterwards they still have use of their ‘voice’. Which I find so poetic.”

Perceptions of engineering are a constant battle especially when trying to encourage female students to consider engineering as a career choice. Engineering has long been seen as a dry, boring subject but can engineering really be described as poetic? Creative even?

“Different types of engineering use different processes and I see many of them as really creative. Working with numbers, systems and rules doesn't rule out being creative, I work with these all the time and what I do is inherently creative. I’m not keen on the stereotypes of between the arts and sciences (art being soft & expressive and engineering being hard-nosed and dry). I think there are really interesting crossovers and they don't have to come together simply by artist illustrating an engineering project or marketing it – it’s more of a dialogue.”

It is these discussions that have underpinned what Bob will do next. Rather than create a sculpture or paint a picture that can be placed somewhere to be admired, Bob's art is more conceptual than that.

"I tend to choose a material in response to an idea - I'm not a craftsman who works with and through a particular material. I think about the subject, process and the tools being used and see if I can say something from the conversations I've had and what I've seen."

With so much dialogue taking place and engineers willing to impart their knowledge (this is a University after all) we couldn’t begrudge our resident artist taking some time off from the process. As Bob explains:

“For three months all I’ve had is talking and I’ve tried to understand so interviews went on for a long time. Its been fascinating but exhausting, I can't help but ask more questions to try and understand. It’s hard to process the information and then to jump to thinking about how I can make artwork. I’ve had to stop the conversations and give myself a month off from that kind of thinking.”

The last thing this faculty wants to do is break an artist! But the next stage of Bob’s work is coming out of the fog of conversation and creating an artwork inspired by the conversations and the research the she has seen. 

"I'm at the playing and filming stage. I'm looking at machines and materials and taking pictures and videos without worrying too much about what it will end up as, this intuitive play is an important part of the process, not every part should be over thought."

Bob’s previous residency experience was at the Yorkshire Sculpture Park where she spent two months as part of a Space for 10 project. Coming to the University, she admits, has been one of the biggest challenges she has taken on. Having made the decision to work cross-faculty and not concentrate on one department has been a major undertaking but the fascinating stories that have been thrown up has given her a greater appreciation of what engineering is and what can be achieved. So great is this appreciation that she has fallen in love. With a carbon coating machine.

“I really like the 70’s machines. There’s this machine where you put two carbon sticks together and its heated up to get carbon coated, and to do that you need to sharpen the two bits of stick graphite and there’s this little belt that goes around and it leaves all these pencil-like drawings – that’s lovely!”

If you want to be kept up to date with Bob’s progress you can find out all you need to know on the University website and Bob’s personal sites.

www.sheffield.ac.uk/artengineering

http://Boblevene.wordpress.com/ 

www.boblevene.co.uk

Women in STEM Anthology: Submissions Needed!

Ada Lovelace Day Anthology

Got a story about an engaging woman in engineering that you would like to tell the world about? Has a female engineer inspired you to pursue an engineering career? Do you have a fascinating story to tell about a group of female engineers that have changed the way we live? This is your chance to celebrate their achievements in the next collection of short stories by FindingAda.com.

Following on from the first anthology of stories about women in STEM A Passion for Science: Stories of Discovery and Invention the Finding Ada website is inviting you to submit your story ideas about women or groups of women in Science, Medicine, Technology, Engineering, Maths and Pioneering users of technology.

Submission Details:
They are looking for 250 words on the woman/women you would like to write about with an explanation of why they are notable along with a link to a sample of your writing.

Ultimately, they are looking for around 20 articles of between 2,000 and 6,000 words for the anthology, profits of which go towards supporting Ada Lovelace Day.

All submissions should be in by 21st March 2014.

This is an excellent opportunity to bring recognition to a woman or group of women that have been an inspiration to you or you feel need shouting about. The first book featured heavily on astronomers so this is your chance to fly the flag for women in engineering.

Further information along with how to submit your story can be accessed via the link below.

Women in STEM Anthology

Good luck!