Body building, but not as we know it...

Lindsey Dew is a PhD student in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering. Her work specifically looks at skin tissue engineering. Here she talks about tissue engineering, how she got into this exciting field and why women need to know what engineering actually involves in order to increase female representation within the profession.

Women in Engineering: it's how you sell it that counts

Christina Georgiou, PhD student in the Department of Automatic Control and Systems Engineering at the University of Sheffield, explains how communicating a passion for engineering to the next generation of female engineers is a great way of encouraging smart young women into the discipline. She argues that contrary to this, well meaning initiatives aimed at women in engineering can be discouraging.

Education, careers and gender: it's not just women who miss out

In his article, Pro-Vice Chancellor Paul White argues that whilst the Women in Engineering initiative is breaking down the gender barrier for the engineering discipline, it is not the only academic area that is affected by gender assumptions. He highlights subjects which are seen as the preserve of women and suggests that we should be doing more to tackle social gendering, which prevents both men and women entering professions they can thrive in.  

"We clearly need to counter the ‘expectation’ that an engineer or a computer scientist will be male – but we also need to counter the ‘expectation’ that a speech therapist or a social worker will be female."

Roma Agrawal - The Shard

Roma Agrawal 
(picture credited to 
 Nicola Evans, WSP group)

The Shard almost looks like an elaborate ice sculpture. Standing at 1,016ft high above London, this iconic building is now officially the tallest tower in Western Europe. From a layman’s point of view I wonder how on earth this was built and who would be brave enough to dangle over 300m off the ground to place the last pieces of glass. Comprising of five key areas: office space, restaurants, a hotel, apartments and The View at the top which is now open to the public, this piece of engineering and architecture is over a decade in the making. Angela Bairstow spoke to Ms Roma Agrawal, who currently works for WSP Group in London and was Senior Structural Engineer on The Shard, on what it was like to work on such a high profile project and that you don’t necessarily need an engineering degree to be an engineer.

Celebrating the diversity of engineering - a scientist's point of view

Elspeth Kenny recently produced a short video about women in engineering at Sheffield. In this blog she talks about taking on the project, learning about engineering in everyday life and meeting some of the talented researchers that make up the Faculty.

The Art of Engineering - Introducing the Faculty's new Artist in Residence.