Achievements of three outstanding young female engineers have been recognised at the Institution of Engineering and Technology’s Young Woman Engineer of the Year Awards.
The awards celebrate women working in modern engineering and aim to help change the perception that engineering is predominantly a career for men. Winners were announced at a ceremony in London in December.
The overall Young Woman Engineer of the Year award went to Sophie Harker, an aerodynamics and performance engineer for BAE Systems. In her role, Ms Harker performs aerodynamic and performance analysis on future combat jets, as well as exploring hypersonic flight concepts and the application of emerging technologies in aviation.
“It’s a really proud moment for me,” she said of her award. “It’s vital we inspire the next generation of engineers, especially women, and one way of doing this is highlighting current talent in the industry.
“These awards are putting role models out there to change the perception of engineering and encourage young people to consider STEM careers.”
The IET Mary George Memorial Prize for Apprentices was presented to Shajida Akthar who is a software engineer at Accenture, which involves coding scripts to automate manual processes in financial services.
Finally the Women’s Engineering Society Award went to Lorna Bennet, a mechanical engineer at the Offshore Renewable Energy Catapult. She works to improve the operations and maintenance of offshore renewable energy assets.
All the winners will play an ambassadorial role for the engineering and technology professions in the forthcoming months, promoting engineering careers to girls and young people. Currently just 12% of those working in engineering occupations are women, according to Engineering UK.
IET diversity and inclusion manager Jo Foster said: “It’s vital we champion engineering careers to the next generation – it’s a diverse, creative and exciting career, which offers the opportunity to do something life-changing, or even world-changing.”
Minister for the Year of Engineering Nusrat Ghani added: “It’s fantastic that these awards put trailblazing women in the spotlight. Thanks to the efforts of so many inspiring individuals and organisations, we are beginning to see a positive shift in girls’ attitudes towards careers in engineering.”
Award finalists Kate Self, Amy Wright and Dr Claire Donoghue were all highly commended.