Orla Murphy, an acoustic and audio engineer at Jaguar Land Rover, won the IET Young Woman Engineer of the Year. On winning the award, Murphy said: “This opens so many doors – I’m meeting different people and broadening my network. I hope to be given more opportunities to talk to schools and perhaps to bigger audiences. Right now I’m working as a STEM ambassador and am involved with TED, but I want to do more and I plan to make the most of this opportunity.”
Siemens controls engineer, Emma Goulding won the IET Mary George Prize for Apprentices. “I think it’s disappointing that the amount of women in engineering is so low at the minute and that needs to change. We’re missing a lot of great talent simply because girls think it’s an industry just for men,” she said.
The Women’s Engineering Society Award was given to Helen Cavill, process improvement manager at M&H Plastics. “I enjoy solving real-world problems and often describe myself as an ‘engineering detective’,” she said.
The IET Young Woman Engineer of the Year Awards celebrate today’s most successful female engineers, encouraging them to become role models to inspire more girls to become engineers and help address the gender imbalance in engineering and science.
Recognising and celebrating outstanding female engineers has never been so important. Recent statistics from the IET’s Skills and Demand in Industry survey showed that women represent only 9% of the engineering workforce.
Naomi Climer, IET president, said: “I’d like to congratulate the three winners who have been recognised and rewarded for their talent. They are a real credit to the engineering profession.”
