Women in EngineeringMentoring Newsletter

In this Issue

Mentee’s Say by Amber Fahey p2

Mentor’s Say by Katherine Murphy p3

Mentoring Tips p4

STEM Outreach at Brunel p5

Engineering Research at Brunel p6

Athena SWAN Lecture‘Damage Identification inEngineered Structures’ – by Prof Karen Holford p6

Meet our student p7

Engage with us – Women in Engineering 2015/16 p7Issue 1 February 2015

2Brunel University London www.brunel.ac.uk

Women in Engineering Newsletter Issue 1

Mentee’s SaybyAmber Fahey (mentored by Alex Knight)

In the two months that Alex has been my mentor, she has already been

an excellent support and very motivational, especially as I am able to see

how she successfully manages her own work-life balance while

maintaining her career as a leading female engineer.

Alex has been very forthcoming in introducing me to other professionals

who have also been able to offer me a large amount of helpful advice. She

has shared solutions that she previously used to overcome some of the

challenges faced while studying, has provided much guidance on how to

facilitate my own career development, and has acted as an expert sounding

board in helping me to improve my CV.

It was particularly valuable at the beginning of the partnership to be able

to meet in person to build a stronger rapport. We now combine meetings

with telephone and email contact, which have also proved very effective

for us.

“To best utilise the opportunity it works wellknowing what you wish to achieve from theexperience and each session, setting out new goalseach time and addressing how they can be achievedwith the support and assistance of your mentor.”

I am very grateful to Alex for donating her time and expertise, and to the

Women in Engineering programme for facilitating such a great

mentoring program and finding a most suitable match.

3Brunel University London www.brunel.ac.uk

Women in Engineering Newsletter Issue 1

Mentor’s Sayby Katherine Murphy (mentoring Samantha Carter)

Whilst I have been a line managerto young professional engineersduring my career, I am new tomentoring. I was honoured to beasked to support the Brunel WIEprogramme, but also a bit nervous.I had not thought of myself in thatcapacity before and asked myself‘How could I help someone else ata professional level?’ and ‘what ifmy mentee was disappointed to bematched with me?’

However, I have found my worriesunnecessary, as the selectionprocess used by the programme hasworked well. Through openconversation when we met for thefirst time, my mentee and I quicklyfound we had a number of commoninterests and experiences that wecould relate to each other through.This, along with the fact that we heldour first official mentoring meetingin quick succession, helped us tobuild a core personal relationship toallow open and honest explorationof what my mentee wanted from oursessions. We were incredibly

enthusiastic in our first session and abit overoptimistic about what wethought we could achieve. However,we have been open about that andused our subsequent session torefocus our priorities.

“I have found thementoring handbookextremely helpful tohelp me prepare for thesessions and providestructure throughoutthem. We make it apoint to fix the time forour next session at thevery start and assignourselves actions at the end. “The relationship is working well so far, but I expect a few rocks inthe road along the way. Therefore, it is good to know that I amsurrounded by a wealth ofexperience in the wider mentoringcommunity and that that network isthere to draw upon.

It is still quite early on in the WIEprogramme year, but already I cansee how much I have to givethrough my own professionalexperience and the personalchallenges I have faced through mycareer. And helping someone elsethink through what they want fromtheir career has spurred me on interms of my own professionaldevelopment.

Talk by Pamela Wilson

4Brunel University London www.brunel.ac.uk

Women in Engineering Newsletter Issue 1

Building a mutuallybeneficial relationshipWho you know has always been important in life. You never knowwhen a connection could be helpful to you or you could help them,so building and maintaining a good relationship is important. We allhave things to learn, and learning in a collaborative way can be fun aswell as supportive and encouraging.

Tips on building good relationships:

The foundation is in building rapport and trust.

• Spend time getting to know the other person as a person, not just forthe role she plays in the relationship.

• Be reasonable in what you request and what you promise to doand deliver on those promises, or apologise if you can’t meet anexpectation.

• Be open-minded – you never know where the ideas and solutions willcome from, develop creative solutions together.

• Be honest – share how things really are for you, we can help eachother best when we understand the situation from the otherperson’s point of view.

• Take action – in a helping relationship, both benefit when the‘client’ takes action.

How to organise for mentoring

When deadlines are looming, it’s difficult to find time for longer-termbut important activities, such as career development. If you’restruggling to find the time to update and improve your CV orLinkedIn profile, and are putting off arranging a meeting with yourmentor because you know they will ask you about your progress,these tips are for you. First, get clear on how valuable mentoring is toyou and set yourself goals. Having a compelling picture of success isa great motivator to organise your time well.

Tips on being organised:

• Schedule time for career activities – be realistic, you have otherpriorities and demands on your time, how many hours each monthcan you spend on career/mentoring?

• Plan ahead for meetings – then you can do the preparation in smallchunks and fit them into your busy diary.

• Use all media – what works best for you and your mentor? Keep incontact with email updates between meetings, so meetings aremore focused.

• Keep records – when you’re researching options, keep records ofyour findings. As you find out more, you may find an earlier optionsuits you well and you want to go back to it.

What your mentorsare likely to be asking

• Consider long-term goals

• Specify the type(s) ofengineering business thatyou’d like to be involved in

• Make a job application

• Prepare to achieve aprofessional status or apply foran associate membership witha professional organisation

What your menteesare likely to be doing

• Searching for theirdissertation topics

• Working with less supervisionand possibly working on smallprojects of their own

• Absorbing technicalinformation

• Taking opportunities toimprove their soft skills

5Brunel University London www.brunel.ac.uk

Women in Engineering Newsletter Issue 1

STEM Outreach at Brunel

Brunel £15M flagship for stepchange in women engineers

Ambitious plans by Brunel tore-balance the gender gap inscience, engineering, technologyand maths-based careers wereboosted by a £5M capital grant fromthe Higher Education FundingCouncil for England (announced on10 Dec 2014).

With this fund, Brunel intends torefurbish its facilities to grow itsengineering undergraduateprogrammes and further increasethose taking the apprenticeshiproute through its sponsorship of theHeathrow Aviation EngineeringUniversity Technical College.

But key to the growth plans isworking with schools and other

stakeholders to create a step-changein the number of girls studyingengineering and science subjects –at first locally in West London, andthen nationwide.

At the heart of the new facilities willbe a STEM Outreach Lab which willwow 30,000 school pupils a year onand off campus. Key to its successwill be harnessing the enthusiasmand knowledge of our students asthey go out as Brunel Student STEMAmbassadors.

The Deputy Vice Chancellor ofResearch, Professor Geoff Rodgerssaid “As one of the UK’s top tenuniversities for STEM and one of thelargest, we know we have a wider

responsibility to address the genderimbalance, so we plan to become anational centre of excellencebringing industry, education andpolicy-makers together to solve itonce and for all.”

Announcing the grants, Secretary ofState for the Department forBusiness, Innovation and Skills,Vince Cable said:

“Inspiring young people to take upSTEM courses is vital to the successof the UK economy. This investmentwill meanworld-class teachingfacilities to build tomorrow’s skilledworkforce. It’s just one way we areensuring the UK remains a worldleader in science and research.”

6Brunel University London www.brunel.ac.uk

Women in Engineering Newsletter Issue 1

Our students enjoyed the 2ndAthena SWAN Lecture ‘DamageIdentification in EngineeredStructures’ delivered by ProfessorKaren Holford from CardiffUniversity.

Engineered structures such asbridges, aircraft and wind turbines allsuffer from damage which can occurthrough environmental influencessuch as lightning strike, impact oroverload or due to the effect offatigue loading in ageing structures.

Regardless of the nature of thedamage, it is essential to detect,locate and characterise damage andthis process is known as StructuralHealth Monitoring (SHM).

Prof Holford’s presentationdiscussed types of damage,strategies adopted for differentapplications, some of the significantadvances which have been made(and the experimental work whichhas made this possible) and presentexamples of the latest systems.

The Athena SWAN Charter evolvedfrom work between the AthenaProject and the Scientific Women’sAcademic Network (SWAN), toadvance the representation ofwomen in science, engineering andtechnology. Brunel, as a member ofthe Athena SWAN Charter, providesan annual Athena SWAN ResearchAward scheme to support membersof academic staff in thecontinuation of their researchcareers in addition to an annuallecture series.

Athena SWAN Lecture‘Damage Identification in Engineered Structures’by Prof Karen Holford (20 Nov 2014)

Engineering Research at Brunel

REF recognises rise in world-leadingresearch at Brunel

The volume of ‘world-leading’ and‘internationally excellent’ researchcarried out at Brunel has increasedby more than half in the past sixyears, according to the ResearchExcellence Framework (REF) 2014.

The REF, which assesses thequalityof research at universities across thecountry, ranked Brunel 33rd amongthe UK’s Higher Education Institutes(HEI) for its research power – anoverall score that combines theUniversity’s average research qualityratingwiththenumberofsubmissions.Significantly, the University madethe 30th largest submission in thesector, and the 5th largest amongLondon universities.

Across all engineering and designsubmissions, Brunel submitted the12th largest volume of work amongthe 112 HEIs to enter research in thediscipline. The percentage of world-leading research has doubled, with asignificant increase in the research

judged as internationally excellent.

Meanwhile, the submissions meantBrunel engineering ranked 18th forresearch power – an overall scorethat combines the University’saverage research quality rating withthe number of submissions.

The University was particularly strongin demonstrating the real-worldimpact of research, brought into theassessment for thefirst time, with70%of the impact submission classified asworld-leading or internationallyexcellent.

7Brunel University London www.brunel.ac.uk

Women in Engineering Newsletter Issue 1

My name is Federica Bosco fromNapoli, Italy, and I am studyingEngineering Management (MSc).

When I was achild, I grew up thinkingthat a scientific career was only formen even though my dad is anengineer. Instead, I wanted to become ateacher, influenced by my motherwho’s teaching English at a high school.

But when I turned 14, my dad startedto take me to his work place, AleniaAeronautica (now, Alenia Aermacchi),established by Selex and Aeritalia.Alenia produces and sells aircraft allover the world. With my own eyes, Igot to observe very closely skeletonsand parts of an airplane, a wholeproduction and assembly line (howparts were picked up by machine andbecame a whole product in the end) –all the processes involved in producingan airplane.

What fascinated me the most though

was the entire management of all theoperations accurately linked with oneanother to build a perfect airplane.Instantly, I got obsessed with ‘theprocess’ and I decided straight awaythat this would be my future. Fromthen, I majored in science at my highschool and studied EngineeringManagement Project andInfrastructures, very similar to CivilEngineering here, from the Universityof Naples Federico II.

My experience here has been superb.In Italy, a lot of engineering coursesare theory-based whereas here,there’s more emphasis on applicationsof theories. During the past threemonths, I have already completedthree projects on my own.

When I was asked to join the

mentoring scheme, I was a bit

reluctant. I am not used to receiving

support or asking for advice. But, soon,

I opened up and started to share allkinds of ‘troubles’ – deciding on mydissertation topic, issues with my teamworking on a group project, writing jobapplications, etc. I know I can alwaysturn to my mentor for his advice.

“My choice to studyengineering here hasbeen the best choicethat I’ve ever made.”It can’t be better when I just received

my result for the first assignment – A+!

Meet our student –Why I chose tostudy Engineering at Brunel

The Women in EngineeringProgramme will continue to supportfemale engineering students to attaintheir full potential in the engineeringprofession through the mentoringscheme and personal professional

development training.

The Programme in 2015/16 willinclude a £10,000 Scholarship for 30selected female engineeringstudents starting their full-time MSc

studies in 2015/16. These Women inEngineering Awards are funded 50%by the Higher Education FundingCouncil and 50% by matched fundingfrom the University. In addition, weare looking to secure financialcontributions from our industrialpartners.

If you are interested, please contactthe Postgraduate Support SchemeManager, Jeung Lee, at jeung.lee@brunel.ac.uk

The mentoring scheme in 2015/16 willbe expanded to support selectedengineering students at all levels, andin April we will be asking the currentmentors if they are prepared tocontinue to support our students. Wewelcome contacts from HR Managers.Please encourage your colleagues tojoin our mentoring scheme.

Engagewith us –Women in Engineering 2015/16

8Brunel University London www.brunel.ac.uk

Women in Engineering Newsletter Issue 1

202544 080215

Save the Date:

The 2nd Mentoring Event on 21 MayThe event will be an opportunity for our mentors and mentees to review their progress and share mentoring experience.

Brunel Engineers 2015: 21 May (6.30pm)You are also cordially invited to Brunel Engineers 2015 event. The event celebrates the final year project work of our BEng, MEng and MSc students from Electronic, Computer,Mechanical, Aerospace and Civil Engineering. It offers a great opportunity to engage with our students and seetheir innovative work.