Several hundred teenagers from Glasgow High schools were treated to an inspirational talk today by Roma Agrawal, an award winning structural engineer who worked on The Shard. She spoke about her journey from small child to an undergraduate student of physics at Oxford and then a Maters degree in structural engineering.
Roma told the students how she discovered engineering accidentally when doing a summer job where she saw engineers designing equipment for the Hadron collider. She explained that engineering allows her to apply her knowledge of science to real world problems. She said that engineers get to meet and work with lots of other disciplines on really interesting projects.
Her advice to the students was that studing maths and or physics at Highers/A levels can open up so many opportunities in engineering and other careers.
As for women in engineering there is still some way to go as in the UK only 10% of engineers are women compared with 30% in other European countries. So what is stopping our girls from taking up engineering as a career option? is it all in the mind? We need to shift the perception that its just for men. So the next time you are asked to name an engineer, rather than say people like IK Brunel you can now say Roma Agrawal.
With @RomaTheEngineer today #Glasgow @iesis1857 @WES1919 @SciGrrlGlasgow @cityofscience pic.twitter.com/8l2p9rKtsd
— Tracey Howe (@ProfTraceyHowe) September 23, 2015