To mark the achievements of women engineers, AWE celebrated International Women in Engineering Day on 23 June – an international awareness campaign focused on raising the profile of women in engineering and celebrating the contribution of female engineers and the amazing work they continue to do. The day also serves to inspire others to embark on a career in engineering.
Celebrating its 9th year, International Women in Engineering Day (INWED) began as a national campaign from the Women’s Engineering Society and has since become a global movement and continues to play a key role in encouraging more young women and girls to take up engineering careers.
This year’s theme focuses on the inventors and innovators who have or will change the industry for the better. To mark the day AWE staff were treated to presentations surrounding some of its own amazing women engineers.
AWE has achieved a plethora of patents throughout its history, and as part of its INWED celebrations, the company historian enlightened staff about two engineers who had made their mark in patent achievements. Ruth Lapage worked at AWRE (as it was known in the 1950s) for many years, producing various internal reports, a later patent on uranium ore treatment and an article in the Transactions of the Faraday Society. More recently, during the 2010s an AWE team, including engineer Helen White, invented the Hydra Seal, which received a patent.
Bringing the celebrations up-to-date were two of AWE’s engineering stars, Bethan and Samantha, discussing innovation in additive manufacturing and new developments in target fabrication. Both presentations demonstrated how AWE continues to innovate and find novel solutions.
One of AWE’s key commitments is encouraging more girls into engineering from an early age. As one of the largest STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) employers in our area, our network of STEM Ambassadors supports the national STEM learning programme to inspire young minds and showcase the exciting world of STEM and the opportunities it can bring. Just recently, we launched our Primary Science Challenge providing eco-friendly fun for local pupils with workshops designed to inspire STEM learning and run by our STEM Ambassadors and local Education Business Partnerships.
