May 2018
Women's Engineering Society eNewsletter
Welcome to the May edition of the WES newsletter. 

In this month's newsletter we have the latest on INWED18 and bring you updates from WES, upcoming events, job vacancies and all other news.

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The Women's Engineering Society is committed to supporting women in engineering. Click through the following link for more information on  being a WES memberIt costs just one pound per week and helps us to do our work to inspire and support women to achieve their potential as engineers, applied scientists and technical leaders.
 
If you have any news you would like to share with WES, please email us on news@1919.wes.org.uk

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WESUpdatesWES Update and Events
#INWED18 - There's not long to go before International Women in Engineering Day 2018! We're over the moon that so many people and organisations worldwide are getting involved with plans for the day. We've even had publicity from the Department for Transport and Year of Engineering, and are in promising conversations with the Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan and his team at City Hall regarding their support and promotion. This is fantastic for the visibility of our international awareness campaign!

Want to organise something to celebrate women in engineering? Take a look at the  #INWED18 resource pack (see below)  for a wealth of ideas, information and tips on running some activity for #INWED18. For inspiration, take a look at the  events that have been registered with us  and check out the interactive map to see what's happening near you.
 
#INWED18 Selfie Cards - Why not have your office, organisation and team/s pose with our  #INWED18 selfie cards  and post your pictures on social media tagging us (#INWED18 @INWED1919 #RaisingTheBar). Take a look at our  #INWED18 Media Kit  for example tweets and promotional information for you to use. 


 
International Women in Engineering Day schools resources - INWED18 Resource Pack is full of ways to get involved in celebrating International Women in Engineering Day 2018. Download to get planning for 23 June! 
 
Millicent Fawcett Statue Unveiling



 
On 24 April 2018 WES Past President Dawn Bonfield attended the unveiling of the Millicent Fawcett statue in Parliament Square, London.
 
Millicent Fawcett is connected with the work of the WES in part due to her campaigning activity for women's rights to education and work, but also her support of other campaigners to open up opportunities and equal rights for women, including Emily Davies's bid to open Cambridge degrees to women. It was this work that enabled our own founders -  many of whom had also been prominent members of the suffrage movement - to go on to continue the fight for women to enter the non-traditional walks of life such as engineering, and WES continues the work of these pioneering women today. Whilst the situation for women is much different now to that in 1918, there is still some way to go before we obtain equality, and WES appeals to all to stand up for equal rights where this is not the case.

Women in STEM Wikithon! 


On the 6th June the WES London Cluster will be running a warm-up Women in STEM Wikithon in preparation to the WES Centenary celebrations in 2019!  More representation of Women in STEM is required in Wikipedia. Join us to celebrate women that have been remarkable contributions to STEM and deserve a more prominent place in the online historical record - also to serve as role models to present and future generations!
 
The event will start with an inspirational talk from Dr. Jess Wade, postdoctoral researcher at Imperial College London, Wikipedia editor, and WES council member. Then, Dr. Alice White, Wikimedian in Residence at the Wellcome Collection and winner of the WES Amy Johnson Inspiration Award 2017, will provide some guidance on how to edit Wikipedia and enhance your digital skills. Complete beginners and experienced editors are both welcome to attend - we'll provide training for anyone new to editing!


London Cluster 

Join the WES London Cluster on 19 June for an evening of lively discussion and celebration of women in technical engineering roles to commemorate  International Women in Engineering Day (INWED) 2018.The panel will debate a range of topics relating to women in engineering, with ample opportunity for questions from the audience.This event is jointly organised by the WES London Cluster and Arup Connect Women.

The confirmed panellists include:
  • Professor Dame Julia Higgins - President of the Institute of Physics (IOP)
  • Faith Wainwright - President of the Institution of Structural Engineers (IStructE)
  • Yasmin Ali - Award Winning Chartered Engineer, BBC expert voice, and WES YMB
For tickets please go here.

WES Centenary Toolkit! 

We're gearing up to the WES Centenary in 2019: please keep an eye out for future announcements! 
We will be encouraging all WES members and partners to participate and will be running events locally in a similar manner to the INWED events. We will be offering a toolkit, again similar to the INWED toolkit, to all volunteers and partners to help with setting up of events and to link to one or more of the following three themes: remembering our past; celebrating our present; changing the future.
 
For more information or expressions of interest please contact Sarah Peers   comms@wes.org.uk
WES Young Members' Board 
 
The YMB held their quarterly meeting on 11th May at the Bloodhound SSC facility in Avonmouth. In the morning, they were joined by ten girls from a local primary school for a fantastic presentation given by "Chief Inspirer" Rob Bennet from the Bloodhound team. They were set a task to design and build a balloon car, which definitely challenged the YMB as well as the 8 year olds! Look out for the video which will be uploaded to their YouTube channel soon.

Rob Bennett from the Bloodhound Team
At the board meeting it was announced that the current Chair, Jo Douglas, has decided to step down and hand the baton onto current Vice Chair, Sophie Hutchins. Jo has been a fantastic asset to the YMB and she will continue to sit on the board for the next year. Sophie will be a great successor and we wish her luck in her new role!  

Yasmin Ali, Maeve Higham and Khadejah Begum will also be standing down from the board. They have been instrumental in leading projects over the past two years and we wish them all the best in their future endeavours!

The YMB will be actively recruiting three new members. Details on how to apply will be released in the next few weeks so keep an eye on the enewsletter and social media handles if you are interested in submitting an application.


Rising Star Nomination
 
WES Young Members Board Chair and Council Member Jo Douglas has been shortlisted for We Are The City's Rising Star in Science and Engineering Award. The Rising Star awards recognise the achievements of women who are below Senior Management or Director level, therefore representing the female talent pipeline and the next generation of future leaders. 

  If you'd like to show your support for Jo please vote at  .

Congratulations to everyone on the shortlist and good luck Jo!


London Cluster Blog

This month's article by members of the London Cluster is on the closing of the gender pay gap. The article can be found   here  . Please share it and send your comments to   weslondoncluster@gmail.com 

The cluster aims to continue preparing blogs and articles, available via LinkedIn and the WES website, so if you enjoy writing and would like to contribute, do let us know at  weslondoncluster@gmail.com.

1st Annual WES Regional Cluster Conference - Midlands Region
5 July 2018
Worcester
 
WES  is delighted to extend an invite to you to join us for the Women's Engineering Society's 1st Regional Cluster Conference, kindly hosted by Mazak.


The purpose of the conference is to meet and form a local member network, invigorating and kick-starting the Cluster. It promises to be a really interesting evening with a great variety of speakers as well as ample networking time.


Little Miss Inventor 


 WES Member and previous winner of WES Young Women Engineer of the Year Award Mamta Singhal has recently launched the latest instalment of the Little Miss books, Little Miss Inventor!

Adam Hargreaves the author explains that "Little Miss Inventor's brain is full of ideas, which she turns into extraordinary inventions in a shed at the bottom of her garden".

Little Miss Inventor was published on 8 March this year - tying in with International Women's Day and British Science Week.


Spring Edition of WES Journal 'The Woman Engineer' out now

 

As well as containing all the latest news from WES, this issue features an in-depth focus on Humanitarian Engineering.  View as a pdf

 

Would you like to receive a copy through your letterbox? Join WES now.

JobsWES Jobs

Vacancies
General
Apprenticeships
Academic
TiredTired Engineer in Training
Tired Engineer in Training, Eleanor Yong, shares the drawings that she started to help break up the monotony of studying/revising.
Eleanor Yong_ Boardroom Imagination (Click on image to open)
Eleanor Yong_ Nyquist Snails (Click on image to open)
Events Upcoming Events
The 15th Gender Summit 
18-19 June 2018 2018
Bush House, King's College, London 

Women & Diversity in Manufacturing Summit
21 June 2018
Exhibition Centre in Liverpool
WES proudly supports Women & Diversity in Manufacturing Summit, brought to you by The Manufacturer.

Manufacturers on the right side of history will be talking about increasing British industry's share of the UK talent pool - by boosting participation from women and minority groups in the manufacturing workforce. Whether UK manufacturing has a problem with women and diversity - or whether it's the other way round - there is a problem that needs to be tackled if the country's manufacturing renaissance is to be sustained to fix it.

Register today and use our code 'WES-100' to get £100 off the ticket price. 

Find out more
Inclusivity and Diversity Series - Unconscious Bias Workshop
5 July 2018
Royal Military Academy, Sandhurst

news More News
PROCESSIONS

  On Sunday 10th June, women and girls from across the UK will come together to create a vast participatory artwork taking place for one day in Belfast, Cardiff, Edinburgh and London. PROCESSIONS will be a living portrait of UK women in the 21st century. 

This mass participation artwork will celebrate one hundred years of votes for women. WES members will be attending so if you are interested in joining us then register here   to attend for free.


Engineers Needed to Deliver Workshops
 
 What's the connection between getting plastics out of the ocean, Renoir's painting and 3D photography? They're all projects that are designed to attract students aged 9-11 to engineering.

The scheme is organised by the LASAR Centre at Canterbury Christ Church University and funded by a Royal Academy of Engineering's Ingenious Award. They are looking for 15 engineers to help design interactive workshops to be delivered to children, in Thanet and the surrounding areas of Kent. The workshops will focus on the multidisciplinary nature of engineering and will give students opportunities to work with creative engineering problems and to ask questions about possible solutions. You will be part of a larger research study to discover the educational benefits for primary school pupils of working with engineering questions.

More information can be found here or get in touch @LASARcentre or lasar@canterbury.ac.uk  

2018 Ford Prize for Women in STEM Study
 
Ford is delighted to announce the 2018 Ford Prize for Women in STEM Study, which will recognise the achievements of women in STEM, and who have encouraged other women to become involved. Have you helped run extra-curricular STEM clubs within Primary/Secondary Schools?  Provided STEM leadership in young people's organisations such as Scouts or Guides?
 
In association with the Ford PWN (Professional Women's Network) the prize is to be awarded to a female student who is starting her second year of a STEM degree in September/October 2018, and who can demonstrate that they are inspiring the next generation of scientists, engineers and technologists. 1st Prize £1,000; c losing date - June 29th 2018

Entry form and full terms and conditions can be found here


Calling All Engineers

The Science Museum is looking for engineers from a variety of industries, organisations and disciplines to join us in supporting the Year of Engineering as volunteers in their exciting live events programme. 

Through live programming and engaging with real life engineers you will be:
  1. offering young people direct and inspiring experiences of engineering;
  2. encouraging families to 'take a closer look' at engineering; 
  3. show-casing the variety and creativity of modern engineering in the UK.
 W hether you're a sound engineer working in a music studio or a genetic engineer working in a hospital, engineers are wanted from every field in science, technology and beyond to stand up and show-off the incredible work they do. All volunteers will need to attend a training session at the Science Museum in September. 

If you'd like to apply, please go here

Champion Team Accelerace 


Team Accelerace are to represent the UK in the World Finals of F1 in Schools Competition . The all-female team from Linlithgow Academy in West Lothian came second in their regional finals, went on to represent Scotland at the national finals and are now the UK National Champions! This is a fantastic example showing how girls can do just as well in engineering as boys - and in this case, even better! 

Team Accelerace are currently fundraising for their travel to the World Finals in Singapore in September.  For more information on their project and fundraising, please go here.


Cranfield University Grants

Cranfield University are offering grant funding to enable women engineers to access their highly acclaimed training courser around growth and leadership. 

IMAGE (Innovation in Manufacturing Aerospace and Green Economy) grant funding is available to eligible SMEs in the SEMLEP area. The two programmes are: Women as Leaders and the Manufacturing Directors' Programme

For more information on these programmes and funding email:  h.bhatt@cranfield.ac.uk  

Your Opinion Needed  

The UCL Centre for Engineering Education is requesting your input on UK Engineering. Please help us design a better future for engineering by answering a short survey.  The survey is about the evolution of work and what new services you would value.
 
There's also an optional prize draw to win 1 of 10 Amazon £40 gift cards.
 
We'd particularly like responses from engineers and technicians who are not a member of an engineering institution, so that your voice is not left out.To take part in the survey please go here
 
Many thanks for your help!

Call for Expert Reviewers
 
The UK National Commission for UNESCO is delighted to announce the opportunity to be part of the Reviewer Team for the  Newton Prize 2018 , a prestigious global award for research and innovation in developing countries. All the applicants this year are from South American  Newton Fund  projects in Brazil, Chile, Colombia and Mexico and your skills are needed to make sure the most deserving nominations win!

Reviewing is via an online portal which can be accessed at your convenience between 15 June and 31 July 2018.


Partner WES Partners news

We would like to thank all our Partners for their continuing support of WES.

WESoutandaboutWES Out and About
  • 2 May 2018, Diversity Lunch, Feilden Clegg Bradley Studios, London
  • 9  May 2018, ERA Foundation Annual Lunch, London
  • 10 May 2018, Fuelling Ambition Conference, London, complimentary tickets given to 7 members
  • 17 May 2018, Institute of Physics summit: Girls in A-level physics, London
  • 22 May 2018, Women in STEM Conference  'Building a Diverse STEM Workforce for the Future to Address the Widening Skills Gap' WES  
  • 23 May 2018, POWERful Women Annual Conference, London
Have you read the WES Journal - The Woman Engineer?
All issues of the WES journal are available here. Become a member and get your own copy delivered to your door.
 

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