Many thanks to Wally alumna and Bio-Medical Engineering student Lujain Al-Musafir for contributing to our Senior School Prayers on Friday about Women in Engineering.
Our Headmistress Ms Chamberlain shared the fact that only 12-16% of engineers in the UK are women, although 51% of the population is female. The way to increase this figure, Ms Chamberlain suggested, was simply by Doing Engineering (and not by wearing pink coats, as an article she once read as a student had claimed) and she invited several pupils on stage to explain what they had been working on.
Dolly and Matilda in Year 8 described how they had been building model insulated houses in Physics, using loft insulation to prevent heat loss.
Poppy and Alice in Year 10 shared their experiences of being in the Greenpower Car Club. The team built an electric kit car in weekly sessions, bolting the chassis together, fitting wheels, suspension and sorting out the electronics. After nine months of this they took the car to race at the Goodwood racetrack!
Lujain, who is a student at Queen Mary University in London, then explained in a Youtube video why she loved studying Biomedical Engineering. For her third year project she built a needle attached to a multimeter which was set to read resistances. Her needle could successfully distinguish between the yolk and the white when inserted into a hard-boiled egg.
Lujain said it was very rewarding bringing all her knowledge to bear on her own project. She has been offered an internship in a company which specialises in detecting cancer using magnetic sensing.
Back to all news
