To celebrate the International Women in Engineering Day 2024 (#INWED24), we organised an online event to showcase some of the cutting-edge research carried out by our women researchers at the School of Engineering and Innovation (E&I) at The Open University (OU). In this event, women researchers at different stages of the research career presented their research to show the variety of fields investigated at E&I. Their short presentations were followed by a panel discussion about their experiences of being a woman researcher in Engineering and Design at The OU.
The event showcased the breadth of research and teaching within E&I. It covered a wide range, from core science and engineering principles to design and systems engineering.
It also illustrated how research interests evolve throughout a career. PhD students often begin with focused research, becoming experts in a specific area. Early career researchers then typically branch out, developing broader interests that align with those of their more experienced colleagues.
For staff, the event was a valuable opportunity to discover the wealth of research activity happening across the school. Students benefited from meeting the academics and experiencing their depth of knowledge and passionate engagement. It’s likely that some were even inspired to pursue research careers themselves.
The event was chaired by Silvia Varagnolo (Lecturer in Mechanical and Materials Engineering) and Toni Gladding (Professor of Environmental Health and Director of Research at E&I). Toni first gave a general introduction about the research carried out at E&I and then chaired the presentations.
Lisa Bowers (Staff tutor – Senior Lecturer in Design) shared her experience as an inclusive designer working on haptic machines for visual impaired people.
Seyedehsadrieh Emadian (PhD student in Materials Engineering) talked about her current PhD research about the emerging bidimensional material called borophene and its application in environmental remediation such as wastewater treatment.
Freya Wise (Research fellow and Associate Lecturer, and previously PhD student in sustainability in the built environment) described her journey from an eclectic OU degree to a PhD and postdoctoral research @ E&I. During her PhD, she investigated carbon reduction and heritage retention in vernacular homes. She got involved in a range of post-doctoral research projects including the design of residential retrofit services, design research on accelerating the uptake of low carbon heating systems such as heat pumps and a systematic literature review of whole life, carbon and retrofit.
Alice Fraser-McDonald (Lecturer in Sustainability and the Smart Environment and previously PhD student) focused her talk on her PhD research aimed at understanding whether landfill site trees are source or sink of greenhouse gases. She also presented her scholarship project which is investigating the progression of OU STEM students from taught courses to postgraduate research.
Sotiria Psoma (Senior Lecturer in Electronic Engineering and Nanotechnology) described her 35-year career in research at many different institutes embracing electronic engineering and bio-applications. She worked on many different projects, including biosensor, micro and nanotechnology, 3D printing, microfluidics and much more.
Claudia Eckert (Professor in Design) talked about supporting design in practice, studying engineering change and durability with a wide set of examples ranging from helicopters to clothes.
After the presentations, the speakers answered to three questions from the audience: 1) How did you get into engineering/design/environmental management? Who was your inspiration? 2) if you could go back to the start of your research career and give yourself advice, what would it be? 3) Is it possible to be a designer without being an engineer?
There are many more inspiring female and male colleagues, who work we are planning to show case in the future.
Silvia on behalf of the WIDE (Women in Innovation, Design and Engineering) organisation committee
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