Inspiring female engineer scoops top award
08 Dec 2009
Congratulations to Rebecca Robinson, winner of the Women into Science, Engineering and Construction (WISE) Overall Excellence Award, 2009. Rebecca received the top prize at the prestigious evening awards ceremony at the Royal Academy of Engineering, on Thursday 12 November, where Princess Anne was the awarding dignitary.
The WISE award recognises the efforts of early-career female engineers in encouraging women and girls to participate in science and engineering. Rebecca is currenly completeing her PhD thesis on Electrophysiology for Brain Function Imaging in the School of Electrical and Electronic Engineering. She received the prize in recognition of her outstanding work as a key member of the University-funded project, Women in Science, Technology and Engineering (WISET).
Rebecca was one of the first student co-ordinators for WISET, and in the past three years has organised and participated in a broad range of activities designed to get young women involved in science. For example, at the popular Girls in Aerospace event, teams of local schoolgirls design and race hovercrafts; Rebecca also runs Maths Squads and Physics Tricks events, demonstrating experiments using domestic materials that the girls can easily recreate at home. These events are designed to encourage girls to work with peers from different schools whilst discovering their own potential as young scientists and engineers. Rebecca is also a judge for the international 'Lego League' competition, and contributes to events in National Science Week and at the Manchester Museum. The WISE award recognises the huge significance of this widening participation work in promoting science and engineering as subjects for women.
Rebecca commented: 'The award is extremely prestigious and I feel really honoured to have been nominated, so to win is fantastic, and gives WISET the recognition that it deserves'. Rebecca particularly values the platform that the award gives to WISET's work in showing that 'Engineering isn't a man's world - anyone can do it'.
For further information, please visit the WISET and WISE websites.