Greetings!
We are delighted to welcome Transport for London as a WES silver sponsor and look forward to working with them. WES truly values their commitment to the WES mission and we look forward to sharing more about the diverse technical roles at TfL with you.
The safety clothing survey now has over 550 responses and our first step has been to introduce a range of purple work boots, designed and made by Dunlop, especially for women.
The new year was further brightened with the Women of Substance event kindly hosted by the Royal Institution which was a collaborative event with the European Professional Women's Network and womenintechnology.co.uk (read more later). Make sure that you mark the 11th March in your diary to tune into the Global Marathon run by WES members Teresa Schofield and Maria de Magalhaes.
Another exciting year of inspiration awaits you!
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| Women of Substance
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| Thank you to everyone who came along to the 'Women of Substance: Inspiring Women in STEM'' event which we co-hosted with womenintechnology.co.uk and The European Professional Women's Network 27th January in the beautiful surroundings of the Royal Institution.
Lynda Armstrong, Technical Vice President, Shell led the panel of Christine Ashton, Technical Vice President, Shell, Christine Ashton, Group Strategy Director, TfL, Dr Julie Greensmith Lecturer of Computer Science at the University of Nottingham and Bee Thakore, Founder of Big on Good Solutions.
I'm blown away by the feedback and how inspired everyone was that I spoke to. We should certainly do this again" said WES President, Jan Peters.
Maggie Berry, Managing Director of womenintechnology.co.uk said "the evening was a great success and it was super to see the three organisations working together so easily and bringing together an event of interest to all women working in science, engineering, technology and related businesses."
Michelle Brailsford, President EuropeanPWN-London was thrilled to collaborate with WES and womenintechnology.co.uk for the first event of 2010, Women of Substance: Inspiring Women from STEM.
"This event showcases one of our strengths. Women like to collaborate, connect and build relationships.' And one of our USPs at EuropeanPWN is to connect women across boundaries so this kind of cross discipline event offers our members the kind of value we want to offer our members.
What did we all take away from the event? That women scientists, technicians, engineers and mathemicians care. We make emotional connections with our students, our teams and our peers. We bring different perspectives. We bring different practice as well as best practice. And we re-write the rules if they don't work for us.
Tess Barnes as Artist in Resident at the Royal Institution displayed a selection of paintings from her exhibition "Women of Substance" featuring 50 portraits of some of the most successful and inspirational women of our times. |
| WES Member Teresa Schofield runs the Marathon! |
For the past three years WES members have taken part in the Global Marathon for women in engineering. It is probably the easiest event to take part in as it is entirely virtual. Better still it connects women everywhere free of charge. Any WES member can join in or let schools; universities; companies and friends know about it. This year Teresa Schofield has raised the bar considerably - she not only has participants from numerous leading companies; disciplines and countries taking part but it will be hosted live from the Big Bang Fair. This event is a science and engineering careers event in Manchester which will be attended by 15000 schoolchildren. Within the chaos we hope that a group of girls will collect themselves round screens and speakerphones to ask questions of women engineers from the companies exhibiting and those who dial in. There will be female university students partipating in Formula Student or IEEE activities and senior women in industry to inspire. The whole event is archived on the website so you can hear people long standing members like Jo Parker or Ariadne Tampion taking part. Please contact Teresa with any questions or offers of assistance. More Info |
| Why have a Mentor? |
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MentorSET has recently carried out a number of in-depth interviews with mentees to find out how they had benefitted from having a mentor. This was part of the UKRC's (mentorset sponsor) Social Return on Investment Evaluation. (This is where Social Scientists try to put a value on individuals increased skills, new position etc).
The interviews provided useful feedback, for example we found that the mentoring had also positively impacted upon their families, colleagues and employers. All the interviewees had benefitted significantly as a direct result of the mentoring yet nearly all went into the relationship with no real expectation of what they would achieve.
Here are some of their comments:
Everyone should have a MentorSET mentor. Fantastic to have someone to talk to about issues.
Can only give praise.
It has been far more useful than I imagined possible.
Wholly support
Excellent help. It has been very helpful.
An invaluable service.
So, if you do not already have a mentor, do something about it now!
But remember, MentorSET can only function with mentors coming forward as well as mentees.
Please think about whether you could be a mentor as well as a mentee. Do you have a couple or more years experience and willing to give a few hours every couple of months to helping someone else? Mentoring is not one way and mentors do gain from the partnership.
These are some of the comments from our mentors:
I have achieved as much as being a mentor as being a mentee. I was constantly dwelling upon what I could have done better or hadn't achieved in my career. My mentee has helped me to put my mistakes into perspective. I now recognize my achievements and that has genuinely made me a happier person.
I looked forward to my meetings with X. I enjoyed watching her become more confidence in the way she dealt with her situation. We will keep in touch but I would be delighted to take a new MentorSET mentee.
Being a mentor myself has been a great way to follow up on what I received by being a mentee. If you would like to be a mentor or mentee please go to our website to find out more and apply! |
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And finally....
If you have any articles you would like to have featured please contact the WES office by clicking here. We'd love to hear your stories of your schools outreach activities or ideas to inpsire young people that we can share across our community.
Don't forget to forward on our e-newsletter to your friends and contacts, male and female and help to inpsire more young women to consider engineering and technology as a career.
With good wishes
the e-News team. | |
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| Our Sponsors
Dunlop Safety Footwear and New England |
WES and the makers of Dunlop Safety Footwear have joined forces to develop a number of commercial opportunities in 2010. Working in conjunction with branding consultant Andy Paterson-Jones from NEW ENGLAND the first priority is to progress the Purple Boot campaign that was launched in December.
In addition to the bespoke range of ladies footwear that is now available to buy online at the WES shop, Dunlop will soon be launching a range of co-ordinated safety clothing range. And, once again, purple will play a prominent role.
Andy's experience of design and marketing is extensive. He was one of the five principal designers involved in branding the 2000 Sydney Olympics. As Creative Director at London web agency Framfab, now LBI, he worked on several large projects for major corporate brands such as BP, Adidas, UBS and American Express.
Three years ago he set up his own consultancy in order to offer a more bespoke service to clients. NEW ENGLAND specialises in providing creative solutions for footwear and clothing brands.
"WES is such a fascinating and unique organisation," commented Andy. "I am looking forward to understanding more about its work and helping WES to extend its reach to members and like-minded groups. I think there is a great opportunity to challenge perceptions about the accomplishments of female engineers, scientists and technical leaders in a positive way."
If you would like to sponsor our newsletter please click here for more information |
| Shape The Future |
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Tim de Winter, International Test Manager for T-Mobile UK, attended the WES Shape the Future event on 15 December. Following the event he felt inspired to write this piece about Renee, a Technology Senior Specialist in the T-Mobile UK's Networks team.
Renee began her career in network operations at GEC moving onto operations and installations i.e. planning office infrastructures (computer points, telephones, networks, etc) and continued, through other roles and companies, to become involved in network, platform and service capacity planning and management at T-Mobile.
Her job involves running analyses of the network to ensure that there is sufficient capacity. This is vital to guarantee that everyone who wants to send an MMS message, make a call or even watch TV on their phone can do so. Renee's role is technical - forecasting capacity requirements over the next five years, planning deployment of new systems- and involves a high level of co-ordination, interacting with international core network and IT teams, raising data security levels, ensuring smooth transmission of data between systems and managing vendors.
The company is very dependent on the work of technical specialists like Renee. My role in looking after several international systems, would not be possible but for those, driving quality and improvements downstream. They ensure that T-Mobile UK can offer a high level of service for customers whenever they pick up their mobile, check emails on their phone or send a text message to a loved one.
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| WES Conference 2010 |
| Things are moving apace with this year's main conference and the WES Doris Gray student conference which this year will be co-located in Sheffield on 19, 20 and 21 November. We are delighted to welcome Daniela Romano as the conference chair and look forward to 'Making Britain Digital'. A topic that will be relevant whether you work in IT, design, construction, manufacturing, education or simply have a passion for gadgets. We'll have lots of cool innovations and inspirations lined up for you. There will also be a health and safety symposium to share the safety clothing survey findings and launch theaction plan. Sponsorship enquiries to the WES office |
| Women In Science Fellowship
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Applications for the 2010 L'Oreal-UNESCO UK and Ireland Women In Science fellowships are now open.
L'Oréal UK and Ireland, the UK National Commission for UNESCO, the Royal Institution of Great Britain, and the Irish National Commission for UNESCO, have partnered together to provide a dedicated UK and Ireland For Women In Science Fellowship Programme for women scientists at postdoctoral level to enable and/or facilitate promising scientific research in the life or physical sciences.
Four Fellowships will be awarded in 2010 to outstanding female postdoctoral scientists to assist them with their research. The Fellowships, each worth £15,000 (equivalent € for candidates in Ireland), are tenable at any UK or Irish university or research institute to support a 12-month period of research.
The fellowship money can be spent in any number of innovative ways to enable women scientists to further their careers and facilitate world class research - such as buying equipment, paying for childcare or funding travel costs to an overseas conference More Info |
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Quick Links
GetSET for Self Employment |
Monday 22 February 2010
Halifax, West Yorkshire
9.30am - 4pm
This workshop is aimed at women considering setting up a consultancy in science, engineering, technology or the built environment (SET). It will also be useful for women thinking of starting another type of SET business. The day includes a skills audit, advice on how to generate leads and looking at whether self employment is right for you. Further information and booking
GetSET for Self Employment
The UK Resource Centre for Women in Science, Engineering, Technology are holding a one-day event at the IET, London for women qualified in Science, Engineering, Technology or the Built Environment that are considering setting up a technology consultancy or SET business.
The event is on Tuesday 2nd March 2010 and is free.
For more information and booking, please click here.
She Is An Astronomer
22 & 23 April 2010
Royal Astronomical Society, London
The conference will be opened by Prof Jocelyn Bell Burnell. There will be talks on pioneering women in astronomy, talks by female scientists on their work and careers, gender issues, work-life balance, careers, mentoring, psychology/culture, statistics. One outcome of the meeting will be a list
of suggestions for supporting and encouraging women in astronomy in support of the IAU Resolution passed at the IAU General Assembly in August 2009. Deadline for registration 8 March. More Information
A new 3D animated computer character has been launched to help teach
secondary school science. 'Scimorph', who responds to interaction from
users, will be available to every child at home and in the classroom. More Info
The Shell and Institute of Physics Award for Very Early Career Women Physicist of the Year
The Women in Physics group are inviting entries for this award now in its fouth year. For further details and application forms please visit the website.
Membership News
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| Help Please |
| WES has been asked for the names of any famous or senior women figures past and present who hail from the Northampton area. Please could you pass any information to the WES office.
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| MentorSET Mentors Required |
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The new year has brought a large number of applications from prospective mentees and we are looking for a number of mentors at present, including:
- An academic physicist for a returner (Midlands)
- An environmental engineer for a returner (Yorkshire/ North East England)
- IT Professionals in Scotland and England
- A mentor with knowledge of EU proposals and consultancies (hampshire/ Southern England)
- A structural engineer for returner (London/ South East)
If you would like to help or find out more, please contact Jan West or go to the MentorSET website.
The next workshop for new mentors and mentees will be on 4th March in central London. See the website for more details
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