Hold the Date!

18th October 2012, 3pm to 7.30pm

BAWA
589 Southmead Road
Filton
Bristol
BS34 7RG

The Women's Engineering Society and AIRBUS Women's network invite you to a networking event.

We will bring together women and men seeking to support women in what have traditionally been seen as men's roles, for example in science, technology, engineering, maths (STEM).

Particularly welcome will be working women engineers, in industry and academia, members of professional institutions and anyone who has set up, supports or participates in a women's network.

The event is in two parts, and you are invited to attend either or both.

Provisional Programme 

3pm:    

Registration for afternoon session (with tea and coffee)

3.30pm to 5pm:

Opportunities to discuss networking and mentoring with keynote speakers, panel members and/or "market place" style workshops with people already participating in support activities.

The aim is to help those thinking of setting up new support activities in their workplace or institution.

Confirmed keynote speakers:

Jacqui Hogan who runs the well thought of WES MentorSet programme

Alan Davies, Employee Development Advisor, Airbus

5pm:

Registration for evening session (with tea and coffee)

5.30pm to 7.30pm:

Networking social and buffet supper hosted by

keynote speaker Mary Frost, Fuel & Inerting Systems Senior Expert at Airbus

This event is being kindly supported by Airbus, meaning the only fee will be a small contribution for the evening session, of £10.00 to non-members of the Airbus Women's Network

 Booking is now open and details are on the WES Website 

Science Photo Walks

The discovery of the Higgs Boson, insights into the formation of new stars in distant galaxies, new drug treatments, some of the world's fastest supercomputers crunching new weather models.....science in the UK has enjoyed many successes in recent months.

Amateur and professional photographers are now being given unique 'behind the scenes' access to British science laboratories at the forefront of many of these research successes - but space is limited and early registration is required.

The science Photo Walks will be held at the Daresbury Laboratory in Cheshire (11 September), Rutherford Appleton Laboratory in Oxfordshire (13 September), Chilbolton Observatory in Hampshire (19 September) and United Kingdom Astronomy Technology Centre (UK ATC) in Edinburgh (21 September).

Photographers will be able to enter their images to a regional, national and international competition for public and expert judging. Judges will include award-winning photographer Max Alexander who said: "The inaugural Photo Walk competition in 2011 was a fantastic success, producing spectacular photographs of cutting edge science, and I am delighted to be a judge again this year. The Photo Walks are a unique opportunity for members of the public and enthusiastic photographers to capture dynamic images at some of the UK's leading science and technology facilities. I thoroughly recommend entering this competition to get behind the scenes of these inspiring and world class facilities."

Last year's national and UK ATC regional winning photographer, Stuart McIntyre, said: "The Photo Walks provide an opportunity to take some unique photographs as well as a chance to meet scientists who are at the top of their field. The whole experience was incredibly inspiring. The excitement and enthusiasm really shone through on the day as the UK ATC scientists explained their work to us."

Last year's Daresbury Laboratory regional winner, Michael Coe, said: "For many years I have driven past the facility and as an engineer have always been curious about what went on there. It was great to have the chance to visit, and the experimental rigs are quality bits of kit. As a keen photographer, I found it a challenge to produce stimulating images of complex arrays of metal."

The best British images will qualify for an international competition against images from laboratories in the United States, Germany, Italy and Canada.

Places on the Photo Walks are limited and will be allocated on a first come, first served basis. On registering, applicants will be sent a full information pack including factsheets on the facilities that will be visited during the tour. All participating photographers must be 18 years old or over.

Photographers interested in taking part in this free event can register online 

Ada Lovelace Day

We are very excited to tell you that this year, Ada Lovelace Day has teamed up with the Women's Engineering Society to bring you Ada Lovelace Day Live! on the evening of 16 October. Featuring the prestigious WES Karen Burt Award, the evening will fun, educational and inspirational. 

Join Helen Arney, Dr Suzie Sheehy, Gia Milinovich, Dr Helen Scales, Helen Keen, Dr Alice Bell, Sarah Angliss and Sydney Padua for an entertaining evening of science, technology, comedy and song on Ada Lovelace Day. Featuring all manner of wonders, from marine biology and particle physics to the secrets of fridges and performance robots, Ada Lovelace Day Live! is an event not to be missed!

Tickets are £10 each and available now from the WES website.  

Ingenious Women

The Institution of Engineering and Technology (IET) Essex branch holds regular evening lectures at Anglia Ruskin University, Rivermead Campus, Chelmsford. As a result of audience requests for a talk on Women

Scientists & Engineers, they are arranging a lecture entitled "Ingenious Women" by the author Deborah Jaffé.

This is currently planned for Wednesday October 24th 2012 at 6.30 pm (refreshments from 6 pm). Attendance and refreshments are free, and there is no need to register - just turn up.

Our events are open to IET members and non-members alike.

For this talk, we will be joined by the Chelmsford Science & Engineering Society.

For more details visit the IET Essex website and for more on Deborah Jaffé click here

Women's Business Council 
 
 The council is an informal advisory body which will look at ways of maximising women's contribution to economic growth. The council, chaired by Ruby McGregor-Smith CBE, CEO at MITIE, will assess priorities in challenging the barriers that women face in playing a full part in business and the workplace. For more details visit the website  

We have had a request from Rose Lores who is an experienced powerboat racer who is putting together an all girl team for the Cowes Monte Carlo race (Venture Cup) to take place in June 2013.  

She is very keen to include someone on the team who has engineering skills (ideally marine engineering) and wonder if any WES members might fit the bill. You need to have on water experience - doesn't matter if that's on powerboats, yachts or ships. She just needs to be sure that you enjoy long seagoing trips and can cope with heavy seas. You need to be competitive and enthusiastic. And most of all have the skills and desire to identify technical problems quickly and resolve them - out at sea and potentially in an inventive manner. There will have a ground crew to take care of everything when you are moored. What she is concerned about is if something goes wrong out at sea and they can't fix it and get going again! As part of the crew the engineer would also get involved in steering and navigation - there will be a team of 3 each with specific roles, but must work together and be able/prepared to take over from each other if needed. There will be training involved in the lead up including RYA courses - all part of the challenge!

This is a fantastic, once in a lifetime opportunity for the right kind of person and has the potential for loads of publicity too which could in turn lead to new possibilities or simply increased business for your employer.

If you think this is for you please contact Rose

and in particular, the IET, Transport for London, National Grid and Arup