Grace Ouendo: Bridging the digital divide for vulnerable girls in Benin

[sidebar_widget sidebar_id="sidebar-1" width="1/1" el_position="first last"] [spb_text_block pb_margin_bottom="no" pb_border_bottom="no" width="1/1" el_position="first last"]Grace Ouendo is a founding member and Communications Manager of 'Access to Computer for Every Girl (AC-FEG)', a non-governmental organisation created by a group of young Beninese in 2016. Motivated and committed to the cause of vulnerable girls, Grace and her team use information and communication technologies to help educate girls to become autonomous.

• Tell us about your NGO ‘Access to Computer For Every Girl’. What inspired this, and what are some of the activities you run?

"It all started with a text message. A male friend had the idea and was like, "let’s do this together", and I was like, "why not?". With my knowledge in ICT, it’s the best way for me to give back to society what I know.Access to Computer For Every Girl (AC-FEG) aims to provide girls with better opportunities to excel in life through the use of ICT. Our goal is to train a maximum number of girls in high-school, especially in the villages of Benin, to fight against intellectual ignorance in all its forms, and to help colleges and high schools acquire computer equipment. Our primary mission is to promote access to free ICT training for more girls in school."

• What is the tech ecosystem like in Benin?

"In general terms, it is evolving. We are in the era where people are becoming conscious of the utility of technology, especially among the youth. Our youth are getting interested in coding, web development and the likes, and I think gradually we are getting there even though it might be slow."

• What is it like for women in Benin to gain knowledge and access to careers in IT?

"We still have plenty of room for women to get engaged. The number of women in IT careers is gradually improving. We have super coders who are women. The more women are in those positions in the IT sector, the more it will motivate other women to join. In terms of availability of those careers, there are very few. People need to create more enterprises in this sector for there to be greater accessibility."

• In your opinion, how do you think women should battle preconceptions and entrenched ideas about gender in the world of technology?

"It’s all in the mind. The limits we give ourselves are in the mind. Today, with all the speeches on women empowerment, I think it should help women to know that nothing is impossible if only we believe. The most important thing is to try, before saying it didn’t work."

• What would you like to see change in Benin in the next decade?

"In the next decade I want to see a country where there is a positive change of mentality towards civic issues. On a larger scale, there should be tech systems put in place to show transparency in our administrative processes."[/spb_text_block]

Meet Ugandan Electrical and Electronic Engineer, Precious Kaijuka, working to improve railway systems around the world

Precious Kaijuka is a Ugandan Electrical and Electronic Engineer and currently a PhD student in Control Systems Engineering at Loughborough University in the UK.

Her research is focused on Railway Systems Engineering, developing a highly robust railway track switch that will improve functionality, safety and capacity of the railway network through the use of advanced model and non-model based control, condition monitoring and fault detection concepts.

"I was born and raised in Uganda and I’m the youngest child in my family. I started my earlier education in Uganda at Kampala Parents’ School and Mt. St. Mary’s College Namagunga for primary and secondary school respectively. I completed my A-levels at Peponi School in Kenya where I studied Physics, Computing, Mathematics and Economics. I moved to the UK in 2009 to study a 4-year Masters of Engineering (MEng) degree in Electrical and Electronic Engineering at Loughborough University. Following my graduation, I worked at Goldman Sachs’ London office in their Engineering division for about 3 years. In 2016, I received a research scholarship from Loughborough University to pursue a full time PhD in Control Systems Engineering where I am currently enrolled."

• What inspired you to pursue engineering?

"While studying Computing at A-level, we were required to complete a personal project. I chose to build an online voting system, inspired by the need to move to an online electoral voting system in my home country, Uganda. Through my experience moving my ideas from concept to building the final system, I found that I was highly motivated to fix any bugs in the program. I also really enjoyed the thought process behind building the final online voting system. I was awarded a Cambridge Outstanding Achievers’ Award for gaining the country’s highest mark in Kenya during the Computing A-Level Exam because of the voting system I built. This experience began and cemented my passion for problem solving where Engineering seemed like the obvious choice to pick for university."

• Why did you decide to pursue engineering in the UK?

"I was interested in studying abroad for university as there was a large variety of engineering courses available. I was motivated to choose Loughborough University as I was given a partial scholarship for the full duration of my undergraduate degree course. The career options available after university and extra co-curricular activities such as Model United Nations that I was a part of made the UK an exciting place for me to study."

• Your project on rail track switching technology aims to improve safety, reduce maintenance costs and increase capacity on railways in the UK and around the world. How did you and your team come up with the concept?

"The REPOINT concept came about when the Railway Safety and Standards board (RSSB) in the UK put out a call to answer the question ‘Could a fundamental re-think of railway track switching ease some of the current route-setting constraints to provide higher capacity, and provide a significant reduction in operational unreliability arising from points (track switch) failures?’ The team in the Control Systems’ Group at Loughborough University which I am a part of proposed this: The inclusion of inbuilt redundancy to faults through redundancy in actuation (as exists in safety critical industries like aerospace and nuclear industries) could improve reliability and increase capacity at the junctions. A new switch idea was then developed called REPOINT which stands for Redundantly Engineered points, that is a patented fail-safe switch that incorporates redundancy in actuation and a new mechanical design. The REPOINT switching concept is challenging over 200 years of thinking within the railway industry and has received a number of awards including the 2016 Institution of Engineering and Technology (IET) Innovation award under the Transport category and 2015 Rail Exec Most Interesting Innovation Award. My PhD research focusses on the fault tolerant aspect of the REPOINT switch where I am developing a fault tolerant control strategy by implementing various fault detection algorithms from model-based concepts to be applied to this novel REPOINT switch. This fault tolerant scheme aims to improve the post-fault availability of the system."

• What do you find most interesting about your career?

"My career to-date has been very diverse which I credit mainly to my undergraduate degree in Electrical and Electronic Engineering. I have been able to switch between very different industries and different types of Engineering i.e. engineering in investment banking to Control Engineering research, however applying similar skills of problem solving and logical thinking remains at the centre of the work I do. Engineering for me also allows me to achieve anything I can imagine. I feel if I can imagine it, I can build it and execute it."

• What inspired your interest in mentoring and career development for ladies in STEM education and careers?

"Throughout my engineering career, I have been very lucky to have supportive managers who always encouraged me to go the extra mile and showed incredible belief in my potential. Through this, I had many opportunities for growth through attending extensive training programs in my first job after graduation as a Technology Analyst at Goldman Sachs. I was also a part of the Career Development committee for the EMEA Women in Technology at Goldman Sachs. The responsibility for this committee was to organize events to mentorship and equip the women in the division with relevant technical skills. Through this experience, I realized that mentorship and guidance is sometimes the extra step needed to catapult your career and confidence to achieve your goals especially for women. In the UK, women make up 9% of the engineering work force which is a very small number. I also believe that if girls are exposed to female role models in these fields at a younger age they will be inspired to study STEM subjects and pursue STEM careers."

• What would you consider has been your greatest achievement as an engineer so far?

"My greatest achievement so far has been receiving a first class degree with the highest overall marks in the Electrical and Electronic Engineering degree graduating class of 2013 at Loughborough University. It was important to me because as a young Ugandan student away from home and one of the few black female students on my course, I was able to prove to myself that hard work and perseverance is sometimes all that’s required to succeed."[/spb_text_block]

Meet Giewee Giah, a leading Data Scientist revolutionising STEM education in Liberia

[sidebar_widget sidebar_id="sidebar-1" width="1/1" el_position="first last"] [spb_text_block pb_margin_bottom="no" pb_border_bottom="no" width="1/1" el_position="first last"]Giewee Giah is a leading Liberian Data Scientist and Mathematician currently working in the Oil and Gas industry in the United States. She works with petroleum engineers, geophysicists and geologists, leveraging their knowledge to interpret outcomes derived from models that reveal certain behaviours and trends in Oil and Gas data. 

"My mother is one of the daughters of Paramount Chief Barsi Giah, elected by the people of the Bassa Community. He invited North American missionaries to his town,  Barsi Giah Town, where a mission school was established in the 1960s for the community’s children. Additionally, he constructed roads leading into Barsi Giah Town and worked with Liberia’s government to set up government schools and a health care system within the town.  In the 1970s an election was pending for his seat as representative for Bassa County before he passed away. Though I have lived in the USA for all of my life, I plan to continue my grandfather’s legacy by helping all of Liberia’s middle school children gain access to modern science, technology, engineering and mathematics education."

Giewee earned her bachelor’s degree in Mathematics from Abilene Christian University and later obtained two graduate degrees in Actuarial Science (Boston University) and Predictive Analytics (Texas A&M).

• Tell us about your initiative ‘Wahjay-STEM’. What inspired this, and what are some of the activities you run?

"Wahjay-STEM was birthed out of my aching feelings of powerlessness for the unheard and the helpless. I wanted to alleviate the burden of complaints stemming from low unemployment for underrepresented students in the professional workforce around the world. I wanted for Liberian students, specifically, to have a fighting chance at securing professional roles in their society that would offer them a living or even thriving wage compared to the labour wage that caused them to call overseas to ask for more financial support for their necessary, yet ordinary day-to-day living expenses. I wanted to make sure that more individuals could afford the opportunities that I have been able to experience. After asking my mother for a name that would make it clear that I was building an organisation that will serve people, she suggested 'Wahjay', meaning, for the sake of others, for the sake of the people'.We provide training and are a third-party affiliate of the VEX Robotics curriculum for 4-8^th grade students. We provide lessons in:

• Computer coding and navigation (teachers and students)
• Numeracy
• Literacy
• Critical Thinking
• Public Speaking
• Robot development
• Lesson plan execution (teachers)"

• What is it like being a Data Scientist in the Oil and Gas industry?

"I enjoy working as a Data Scientist and I am learning to navigate all of the professional lessons that are required to deliver dependable and cost saving projects. I have to think strategically as I work with people who are extensively experienced (over 20 years) in professions that I have to complement with the analytics applications. I work with primarily petroleum engineers, geophysicists and geologists. I leverage their knowledge to interpret outcomes derived from models that reveal certain behavior and trends in our Oil and Gas data. I have to continue to foster trust and showcase my competency in my craft since it is one that is still not clear to my industry. I lead a small team and I am young. I have contractors that play cyclical roles in my team and a steady PhD in Geophysics. I have to be quick in my leadership, flexible in my approach, but confident in my final decisions. Being young and having a leadership role is a circus. I must play ringmaster in my own approach. You want to show respect and gain respect at the same time. I have found that sticking to the tasks at hand and listening is key to getting the information that is needed to do my job well.  When I speak on facts, consistently and frequently, I notice that I start to gain the respect of my colleagues and it is easier to get information and stronger collaboration for newer data science projects."

• What is it like for women in Liberia to pursue STEM?

"We, the Liberian diaspora and resident Liberians have to foster more confidence in women in Liberia regarding the area of STEM. Unfortunately, women do not have much opportunity to pursue STEM because STEM is a recent phenomenon in Liberia. Before 2016, a developed concept of what STEM is had not yet been materialised. School children, both boys and girls do not have access to STEM programs due to electricity issues, minimal access to school books, lack of internet access, and lack of funding for modern computer equipment in schools. A majority of Liberian students are intimidated by STEM topics because of a poor educational foundation that resulted from Liberia’s 20+ year war, and because teachers do not have the complete training that will allow them to introduce it in schools. Girls in Liberia deal with familiar issues that keep them from school, such as limited finances. This results in the girl child getting pulled out of school before their elder or youngest brother is pulled out of school. The best part about STEM programs is that the best ones require one to be tactical and detailed. Women typically thrive in the area of detail and generally outperform the boys once introduced to the concept! STEM requires students to be more verbally descriptive, which I find to be difficult for young girls. Wahjay-STEM is fostering that ability in young girls so they can become the women that can use their voice to thrive in their careers as women. A majority of Liberia's employment opportunity is limited to manual labour, work in the street market, and there are few office jobs available for their academic/training experience in STEM. Therefore, it is difficult for women, and even men, to pursue careers in STEM in Liberia. Women in Liberia need more confidence."

• What difference would you like to make in Liberia?

"I would like for robotics to be the foundational tool for all students in all levels of education. All over the world. I am excited for Wahjay-STEM because the work that we have been doing has been featured in front of the current Vice President of Liberia, Jewel and the First Lady, Clar Weah.I would like for the Ministry of Education to adopt the curriculum and make it standard for all middle school students so that I can move the program into Liberian High Schools. We are currently in talks with countries such as Jamaica and Senegal to have Wahjay-STEM appear there. What I would like to see are confident students that are competent in reading, writing and STEM topics. This will only happen when we start to implement a standard in teacher training and stay consistent in encouraging critical thinking in the classroom. I would like to see Liberia’s educated be able to compete with the best educated in the world for job creation, product invention, and professional careers."

• Any advice for young women looking up to you?

“Stop waiting for your hero. You have what it takes to be your own hero. Make sure that when you ask for help, you position yourself as an investment and not a charity. Prioritize building confidence when no one is watching, so that when you are on stage, you have the confidence you need to conquer all your fears.” [/spb_text_block]

RLabs Botswana's Tshepang Lerato Seisa on teaching Batswana mothers how to use technology

[sidebar_widget sidebar_id="sidebar-1" width="1/1" el_position="first last"] [spb_text_block pb_margin_bottom="no" pb_border_bottom="no" width="1/1" el_position="first last"]Tshepang Lerato Seisa is the co-founder of RLabs Botswana, a Social Enterprise focusing on grassroots ICT and entrepreneurship training for low income communities, where unemployment and substance abuse are rife.

"I have been fortunate and blessed enough to be raised by a mother who broke many glass ceilings and believed in my abilities when I didn't realise my own potential. I spent many years “running away” from STEM during my secondary and university years which is now surprisingly my passion."

• Tell us about RLABS Botswana. What inspired this, and what are some of the activities you run?

"In 2012, I was selected to be part of the Young African Leaders Initiative (YALI) where I had the opportunity to meet the founder of Reconstructed Living Labs (RLabs), Marlon Parker; a South African social entrepreneur and a World Economic Forum Young Global Leader. Inspired by his social enterprise using ICT to empower communities, Marlon and I co-founded RLabs Botswana.RLabs focuses on grassroots ICT and entrepreneurship training for low income communities, where unemployment and substance abuse are rife. Our most popular classes are the ‘Mom Tech’ classes where we teach poorly educated mothers how to use technology."

• Why is technology important to you?

"For social entrepreneurs, technology knows no income bracket or status. Once you break the knowledge and access barriers, it transforms the lives of communities as they are able to access a bigger pool of information and form connections they would not normally make in society. As cliché as it sounds, technology levels the playing field."

• How can tech innovation catalyze growth and productivity in Botswana?

"At RLabs we believe in innovation and not necessarily tech innovation. Innovation is about idea generation, how can we tap into innovative ideas to transform our communities and, more importantly, how we can restore hope into communities affected by high youth unemployment and substance abuse; two socio-economic factors that are now probably the biggest problems facing Botswana. Whilst Batswana are highly educated, our education is geared towards making us good employees and not necessarily good citizens of our communities. With innovation we can create avenues to generate enough income to acquire basic necessities."

• What are some of the challenges you have had to face as a social entrepreneur?

"I would say I have had to ‘un-learn’ a lot of misconceptions and self-entitlement about being an ‘entrepreneur’, the main being heavily relying on government support and uptake. The biggest mistake social entrepreneurs make is not constantly seeking new avenues of funding to keep our programmes going."

• What would you say are some of your strongest beliefs/thoughts about the scarcity of women in technology, especially in Botswana?

"Funny enough, there are many women in the STEM space in Botswana mainly due to the fact that we have benefited from free quality education. However many are unemployed and do not have the skills to become entrepreneurs. What we need is more women getting into the development space and actively seeking out opportunities for Venture Capital funding."[/spb_text_block]

Dr. Adeola Olubamiji makes history as the first African person to graduate with a PhD in Biomedical Engineering at the University of Saskatchewan

[sidebar_widget sidebar_id="sidebar-1" width="1/1" el_position="first last"] [spb_text_block pb_margin_bottom="no" pb_border_bottom="no" width="1/1" el_position="first last"]Dr. Adeola Olubamiji is a Nigerian Biomedical Engineer, and the lead Metallurgist/Material Engineer at Burloak Technologies, Canada's prime partner for highly engineered additive metal and plastic components for demanding applications.She is also the founder of the STEMHUB foundation, an initiative that showcases and teaches challenging STEM concepts through hands-on and fun-filled experimental activities. STEMHUB organises industrial tours for youth in Ontario’s black communities.

"Besides being a child hawker when I was about 10 years old and having two parents who had no education, life made me ‘THE LAST'”. I am the last of five children, and being last in a home with very little funding did not make me the "princess" like in other homes."

In June 2017, Adeola made history as the first African person to obtain a PhD in the field of Biomedical Engineering at 110-year-old University of Saskatchewan in Canada.

• What inspired you to pursue Biomedical Engineering? And why the switch to Material / Metallurgical Engineering?

"Several health impairments and issues of failed diagnosis that faced Nigeria and Nigerians were my motivation to pursue a degree in Biomedical Engineering. With a BSc in Physics with Electronics, several pathways were possible, including Biomedical Engineering. Some of the areas that I am currently experienced in are medical physics and imaging, clinical engineering, tissue engineering and regenerative medicine, material science and engineering, material research, and e-health and telemedicine. I am a Biomedical Engineer by training with majors in Physics and Imaging, and Material Science. Physics is the most fundamental of all sciences and engineering principles. Therefore, obtaining a BSc in Physics offered me the fundamentals needed to diversify into any branch of engineering. My Physics and Imaging majors provided me with roots in non-destructive testing (specifically radiography and computed tomography), while my Material Science major enabled me to explore conventional and novel manufacturing techniques."

• Tell us about your current job. What does it feel like being a female in a largely male dominated profession?

"I am currently the Lead Metallurgist / Material Engineer at Burloak Technologies (the advanced Additive Manufacturing division of Samuel Sons & Co) in Ontario, Canada. I am also a consultant and the founder of 3D-Tech Centrix, Ontario, Canada: A consulting firm specialising in the development of 3D-printing technology and related manufacturing solutions for use in different industries.I was raised alongside my 3 brothers who happened to be my first mentors. Therefore, I was a “Tom boy” and competition was the way of life. How you see this issue is up to you, half full or half empty. For instance, sexism and racism are real, but you can decide to use these to your advantage. Being a visible minority (female, black and young) is one of my many advantages in life, especially in engineering. As a black female, if you know your onions, you will stand out, become a change agent, and you will thrive."

• You were the first African person to graduate with a PhD in Biomedical Engineering from the University of Saskatchewan, Canada. How has this experience, and the challenges you’ve gone through in your career path, shaped you as an individual?

"First, this has gone into the history books for my unborn children and I am thankful to be their worthy role model in life and in death. When you are a trailblazer of innovation, there is no blueprint and mentorship, and you must keep explaining yourself as everyone thinks you have gone insane. In my case, it was expected that I should focus on oil and gas related fields to land jobs. But I saw beyond this early in life. I had an opportunity to intern at an Oil and Gas servicing company in Lagos during my BSc, but I knew that that was not my future. I was sure that I must proceed to focus on Computer Science or Biomedical Engineering as my Physics degree opened the doors for both. Despite its capability to bring us closer to huge healthcare-related innovations and inventions, Biomedical Engineering is just gaining traction within the African continent, and 3D-printing is just recently being talked about, especially in West Africa. I was featured as the 5th out of 150 black women making Canada better through my contributions to 3D printing and Biomedical Engineering by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, during the Canada at 150 celebrations.This journey has so far made me realize the urgent need for STEM advocacy and to further educate African children about what is available to them in this millennium aside the usual. Since parents can only offer advice based on their level of understanding, I am pushing to join hands with these parents in raising these children. My aim is to provide African children with role models in STEM that look like them and educate them about the opportunities STEM can offer them. As a result, I have recently founded STEMHUB foundation, an initiative that provides hands-on experiments, excursions to companies, mentorship and scholarship opportunities for African youth in Ontario, Canada. I want to raise an army of young African girls and boys who will bring STEM innovation to life."

• In our current world, would you say organisations/industries are more receptive to women in STEM?

"There are organisations such as the Society of Women Engineers that provide support and enable the advancement of our careers as women. I also believe that several organisations mention inclusion and diversity as part of their mandates. Since you can’t be loved by everyone, we must give life a fight and always ignore the background noise."

• In a perfect world, you go to school, graduate and get a job. Unfortunately, this isn’t always the case, especially for most young people in Nigeria. What piece of advice do you have for people in this position?

"Let’s talk about skill acquisition / mentorship problems here. Unfortunately, it has become evident that there is a disconnect between what is acquired in African universities and what is required in the work-force to launch your career. Therefore, most students graduate with good grades but lack the right practical skills required to land them the jobs of their dreams.  Mentorship is a key solution to this problem and I encourage our youth to stop looking for older and successful mentors and stop paying the money they don’t have to attend seminars by wealthy personalities, but rather seek mentorship from young averagely successful folks who are in the next phase that they aspire to get to. These young mentors will be able to provide the needed guidance and very accurate and timely information about the skills that are required for that moment in time to break into the industry.Self-education is also a solution. It has also been clarified that the critical-thinking, problem-solving and business development skills required to become entrepreneurs are not acquired in the four walls of our universities. Therefore, despite being full of ideas, graduates do not have the right knowledge on how to develop a business case to sustain and scale-up their start-ups. Although I obtained two Biomedical Engineering degrees, I was able to break into the Aerospace manufacturing space through self-education.  If you aspire to go far in life, you must invest in yourself through skill acquisition. Through online platforms such as Coursera, EDx, Udemy or even by watching YouTube videos, you can acquire the skills that you need to be attractive to employers, or educate yourself about artificial intelligence, business development, topology optimisation or whatever skill you need. Quit whining and start self-educating yourself as information is power."[/spb_text_block]

Nigerian Electrical Engineer, Dr. Ozak Esu, named the IET Young Woman Engineer of 2017 in the UK

[sidebar_widget sidebar_id="sidebar-1" width="1/1" el_position="first last"] [spb_text_block pb_margin_bottom="no" pb_border_bottom="no" width="1/1" el_position="first last"]Dr. Ozak Esu is an Electrical Engineer at Cundall, a multidisciplinary engineering consultancy in the UK. Her current role involves designing buildings’ electrical services.

"I grew up in Nigeria, the second of four children, and the first daughter of three. I would describe my upbringing as happy, disciplined and structured. It had to be, to keep my siblings and I engaged. Both of my parents worked full-time - my mum was an administrator in civil service, and my dad was a lecturer (Professor of Pedology). They both encouraged my siblings and I to excel and give our best in our education. Supplementary tutoring after school, and during school breaks were a common theme throughout each stage of our education."

Ozak completed her primary education at Hillcrest Junior Special Needs School, and secondary education at Access High Schools both in Calabar, Nigeria. She went on to complete her Accelerated Advanced Level examinations in Mathematics, Physics and Geography, at Oxbridge Tutorial College, Lagos, Nigeria. In 2008, she moved to the UK and completed her Bachelor’s degree in Electronic and Electrical Engineering with First Class Honours from Loughborough University. Subsequently, she was awarded a Loughborough University Research Studentship worth £54, 000 for a three-year period to pursue her PhD in the same field.

"Aged 20, I began my PhD in October 2011, within the areas of advanced signal processing, and wind energy. In my research, I proposed an autonomous low-cost condition monitoring system for wind turbine blades, to reduce downtime, operations, maintenance, and capital costs associated with wind energy projects. I passed my PhD in October 2015, and graduated in July 2016."

In 2017, Ozak was named on the "The Telegraph’s Top 50 Women in Engineering under 35" list, and as The Institute of Engineering and Technology's (IET) Young Woman Engineer of the Year.

• Did you always know you would be interested in pursuing Electronic and Electrical Engineering?

"No, I did not always know that I was going to pursue a career in Electronic and Electrical Engineering. I went through phases in my childhood. There was the phase where I wanted to be a Professional Athlete and Footballer because I was good at it and it was fun. In my next phase, I wanted to become a Pilot, so that I could travel and explore the world. I moved on to the idea of becoming a Medical Doctor / Surgeon so that I could save lives and help people. However, my phobia for seeing blood in large quantities quickly dismissed this ambition. Also, I struggled in the sciences, especially Chemistry. I found Chemistry particularly difficult, and it was no further help that I disliked my Chemistry teacher. I loved Mathematics and excelled in it easily, so I knew I would end up in a career that was calculation based. It was frequent power cuts which I experienced that made me decide to take a keen interest in Physics, and led to my ultimate decision to study Electronic and Electrical Engineering. It is my ambition to work with other engineers to address this issue in Nigeria."

• What is the most important project you have worked on, and why?

"I work at Cundall, a multi-disciplinary engineering consultancy within the built environment. I joined as a Graduate Engineer in 2015, while I was completing my PhD and I was promoted to Electrical Engineer in 2017. I have enjoyed every project I have been involved in and deem all thirty-eight of them to be important projects, so it is particularly difficult to choose the most important one. I design electrical services such as lighting, power, life safety systems, security and access control for new buildings, and I also survey existing buildings to ensure that the installed electrical services comply with regulations and standards. These buildings include schools, offices, apartments, retail outlets, leisure centres and data centres. I generally enjoy projects where I am the lead engineer, responsible for driving all aspects of the coordinated design. I also enjoy projects where the client is keen, and matches my level of enthusiasm for implementing sustainable practices such as reducing waste and energy consumption."

• What was it like finding industry experience after your PhD?

"As most international students will agree, it is extremely problematic to secure employment within the UK. It was very difficult for me back then in 2014 when I began applying and it still is for others, as international students require work permits / visa sponsorships to undertake employment in the UK. I kept hearing of, and reading about the huge demand for engineers which the UK was facing, so I found it frustrating that engineering companies were unwilling to give me an opportunity to demonstrate my competence, and enthusiasm to contribute to the industry solely because of the inconvenience of visa sponsorship. It also did not help matters that I was on the verge of completing a PhD without any industry experience. After a long trail of rejected and unsuccessful applications, I was given an opportunity by Cundall to demonstrate my competence at an assessment day, which I passed, and I was offered a position and visa sponsorship which I accepted."

• What do your family and friends think about your career? Are they supportive?

"My family and friends are overly supportive of my career as I am of theirs. 65% of my family and 90% of my friends are pursuing careers in STEM. My sister is a Chemical Engineer, and my brother and father are both scientists and researchers. I do know that they are all very proud of me and my achievements thus far in my career."

• What has been your greatest disappointment as an engineer? And what would you change about this?

"Fortunately, I have not experienced any personal disappointments in my career. It has been a fantastic journey so far which I am grateful for. However, I am disappointed that fewer young people are taking up engineering as a career, based on newly published statistics in the UK. I do what I can within my abilities to engage with pupils, through specially designed activities or by talking about the work I do with a view to inspire them to take an interest in STEM subjects, and hopefully pursue careers in engineering in the future. Another issue that disappoints me, is that there are not enough Returnship Programmes available for engineers who return from career breaks. With the accelerated pace, and advancements in technology within the industry, I sometimes worry about what it would be like for me in the future when I decide to take a career break. Would it be much easier than it is at present to get back into work, with the necessary support to update my skills?"

• As an engineer, what do you suggest can be done about Nigeria’s energy supply crisis?

"It is my opinion that the energy crisis in Nigeria is hampered by combinations of inadequate policies, financing strategies, infrastructure, and its management. The large population means that the demand for electricity significantly outweighs the supply, leading to low reliability. Financing within the sector is ambiguous, with generating and transmission companies selling electricity in US Dollars to distribution companies who then charge bills in Nigerian Naira. Forex (FX) fluctuations mean that the distribution companies are therefore always running at a loss. I believe over-dependence on crude oil needs to be scaled back, and there needs to be greater emphases and support for the uptake of renewable energy systems such as solar power, and energy from waste.The existing transmission infrastructure and grid systems need upgrading, and further investment. The government needs to increase its efforts towards decentralising energy within the country. This will encourage new entrants to the energy market, create good competition, and diversity, and will improve energy supply. There should also be incentives for private individuals willing to contribute electricity to the national grid."

• In 2017 you were named one of the top female UK engineers under 35, and as The Institution of Engineering and Technology's (IET) Young Woman Engineer of the Year. How did you make this happen? And what piece of advice would you give to young women aspiring to be engineers?

"I was nominated for The Telegraph’s Top 50 Women in Engineering under 35 lists and I put myself forward by applying for The Institution of Engineering and Technology (IET) Young Woman Engineer of the Year Award. My application was followed by a stellar endorsement letter, which secured me an interview spot which I successfully passed, and led to my receipt of the award in December 2017.If you are a young woman aspiring to be an engineer, I think that’s fantastic. Work hard to achieve success in your studies and don’t be put off by failure. Learn from your failures where they occur, and try not to repeat them.  Seek work experience opportunities in engineering, and speak to professionals within the industry you are interested in. Make sure you have fun exploring your interests, and don’t be afraid to put yourself forward for opportunities."[/spb_text_block]