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Shaina Dinsdale

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Q&A WITH EngHERO: Shaina Dinsdale

Shaina is an amazing engineer who has traveled the world and is full of wisdom. She has been in many occupations, in diverse regions of the world in search of the perfect occupation to satisfy her happiness, success and her values. Shaina Dinsdale

Q: What’s one thing you wish you knew about engineering back when you were in high school?

I wish I knew what it was all about. I have three older brothers who are all in engineering and I thought it was about building cars and airplanes. When I finally got around to doing it I loved it. The degree didn’t mean that now I’m certified to build a car, in fact and engineering degree could be applied in many different ways. My degree is what has helped me get to where I am today, it helped me build my future.

Q: What’s your proudest accomplishment as an engineer?

Actually, I have two. Oddly enough, graduating was a very proud moment. It took me a long time to understand that I was truly capable of earning the degree. I always had good marks and loved the classes but somehow never believed in myself. Graduating was the proof I needed and things came easily after that. A proud moment working as an engineer is definitely some of my recent work in Kenya. It was great because I was there as a consultant but my degree in chemical engineering was very useful to the team. I got to do both business and engineering and was such a strong contributor because of it.

Q: Tell me about a time in your career when your work has been about discovery or curiosity?

I think it was right when I got out of school. I moved to Switzerland and did research for a Chemical Mixing Company creating a design equation for their sales team. It took me hours of lab work to discover the best way to model what happens when two gasses pass through their static mixers.

Q: What are you doing these days?

I’m currently working as a consultant helping companies manage projects when they don’t have the capacity to do it in house. I would have to say determination and a lot of random events brought me here. I have learned that people you meet early on in your career are very important. You should never burn a bridge because at eventually you will need to cross it. I made many contacts in the first years of my career, which continues to help me today.

When I started out I wanted to move to Europe. I thought I would stay there for 5 years and be an engineer. But life takes to down different paths and now, I have worked in Switzerland, Canada, Kenya, and am currently in New York. Who knows where things will take me next.

Q: Do you feel your work contributes to society? How so?

Yes. As an engineer it always did, I was building things, improving how things worked or were made, was always working on something current. Now that I am more removed from engineering the contribution feels a little less direct.

Q: Why do we need more female engineers?

More female engineers will bring diversity into the engineering field. Diversity is great. It helps make better decisions and women should most certainly be part of those better decisions. We need more women to understand what engineering is about and know that they are capable of it. I think they need to know what a degree could do for them. If women know what it is about then perhaps we will see a change in statistics. Diversity helps make better decisions and women should most certainly be part of those better decisions.

Q: What advice would you give to someone interested in the field of Engineering?

Do your research and go for it! And to women who like chemistry I would urge them to explore chemical engineering. If you like biology, make sure you look at biomedical engineering…etc.

Shaina-Dinsdale-Journey-May

Laura Paul

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Q&A WITH EngHERO: Laura Paul

Laura Paul is a field engineer, and sustainability analyst working forLaura Paul Morrison Hershfield. Every day, Laura helps minimize the negative impacts buildings have on the environment and optimize the positive ones.

Q: What’s one thing you wish you knew about engineering back when you were in high school?

There are so many related fields you can work it rather than just typical design streams. There are lots of social sides to Engineering as well, rather than just purely technical work.

Q: What’s your proudest accomplishment as an engineer?

One of my proudest moments as an Engineer was getting my iron ring presented to me by my Grandfather, Malcolm Paul, who also was a Civil Engineer. The iron ring is worn by Engineers as a reminder of the ethical obligations associated with our work.

Q: Tell me about a time in your career when your work has been about discovery or curiosity?

When I first go out on a construction site as field engineer it was a time when everything was new, and I was learning a huge amount. I was able to take the theory I learned in school and put it into practice. I learned a lot about materials, and constructability, and how each individual component worked with others in a system. I would highly suggest for all Engineers to have experience in the field on a construction site.

Q: What are you doing these days?

Sustainability Analyst, Morrison Hershfield, I work doing LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) consultancy and assessments, which includes helping designers reducing energy and water, choose less impactful materials, and improve the indoor environment for occupants (such as access to daylight and views).

I got here through experience on LEED projects, obtaining LEED Accredited Professional (LEED AP) accreditation with specialties in: Building Design and Construction, Existing Building Operations and Maintenance, and Neighbourhood Design

I didn’t really know where I was going when I started, but I was hired by a General Contractor, so if I hadn’t learned more about sustainability I likely would have been headed towards general Project Management on Building projects.

Q: Do you feel your work contributes to society? How so?

Absolutely. I think that the buildings we live and work in affect us immensely – from the way we feel, to how healthy we are, to how they impact nature and the environment. Working as a Sustainable Building Specialist allows me to minimize the negative impacts buildings have and optimize the positive ones.

Q: Why do we need more female engineers?

I think the perspective of women is unique from the perspective of men (not better or worse, just different) – and encouraging many different perspectives always enhances decision making.

Q: What does a typical day on the job look like?

A typical day on the job involves working and coordinating with a team.

Abigail Hutty

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Q&A WITH EngHERO: Abigail Hutty

Abbie Hutty is a Spacecraft Structures Engineer at Airbus Defense and Space. She helped create the ExoMars rover , which is the Mars Rover prototype, and her job involves making technical decisions about the design development on the rover structure. She is an artist and an engineer and she won the IET Young Woman Engineer of the Year 2013.

Q: What’s one thing you wish you knew about engineering back when you were in high school?

That engineering is part of pretty much everything in our daily lives, and how high tech and cutting edge technology is always developed by a team of engineers! When I was at high school I shared the common misconception that “Engineers” were the people that came out to fix your home appliances in their overalls- I didn’t realize it included the design and development side too.

Q: What’s your proudest accomplishment as an engineer?

There are satellites in orbit with bits on them designed by me! That’s a pretty great feeling. You can see satellites sometimes with the naked eye, when the sun has set on Earth but is still shining on thing up in orbit- as they flash in the light from the sun they look like shooting stars. It’s great to go out and look up and know that something on that “shooting star” was once just an idea in your mind, that you developed and perfected, had made, and is now functioning all that way away!

Q: Tell me about a time in your career when your work has been about discovery or curiosity?

A lot of Airbus’ Science focused space missions are all about curiosity and discovery- exploring new worlds, imaging other planets, learning about our solar system, our galaxy, our universe. On a personal level though, the challenge of having to design such missions is so great that I am constantly having to learn about new things- for example today it was how the dust environment on Mars abrades the Materials we are designing our rover out of. You have to stay curious, and love learning new things and finding out about stuff like that.

Q: What are you doing these days?

I am a Spacecraft Structures Engineer at Airbus Defence and Space. My project is the ExoMars Rover- which means I am responsible for making sure the design is strong enough to withstand the launch, entry, descent and landing, and driving around on the surface, whilst also fulfilling all the secondary requirements that the structure fulfils- like thermal insulation, bio-containment, electrical grounding, and so on.

Q: Do you feel your work contributes to society? How so?

My work is helping to further mankind’s understanding of the Universe- so at the highest level, the findings from our missions contribute to society. On a more tangible level, though, discoveries and developments made in the Space industry to meet the unusual requirements up there, often then our found to have uses down on earth- like Teflon, which is now used on non-stick pans- that was developed as a Space material. You never know how something that you develop will one day be used.

Q: Why do we need more female engineers?

We need more engineers in general- a lot of the world’s biggest problems need engineers to fix them- power production, a growing population, an ageing population. Engineers, solve problems, and improve things. We don’t have enough engineers qualifying now to meet the future demand- so we need to increase the numbers entering the profession. If we aren’t targeting females as well as males we are missing out on half our potential recruits!

Q: What initially intrigued you to go into engineering?

I was first inspired to consider engineering when I saw a European Mars mission on the news, and saw that British engineers were working on parts of it. Knowing that such exciting projects were going on in the UK was a real light bulb moment for me- I had no idea. We always hear that high tech industries in the US or China are making these big leaps forward- but is going on all over the world, just some nations are less good at publicising their successes. Now I work on a Mars Mission- the very thing that inspired me to consider engineering in the first place!

Q: How did your project concerning the ExoMars Rover come about? What initiated this project? What new information do engineers and scientists plan to gain from this project?

ExoMars is a European Space agency mission- and its primary goal is to search for signs of life, past or present, on Mars. We have a large drill on board that can drill down up to 2m below the Martian surface, to where there is both protection from the harsh radiation environment at the surface, and where there are still water ice deposits. If life still exists on Mars, that’s where we expect to find it! No rover mission has ever had the capability before to take anything other than surface samples- so this is a really exciting part of the mission. We could be answering the question of whether we are alone in the Universe, or whether there is life right here in our own solar system- that would be a huge discovery.

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Check out Abigail on youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=81J40tcMDX4

Ann Makosinski

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Q&A WITH EngHERO: Ann Makosinski

Ann Makosinski is an amazing young talented student who contributed in the field of engineering by creating a power-less battery using the human hand. She greatly impacted society positively and helped others without electricity see in the dark.

Q: What’s your proudest accomplishment?

Bringing awareness to people who have no electricity, it’s nice to help kids in counties without power.

Q: Tell me about a time in your career when your work has been about discovery or curiosity?

One of the times when curiosity came was when I was small and asking what is this? about everything around me. And trying to find out what it is like for example; bugs, questioning everything about me when I was small helped me along the way for a curious path into engineering in the future.

Q: What’s your job now (title, company, description)? How did you get there (education, internships, mentors, other experiences)? Where did you think you were going when you started out?

I’m in high school, grade 11. I work at Kumon and have been attending since I was grade 3. I help kids read and write. My parents told me to join but later on, they (Kumon) offered me a job there. I wasn’t that smart when I was young so I didn’t know what to do, later my parents helped me with my studies by placing me there, it helped me a lot.

Q: Do you feel your work/invention contributes to society? How so?

Well, I hope my invention helps the society. I want to help others see in the night especially if they don’t have electricity. I’m really looking forward for my invention in the future to be a useful device.

Q: Why do we need more female engineers?

We need more female engineer because females have bright ideas as men, and also the media is causing more stereotypes, so we really need to get the word out there and that woman have good ideas. Not all woman have to become for example housekeepers (not that they’re bad) ,there are other opportunities out there for them.

Q: Why did you want to contribute in the field of engineering?

I just wanted to explore a bit. For example like my invention, I wanted to see if humans can create battery-less flash light. I was just interested.

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Want to learn more about Ann’s invention? Check out her CBC article here!