Birmingham Engineer crowned Young Woman Engineer of the Year

  Posted by: electrical-poster      8th December 2017

Electrical Engineer Dr Ozak Esu has been named the Institution of Engineering and Technology’s (IET) Young Woman Engineer of the Year.

Twenty-six year old Ozak, who is an electrical engineer at Cundall, was presented with the prestigious award at the IET Young Woman Engineer of the Year awards ceremony in central London last night.

On winning, Ozak said: “It feels fantastic – I am truly honoured to receive the Award. I hope to use this platform to promote engineering as an exciting and creative career choice for young people.”

The IET Young Woman Engineer of the Year Awards celebrate women working in modern engineering – and aim to help change the perception that engineering is predominantly a career for men by banishing outdated engineering stereotypes of hard hats and greasy pipes.

As well as highlighting female engineering talent, the IET Young Woman Engineer of the Year Awards seek to find female role models who can help address the UK science and engineering skills crisis by promoting engineering careers to more girls and women. Just over one in ten (11%) of the UK engineering and technical workforce is female (source: 2017 IET Skills Survey).

Other winners of the night included Jamie D’Ath, who won the Mary George Memorial Prize for Apprentices, and Dr Larissa Suzuki, who won the Women’s Engineering Society (WES) prize.

Jo Foster, IET Diversity and Inclusion Manager, said: “I’d like to congratulate our fantastic winners and finalists of this year’s Awards. They are a real credit to the engineering profession and will make excellent role models to young girls who might be thinking about a career in engineering and technology.

“It’s vital we champion engineering careers to the next generation – it’s a diverse, creative and exciting career, which offers the opportunity to do something life – or even – world changing.”

To celebrate the Awards, which marked their 40th anniversary this year, the IET delved into the perceptions of a ‘typical engineer’ and found that the stereotype of an engineer is alive and well amongst school children and their parents.

To dispel these engrained ideas of what a typical engineer ‘looks like’, the IET launched a campaign to showcase engineering in a completely different light, dramatically highlighting the diverse career opportunities available in the industry through stunning and unexpected imagery.

The IET commissioned Rankin Studios, renowned for photographing high profile individuals from Kate Moss and Madonna to The Queen, to style and shoot this year’s award finalists as well as previous affiliates in a series of dramatic and thought provoking images. Dubbed ‘Portrait of an Engineer’, the series was shot by award-winning photographer and Rankin protégé Vicky Lawton.

To find out more information, please visit the IET YWE website.