Mon, 04 July, 2022
Now in its 9th year, the annual International Women in Engineering Day (#INWED22) is a unique platform that plays a vital role in encouraging young women and girls to take up careers in engineering, and gives a profile to women engineers around the world who are still hugely under-represented in their professions.
In support of this year’s INWED22 on 23 June, TWI’s Tipper Group arranged two events for TWI staff; a panel discussion highlighting some of the valuable contributions made by women engineers working in TWI’s overseas offices, and an interview with engineer Claire Kimpton, Vice-Chair of the Council and Chair of the Professional Board for TWI. The aim was for personnel across TWI’s UK regions and international offices, to come together, to celebrate some of the great achievements of women in engineering and get involved in the conversation.
The Tipper Group was established in 2016 by staff within TWI. Its purpose is to support and promote an inclusive culture within the organisations that inspires, attracts and supports the recruitment and career development of individuals irrespective of their gender, ethnicity, age, sexuality, beliefs, (dis)abilities and socio-economic background.
The first event was a webinar format panel discussion featuring Nursyazana Shahiruddin, Business Development Manager of TWI South East Asia, Ms Manickavalli, Manager – eLearning, TWI India and Julie Raju, Project Engineer for TWI Middle East, UAE. During the interactive session, each of the panel members shared some of the technologies they have worked on, the contributions they are making to engineering and the advice they would give to female engineers of the future, while TWI staff put forward lots of questions to the speakers.
Later in the day, TWI staff gathered together online again to hear from Claire Kimpton, whose work in her impressive career to date has centred on welding within the power generation and nuclear industries. Since joining the UK Atomic Energy Authority (UKAEA) as a welding specialist in November 2021, Claire now acts as welding technical authority for the UKAEA and is involved with various programmes focusing on the development of welding needs for experimental and prototype fusion reactors. She is also passionate about promoting STEM for young people and developing careers in engineering.
Having originally completed an undergraduate degree in metallurgy and a PhD in materials science at the University of Birmingham, Claire joined Doosan Babcock and then spent the next 12 years managing and controlling a range of welding activities across sites in the UK, Europe and the Middle East in the energy, nuclear and thermal power, petrochemical and process industries. In addition, she also had responsibility for running a number R&D projects developing novel solutions to bespoke welding problems for clients.
Claire gave an insightful presentation on her career and experiences as a woman forging a successful career in engineering, and answered many questions from TWI’s staff.
Kamer Tuncbilek, Chair of the Tipper Group said, “International Women In Engineering Day is an important annual platform through which TWI and its staff can help to raise awareness of the vital role women play in the engineering industry.” She added, “This year, I would particularly like to thank our speakers Nursyazana Shahiruddin, Ms Manickavalli and Julie Raju of TWI, and Claire Climpton of the UKAE for telling us their thought provoking and inspiring stories as women working in engineering.”