In celebration of this year’s International Women in Engineering Day we’re taking a closer look at just some of the outstanding women within the Faculty of Science & Engineering:
Professor Serena Margadonna
Serena has been named as one of this year’s Top 50 Women in Engineering! The annual WE50 awards take place on International Women in Engineering Day and celebrate the best, brightest and bravest women in engineering.
Her research focuses on developing materials and processes for the sustainable manufacturing and recycling of secondary batteries. Her research philosophy is based on a ground-up approach, where all energy storage components (material, processes, management) are conceptualised, designed and developed from incept within a circular economy framework, ensuring optimum use of resources, re-use and recyclability of its components.
Dr Cinzia Giannetti
Cinzia has worked collaboratively with a number of large manufacturer’s within the UK. Through her Fellowship programme she pioneered the application of Deep Learning to Smart Factories. Her research developments have been used to optimise manufacturing processes, enabling partner organisations to reduce inefficiencies and waste and therefore leading to more sustainable processes.
Cinzia was recently named as one of the Top 100 Women in Engineering by the Women’s Engineering Society (WES)!
Caitlin McCall
The pandemic highlighted the importance of engineers and their role in keeping us safe, providing solutions throughout the unprecedented global health crisis of COVID-19.
Inspired by the lack of personal protective equipment (PPE), Caitlin McCall, an engineering doctoral student, used her expertise in manufacturing to counteract this shortfall throughout the pandemic.
Along with colleagues from the Faculty of Science & Engineering, Caitlin designed, manufactured, and distributed face essential visors. In just three months, the visor prototype was CE marked and approved by the NHS, ensuring the safety of hundreds of key workers in South Wales.
Caitlin McCall was also named one of 2021’s Top 50 Women in Engineering (WE50) by the Women’s Engineering Society (WES). Caitlin is part of the Materials and Manufacturing Academy (M2A) which provides industry-led postgraduate research training at the Bay Campus.
Dr Sarah-Jane Potts
Sarah-Jane has continually promoted materials science over the years with workshops, talks and competitions. Over lockdown, lots of students struggled terribly with home schooling. After speaking to parents having difficulties motivating their children, Sarah-Jane developed a programme of online events available both live and on YouTube. Students could follow along at home, recreating the experiment. With workshops such as Engineering for the Apocalypse and Fascinating Fluids around the Home, Sarah-Jane translated materials science into an activity that captured students’ imagination. Sarah-Jane was recently awarded Highly Commended as Most Inspirational STEM ambassador Wales.
Sarah-Jane carefully constructs her outreach activities, providing a clear link between science at school and how it relates to the bigger picture. With a pathway from outreach to global issues (e.g. build your own penny battery workshop paired with a grid scale energy talk), students can see how they can apply materials science to areas they are passionate about.
Sarah-Jane Potts recently won the Robert Perrin Outreach Award from the Institute of Materials, Minerals & Mining (IOM3). The Robert Perrin Award is presented for outstanding and sustained commitment to outreach activity covering Materials Science and Technology, targeted at 11-19 year old students.
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