‘Engineering Our Future’ Conference Report

On Thursday 7 February, 6 girls from Glenlola (Jan Montgomery, Naomi Moore, Katie Lawther, Chloe Brown, Rachael Shortt and Tori Browne) all attended the ‘Engineering Our Future XI’ conference at Methodist College Belfast.

The conference lasted all day and all the girls would agree that it was a day well spent, and not just because we got a day out of school.

In the morning we heard from Professor David Nash from the University of Strathclyde. This talk was very inspirational yet still gave us a realistic and honest insight into the world of engineering.  Professor Nash had three mini-quizzes interspersed amongst his presentation and Katie Lawther managed to win a £20 voucher!

After a short tea break we heard from three engineering graduates, two from Queen’s and one from University of Ulster.  Hearing from these three young people gave us prospective students a view of what our lives as engineering graduates could be in a few years time. I must admit their lifestyle seemed appealing, with each of them either having jobs offers before graduating or being given grants to continue studying.

We then got a chance to see an interviewing session with various University representatives from Universities such as: University College Dublin, University of Edinburgh and University of Leeds to name but a few.  Each representative was asked about various aspects of their engineering departments, this gave us a great insight into what the different universities had to offer.

After a rather enjoyable lunch break we set off to various site visits. Our site visit was to the University of Ulster, here was saw the FireSERT, a facility built for engineering research and technology with regard to fire.  We were shown around by Professor Faris Ali.  This gave us the opportunity to see the practical side of an engineering degree, which was much different than any of us had imagined.

Overall the day was an excellent source of information with regard to studying engineering at University and also being in the engineering profession.  I would recommend the day to any girl who is seriously considering engineering as a career.

 

Tori Browne 13A