Emily Swinburne, Mechanical Design Engineer

In celebration of International Day of Women and Girls in Science day on Feb 11 2018, we asked Emily Swinburne, Mechanical Design Engineer at Mecmesin about her career choice:

"As someone who has always been very good with numerical based subjects, a STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths) career was a logical choice. Engineering became a focus quite early on in my life after I found myself wondering how things work far more often than why. I was fortunate enough to have a family that actively encouraged my inquisitiveness, a primary school that sought to engage me intellectually far beyond the standard curriculum and, a very forward thinking all girls high school that placed a heavy emphasis on STEM subjects. The latter was greatly helped by its specialist status in engineering.

I recognise that despite my fortunate early experiences, the gender bias is still prominent in STEM fields. I studied on a vastly male dominated degree course and currently work in a male dominated department. However, the gap is closing and, more importantly, the attitude towards women in these fields is changing too.

At Mecmesin, I have been given the opportunity to work on a large number of projects in a very short span of time. The variety presented ensures no two days are the same and the company's use of both traditional machined solutions as well as 3D printed ones opens up design approaches that I would have never considered during my time at university."