EstherEsther followed her love of maths – thanks to a brilliant teacher in secondary school, combined with the inspiration from her grandfather – an architect and an industrial designer, into a career in mechanical engineering and industrial design, and then into academic life.

Industrial expertise

She is probably our member of staff with the most industrial engineering experience — from concept generation stage through to high volume manufacture. “I have over 10 years’ experience in a variety of industries, which not many people know about. I always knew I wanted to be an academic as I love teaching, but I thought that I should practice engineering before I taught it.”

I wanted to be a medical doctor; however, I eventually realised I was more interested in the instruments and machines they use!"

Esther is a Principal Teaching Fellow responsible for the essential professional engineering skills strand of our undergraduate courses. “Ensuring our students are ready for whichever path they choose after graduation. I teach engineering design, project management, look after the third year industrial placements from an academic standpoint, and supervise final year project.”

As Senior Tutor to more than 600 undergraduate students here in Electrical Engineering, Esther plays another vital part in nurturing our young engineers, and in 2017 received a ‘President’s Award for Excellence’ for her exceptional contributions towards a supportive learning environment.

To help make engineering more diverse and inclusive Esther would like to see more female role models, flexibility, and more focus on different skill sets which engineers need alongside their technical knowledge. “Other skills such as teamwork, managing projects and teams, negotiating, budgeting and more. Employers value these skills as much as, if not more than, the technical ones. When a student graduates, the technical competence is assumed; it is all the other soft skills that will make a candidate stand out.”