UKESF successfully getting ‘Girls into Electronics’

Hosted by Royal Holloway, University of London, and run in conjunction with The Smallpeice Trust, the UKESF’s first ‘Girls into Electronics’ course has been a tremendous success. Over three days, 24 girls aged 14–16 had the opportunity to experience hands-on electronics in a laboratory, attend lectures, meet graduate engineers and develop professional skills – getting a first taste of university life while finding out what Electronic Engineering is all about.

80 girls from The Smallpeice Trust’s ‘Girls into Physics’ course joined those from ‘Girls into Electronics’ on 9^th July for UKESF CEO Stew Edmondson’s talk, ‘Opportunities and Careers in the Electronics Sector’. Also speaking were Leesa Kingman (Network Manager, NMI and Power Electronics) and UKESF Scholars Lauren and Megan, who shared their experiences studying and working in Electronics.

Following the talks, all 104 students attended the networking with companies session in the foyer of Royal Holloway’s new Beatrice Shilling Building, the state-of-the-art home of the Department of Electronic Engineering. Eleven of the UKESF’s Company Partners supported the hugely successful event, with feedback including: “Students were amazing and full of confidence”, “Lots of insightful questions” and “Great to have so many interested young people”.

Anne McAleer, Director, Intellectual Properties, IDEX Biometrics, said, “IDEX Biometrics was very pleased to support the Girls into Electronics 2019 event. My colleague and I met a fantastic crowd of young women who were enthusiastic, smart and incredibly confident. They really grilled us with probing questions about how our fingerprint sensors worked and they were excited to see our demonstrations of how biometric technology will be applied in smart cards. It was great to be involved and I hope we inspired them to consider a career in electronics.”

Stew Edmondson, CEO, UKESF, said, “We were delighted to work with Royal Holloway, University of London, and to support the “Girls into Electronics” course. We want to ensure that everyone has the opportunity to explore their own interests and talents, unencumbered by society’s expectations of them.”

Prof David Howard, Head of Department of Electronic Engineering, Royal Holloway, University of London, said, “It has been a pleasure to host the event here at Royal Holloway and I look forward to future years.”

Many thanks to all the companies who came along: AWE, Beko, IDEX Biometrics, ITDev, Meggitt Avionics, Moortec (now part of Synopsys), onsemi, Renishaw, STFC, Swindon Silicon Systems and vivaMOS (now acquired by Nordson). Thanks as well to Leesa, Lauren and Megan.

---