The School of Science & Technology’s Athena Swan Lecture was delivered this year by Professor Dame Helen Atkinson, Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering.
By Dr Shamim Quadir (Senior Communications Officer), Published
Wednesday 13 November was National Engineering Day, which is led by the Royal Academy of Engineering.
The theme this year was: "engineering role models".
According to the Academy, of today’s engineering workforce, only 15.7% are women and 11.4% are from minority ethnic backgrounds.
Statistics that must change if we are to create a better and more equitable future for all, with the engineering profession needing to recruit and support engineers from all sections of society. Professor Dame Helen Atkinson , DBE, FREng, DL, is a Fellow of the Academy, the highest honour for an engineer in the UK, and currently Pro-Vice-Chancellor of the School of Aerospace, at Cranfield University.
The School of Science & Technology, City St George’s, University of London, was delighted to welcome Professor Atkinson to deliver its Athena Swan Lecture this year, entitled: Tomorrow’s Engineering Research Challenges.
Gallery
Her lecture took its name from the major consultation she co-chaired for the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC), the report of which she discussed during the lecture.
Professor Sanowar Khan, Associate Dean for Student and Staff Experience at the School, opened the event and Professor Atkinson was introduced by Professor Juliet John, Vice President (Education), City St George’s.
Professor Atkinson began her talk by covering some fascinating aspects of Cranfield University: its sole focus on postgraduate education, its on-campus airport, its own aircraft, pilots and aircraft controllers, and the fact that its pilots come under her jurisdiction, which came as a surprise to her when she joined the institution in 2017.
She then moved on to showcase and provide insights into the EPSRC report:
“Tomorrow’s Engineering Research Challenges: Visions from the UK Research Community.”
Which summarises the work and findings of the UK-wide engagement activity, that concluded in 2022, and aimed to: identify the most important challenges that face engineers over the next 10 to 15 years, and explore the creative engineering research that is needed to tackle these challenges.
In series, she provided her insight into the six high level priorities for engineering in the report, including:
- Promoting inclusive engineering outcomes for all with more diverse input
- Inspiring the next generation.
Inclusive engineering
She stressed the importance of ‘inclusive engineering’, which she reminded is not, and is completely distinct from, the term ‘Equality, Diversity and Inclusion’ (EDI). It is specific in that it means no matter your background, social class, or where you live in the world, the output of any system that is inclusively engineered must work for you, and not just a small proportion of world society.
She brought this concept to life with sharing some thought-provoking, and current examples of non-inclusive engineering.
The first concerned the widely used medical technology of ‘pulse oximetry’ that many of us have been hooked up to in healthcare settings to measure our blood oxygen levels.
Professor Atkinson said:
Her comment relates to the recent independent review which found that pulse oximetry devices overestimate blood oxygen levels in people with darker skin tones, which has been linked in the US at least, to worse healthcare outcomes for Black as compared to White patients. This issue could have been resolved far sooner if during the development the technology, Black and Asian participants had been included.
She also remarked on the recent experience of 11-time Paralympic champion, Baroness Tanni-Gray Thompson, who as a wheelchair user, had said she had been forced to ‘crawl off’ a train at King’s Cross station after being made to wait 20 minutes at the platform for assistance to disembark her train.
She added:
Inspiring the next generation
She finished her talk by highlighting the work of ‘This is Engineering’, a Royal Academy of Engineering campaign which she chaired for six years from its inception, and which aims to encourage more young people to consider engineering as a career.
Professor Atkinson reminded her audience not to stereotype what sort of people become engineers, or what engineering looks like, before sharing the latest videos from the campaign, which have received 60 million views to date.
She said of the campaign:
Professor Atkinson advised that the videos are a great tool for Science Technology Engineering Mathematics (STEM) outreach workers, and are aimed at 15 to 17 year olds.
A promising sign is that the viewing demographic appears to be split relatively evenly between girls and boys – which is a promising sign for helping to reduce a gender gap in the engineering workforce of our future.
Following Professor Atkinson's lecture, Professor Rajkumar Roy, Executive Dean of the School of Science & Technology, opened the event to a wide range of questions from the audience, which were expertly fielded.
Dr Jessica Jones Nielsen, Assistant Vice President (EDI - Race Equality), concluded the event with words of thank you to Professor Atkinson on behalf of City St George's University of London.
Athena Swan Charter
The School uses the Athena Swan charter as a framework to progress gender equality for all. You can find out more on its dedicated webpage.
The webpage also contains links to a recording of our Athena Swan Lecture 2023, and a highlight presentation of its Equality Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) activity for 2023, delivered by Associate Dean of the School, Professor Sanowar Khan, who chairs our EDI Committee.
Find out more
Visit the Royal Academy of Engineering website to find out more about National Engineering Day, 2024.
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