Peterborough STEM Festival honours local engineers on International Women in Engineering Day

Sunday is International Women in Engineering Day (INWED), and Peterborough STEM Festival is celebrating the achievements of local women engineers.
By The Newsroom
Published 20th Jun 2019, 16:44 BST
Liz Randell, Winning the STEM award at the Peterborough Women Leaders awardsLiz Randell, Winning the STEM award at the Peterborough Women Leaders awards
Liz Randell, Winning the STEM award at the Peterborough Women Leaders awards

INWED19, coordinated by the Women’s Engineering Society (WES), is a network of women engineers, scientists, and technologists in the UK, pursuing a vision of a better world. WES members work together to empower women to achieve their potential as scientists, engineers, and leaders.

This year, the Women’s Engineering Society is celebrating its centenary and looking at the future of engineering for all. As such, it has chosen the theme #TransformTheFuture for this year’s International Women in Engineering Day. The celebratory day is applauded by Peterborough STEM Festival who aim to inspire girls and young women into STEM careers in the future.

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Liz Randell, Peterborough STEM Festival Organiser and winner of the Peterborough Women Leader’s STEM award 2018, says, “We’re so happy to be celebrating and supporting INWED this year. Events like INWED and Peterborough STEM Festival that help promote science, technology, engineering and mathematics are so important in inspiring young women into STEM careers including all forms of engineering. Free to attend, our festival days are always inclusive and accessible to all.”

Beki Sellick and some of the Peru Rail StaffBeki Sellick and some of the Peru Rail Staff
Beki Sellick and some of the Peru Rail Staff

According to EngineeringUK, the UK has the lowest percentage of female engineering professionals in Europe, at less than 10%, while Latvia, Bulgaria & Cyprus lead with nearly 30%. Due to statistics like this, Peterborough STEM Festival continues to encourage children, particularly girls, to look into and pursue STEM subjects through fun and inspirational activities to celebrate and experience the wonders of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics.

Beki Sellick MEng CEng FIMechE FIET, Director of Sellick Rail, had this advice for girls and young women who are interested in becoming engineers: “Love your maths and physics. Try and get out to meet some engineers (in local companies, online and at STEM festivals!) and find out about the variety of stuff they do and most importantly, have a go - grow your confidence that you can do engineering too”