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Helena Livesey

    • About Me

      I'm a mechanical engineer ⚙🔧 who loves music 🎸 and pizza 🍕

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      I am a mechanical design engineer; I design tools for robots to use in fusion reactors.

      I am from Manchester, did my mechanical engineering degree in Sheffield and now I live in Oxfordshire. I chose to do engineering because I really liked maths at school but wanted to do something practical that would allow me to have make positive impact in the world.

      In my spare time, I like to go to music events and play piano. I also love to read, particularly Harry Potter. I play ultimate frisbee too.

    • My pronouns are

      she/her

    • My Work

      I design tools for robots to fix fusion reactors

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      I design all sorts of different tools that can be used by robots to maintain and repair fusion reactors.

      One of the most common things I work on is pipe joining, mostly by welding. Lots of industries weld things together but not many have the challenges we have in fusion. First it has to be done remotely rather than the welder being able to be hands on which makes everything more complicated! A lot of the welds also tend to be in very difficult to reach places with not a lot of space. On top of that we have radiation to deal with too.

       

    • My Typical Day: I wake up, have breakfast and get the train to work. I arrive at about 8.30 am and from that point everyday is different! I do lots of different roles during a project. Sometimes I'm writing reports, other times I am hands on doing testing, often I have to do calculations and I also do lots of designing.

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      I do lots of different things at work and everyday is different. Some of the different things I do;

      • Report writing – I have to write lots of technical reports so other people know what we’ve been doing
      • Design work – Sometimes I do early designs that won’t be built straight away but most often I design something we will build and test so every detail has to be thought out.
      • Calculations – When we’ve come up with a design we can use calculations to check if it will work even before we build it. We can do our sums by hand or sometimes using a computer. If you wonder what you’ll ever use trigonometry for, I use it all the time to check the forces on my designs!
      • Testing – This is the most fun bit for me! After all the hard design work we get our tools built and we test them out to see how well they work and what we can improve.
      • Presentations – Talking about our work is really important to help other engineers in fusion working on similar things so I do lots of presentations.

    • What I'd do with the money

      I'd use it to travel to other communities to talk about fusion.

    Curriculum Vitae

    • Education:

      I went to Loreto school in Manchester and then went to the University of Sheffield

    • Qualifications:

      I got GCSEs, all the normal ones plus Spanish, Music and triple science. I did my A-levels in Maths, Further Maths and Physics then went to do a masters in Mechanical Engineering

    • Work History:

      My first job was as a barista at Costa coffee while I was in school. While I was at university I was an ambassador for engineering, working at open days and other outreach events. Finally, I started at UKAEA after my degree on the graduate scheme in 2017 and have been here ever since!

    • Current Job:

      Mechanical Design Engineer at UKAEA/RACE

    • Employer:

      I work for the UK Atomic Energy Authority (UKAEA). We are part of the government and our aim is to make fusion energy a reality so that it can actually power your home!

      I specifically work in one part of UKAEA called RACE or Remote Application in Challenging Environment. Our work is all about doing tasks ‘remotely’ which means that the humans doing the work are really far away from the actual place of work, usually so that they stay safe. Like in fusion, our reactors are radioactive so it’s not safe for humans. We use robots to do all our maintenance tasks which is a really interesting challenge!

    • My Interview

      • How would you describe yourself in 3 words?

        Curious fusion engineer

        What's the best thing you've done in your career?

        I am our space robotics expert so I got to give Tim Peake a tour of our facilities!

        What or who inspired you to follow your career?

        Engineering appealed to me because it used maths (which was all I could do at school) but in a practical way so that I could be part of projects that will change the world.

        What was your favourite subject at school?

        Maths

        What did you want to be after you left school?

        I had no idea! I just took it one step at a time, choosing things that I liked and now I get to do a really interesting job and play with robots! Something I never would have thought of leaving school.

        Were you ever in trouble at school?

        Not really, there were definitely a few late homeworks though!

        If you weren't doing this job, what would you choose instead?

        I'd run a music venue, putting on live gigs and showcasing cool bands.

        Who is your favourite singer or band?

        I changes daily! Maybe Oasis, or the Spice Girls or Aretha Franklin.

        What's your favourite food?

        PIZZA

        What is the most fun thing you've done?

        At university, I took part in a project to put a solar telescope on a balloon that went into the stratosphere. The telescope didn't work to well but it was really cool to get to go to Sweden and see the launch!

        If you had 3 wishes for yourself what would they be? - be honest!

        Unlimited pizza so I never have to cook again, no more climate change and no more poverty

        Tell us a joke.

        Why did the scarecrow win a Nobel Prize? ...Because they were outstanding in their field!

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