Profile

I live in Bristol with my fiancé. We are hoping to adopt a cat (or two) soon to join out family. I love all things chocolate and long walks outdoors, traipsing across the UK’s beautiful countryside whatever the weather!

I work as an Engineering Consultant for a small company. This means that I go in to lots of bigger companies to help them do things which they might be finding difficult. Here are some examples of things I have done over the past 3 years:

1. I have helped an electricity company find ways to keep their power stations running smoothly to help keep the lights in our school and homes on.
2. I have worked with another company in their quest to create a new type of communications equipment, making sure they are making what is needed.
3. I have investigated why a company which makes electricity from food waste was having issues with bubbles and foam, which was so powerful it could damage their equipment if we didn’t manage to stop it!

• About 8am – I get to the office (or during Covid-19 I sit at my desk in my lounge) and turn my laptop on.
• 8.30am – I have a morning meeting with my team to talk through what tasks we are each going to do that day.
• 9am to 12pm – I usually answer  emails and make phone calls to find out information, then do some research or planning on how I might solve the problem I am working on. I often make notes or I might be writing a report on what needs to be done.
• 12pm – lunch time! I take a packed lunch to work and eat this with my friends, or my fiancé if I am working from home.
• 1pm to 5pm – I might have some meetings with the people I am working with to discuss ideas, make plans and make things happen! Otherwise I keep talking to my colleagues by phone or email to get more information. I help to lead the projects so I also have to make sure they are doing the things they said they would!
• 5pm – home time!

On some days I might visit other places, like power stations, to see the machines or other things I am working on in person. For one year my office was based in a car factory so I spent time every day watching the workers build the cars!

I have set up a STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths) Team within my company and organise for us to visit local schools to run activity sessions. With the prize money I would buy Meccano or Lego Robotics kits to use with kids in these activity sessions for extra practical fun! I would also like to donate some of these kits to local schools for them to use with all of their students.