Outstanding women celebrated nationally at Young Woman Engineer of the Year Awards

IET Young Woman Engineer of the Year: Titi Oliyide is a Senior Process Safety Engineer at Supercritical Solutions. Titi provides technical process safety expertise for innovative hydrogen production technology to facilitate the energy transition, whilst contributing to the energy security strategy and the UK’s net zero plan for 2030.

IET Mary George Memorial Prize for Apprentices: Jade Kimpton is an Apprentice Substation Engineer at National Grid. Jade carries out maintenances on substation assets and is involved in the commissioning of new renewable generation connections. She repairs and replaces assets to ensure the electricity supply around the UK remains reliable.

Women’s Engineering Society (WES) Prize: Zainab Adigun is a Senior Structural Engineer at Pell Frischmann. Zainab manages a small engineering team that develops and delivers engineering solutions for clients. She is responsible for undertaking structural design and analysis, as well as coordinating, managing, delegating, and implementing structural designs with a range of building requirements.

On winning, Titi said: “I can’t believe I’ve been named the 2023 Young Woman Engineer of the Year, joining an incredible line-up of outstanding women who have come before me. I am really passionate about demystifying and promoting the industry, and this gives me an amazing platform to introduce more young people to the world of engineering and show them how they can make a difference in the world through this impactful profession.”

Finalists Georgina Andrew, Krystina Pearson-Rampeearee, Laura Hoang, and Evi Viza were all highly commended. All winners and finalists will play an ambassadorial role for the engineering and technology professions in the forthcoming months, promoting engineering careers to more girls and young people.

Now in its fifth year, the Gender Diversity Ambassador Award, which recognises an individual’s hard work in achieving gender equality within the engineering industry, was awarded to Adrienne Houston. This lifetime achievement award aims to showcase innovation and good practice to compliment the YWE Awards, by recognising the support and encouragement of women in STEM careers.

During her career, Adrienne has worked tirelessly to promote engineering to young girls from all demographic areas, who want to pursue STEM careers. Adrienne is someone who actively promotes and supports gender equality and inclusivity, and actively contributes to the advancement of women, helping to pave the way for a more diverse and inclusive engineering profession.

Adrienne is the owner of Eurovacuum Products which she established in 2012, specialising in vacuum and low-pressure compressor systems. Her company was born out of discrimination she suffered at the time of becoming a mother. She recognised the talent of a diverse workforce and built and fosters an inclusive company culture.

The IET’s Young Woman Engineer of the Year Awards celebrate women working in modern engineering – and aim to help change the perception that engineering is predominantly a career for men by banishing outdated engineering stereotypes of hard hats and dirty overalls.

As well as highlighting the talent of women engineers, the awards seek to find role models who can help address the UK science and engineering skills crisis by promoting engineering careers to more girls and women. Just 16.5% of those working in engineering occupations are women (source: Engineering UK).

Head of Equality, Diversity, and Inclusion at the IET, Dr Laura Norton, said: “Engineering and technology have been improving our world and shaping our future for centuries. Engineers make an ongoing difference to the world around us, and we want to celebrate those engineering a better world for us all.

“However, due a lack of understanding around what engineering is, perceived gender norms and not enough visible role models for the next generation, the UK has a shortage of women engineers.

“Our awards tell the stories of incredible women engineers who are changing our world for the better and I’d like to congratulate our fantastic winners and finalists this year. They are a real credit to the engineering profession and make excellent role models to young girls who might be thinking about a career in engineering and technology.

“It’s vital we champion engineering careers to the next generation – it’s a diverse, creative, and exciting career, which offers the opportunity to change lives, or even the world.”

The winners were announced at the IET Young Woman Engineer of the Year Awards ceremony on 7th December at IET London: Savoy Place.

This year’s YWE Awards were sponsored by Airbus, Collins Aerospace, Frazer-Nash Consultancy, Leonardo, London Stansted Airport, MBDA, National Grid, Northrop Grumman, Ofcom, Royal Air Force, RS Components Grass Roots, and Thales.