While taking a career break a year ago, I began volunteering at Clifton Suspension Bridge because I wanted to be more involved in Bristol life and the work was a perfect fit with my interests as an engineer.
I used to be the head of manufacturing engineering at an aerospace company and, thanks to volunteering, I have found a new lease of life as the workshop manager at the Underfall Yard Trust, where I refurbish and run hydraulic pumps and machines from the late 1800s to early 1900s.
I have designed activities for schoolchildren to illustrate the physics involved in bridges – tension, reaction forces, compression – in an attempt to make maths and engineering understandable.
There aren’t many women in my line of work and the UK has a shortage of young people going into engineering, regardless of gender. As so much technology today is invisible – smartphones, cars that can’t be tinkered with – it’s hard to enthuse people about the practical workings of the world. But showing impressive feats of Victorian engineering brings the subject to life.
One thing you do need is a head for heights, because the bridge is more than 70m above water. I love walking across during strong winds – the deck starts moving in waves and the rods start “singing”.
I used to be the head of manufacturing engineering at an aerospace company and, thanks to volunteering, I have found a new lease of life as the workshop manager at the Underfall Yard Trust, where I refurbish and run hydraulic pumps and machines from the late 1800s to early 1900s.
I have designed activities for schoolchildren to illustrate the physics involved in bridges – tension, reaction forces, compression – in an attempt to make maths and engineering understandable.
There aren’t many women in my line of work and the UK has a shortage of young people going into engineering, regardless of gender. As so much technology today is invisible – smartphones, cars that can’t be tinkered with – it’s hard to enthuse people about the practical workings of the world. But showing impressive feats of Victorian engineering brings the subject to life.
One thing you do need is a head for heights, because the bridge is more than 70m above water. I love walking across during strong winds – the deck starts moving in waves and the rods start “singing”.
