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Previous WE50 winner profiles
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Nicola Grahamslaw, mechanical engineer and WE50 winner in 2018
Interview by Anne Hall
Image: SS Great Britain Trust
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“It’s all about communication,” says Nicola Grahamslaw, a chartered mechanical engineer who was named as one of the Women’s Engineering Society’s Top 50 Women in Engineering in 2018. “We need to communicate better that engineering is not just about cars or spanners, hard hats and overalls. It's also about collaboration, creativity, leadership, and plenty of other things that people aspire to in a career.”
The 2018 WE50 Awards focused on those returning or transferring to an engineering career. Nicola transferred from a career in nuclear energy to a very different new role at a leading museum and found herself in inspiring company among the other winners. |
“There were women from all walks of life coming into engineering as a second career. My own engineering education was very traditional so meeting the other WE50 winners really opened my eyes to how many routes there are into engineering. Thanks to them, I now have an enormous variety of stories to tell when I talk to young people about opportunities in the profession. I think it’s important they can see themselves as engineers and real-life stories help them to see what’s possible.”
A Cambridge graduate and state-school educated, Nicola’s current role as Ship’s Conservation Engineer on Isambard Kingdom Brunel’s SS Great Britain uses the same core skills as she had used working in nuclear energy, but in a completely different context from her early career. “I specialised in fluid mechanics and energy at university and initially worked on computer simulations to assess the performance and safety of aircraft wings, engines, and nuclear reactors.” As Nicola’s skills and confidence developed, she led a team using simulations and analysis to help safely extend the lives of older generation nuclear reactors.
In 2018, Nicola was appointed by the SS Great Britain Trust to take care of the SS Great Britain, the first ship to be made of iron rather than wood and preserve it for the future. It ticks all of her favourite engineering boxes. She’s the first and only conservation engineer on the SS Great Britain project and is able to use her problem-solving, project management and research skills in a unique setting. “It has involved me learning a lot about a new technical area and then coming to my own conclusions about what the conservation strategy for the ship should be in the future. In my first year I've helped the organisation to get a better understanding of the ship and the current situation, identified some things that aren't working the way they should, and written funding applications to start the next step of the work.”
Nicola believes that teachers have a huge role to play in terms of encouraging girls to see the potential in engineering. “It should be the norm for girls to study the same subjects as boys at school and teachers can help encourage students to keep their options open for as long as possible. In my own experience it was the support and encouragement of my teachers that made all the difference. Physics and maths have a reputation as difficult subjects, but my teachers encouraged my interest in physics and helped me to understand the value of STEM subjects in keeping my career options open.”
Nicola’s message to industry is, “Get out there and communicate real-life examples to parents and teachers, as well as students, to change perceptions of what engineers really do rather than what they think they do.”
A Cambridge graduate and state-school educated, Nicola’s current role as Ship’s Conservation Engineer on Isambard Kingdom Brunel’s SS Great Britain uses the same core skills as she had used working in nuclear energy, but in a completely different context from her early career. “I specialised in fluid mechanics and energy at university and initially worked on computer simulations to assess the performance and safety of aircraft wings, engines, and nuclear reactors.” As Nicola’s skills and confidence developed, she led a team using simulations and analysis to help safely extend the lives of older generation nuclear reactors.
In 2018, Nicola was appointed by the SS Great Britain Trust to take care of the SS Great Britain, the first ship to be made of iron rather than wood and preserve it for the future. It ticks all of her favourite engineering boxes. She’s the first and only conservation engineer on the SS Great Britain project and is able to use her problem-solving, project management and research skills in a unique setting. “It has involved me learning a lot about a new technical area and then coming to my own conclusions about what the conservation strategy for the ship should be in the future. In my first year I've helped the organisation to get a better understanding of the ship and the current situation, identified some things that aren't working the way they should, and written funding applications to start the next step of the work.”
Nicola believes that teachers have a huge role to play in terms of encouraging girls to see the potential in engineering. “It should be the norm for girls to study the same subjects as boys at school and teachers can help encourage students to keep their options open for as long as possible. In my own experience it was the support and encouragement of my teachers that made all the difference. Physics and maths have a reputation as difficult subjects, but my teachers encouraged my interest in physics and helped me to understand the value of STEM subjects in keeping my career options open.”
Nicola’s message to industry is, “Get out there and communicate real-life examples to parents and teachers, as well as students, to change perceptions of what engineers really do rather than what they think they do.”
