Award winning engineer speaks to students at University of Central Lancashire
The designer of the famous Shard building in London, Roma Agrawal, visited the University of Central Lancashire to speak to aspiring students. The celebrated associate structural engineer spent six years designing the tallest building in Western Europe, the Shard.
She spoke at UCLan’s annual Diversity Conference which looked at gender in higher education and how university can promote both work and study. Agrawal said, “Engineering and science careers are creative, varied and hugely rewarding. It breaks my heart when I see that the unhelpful and untrue stereotypes surrounding my profession are putting off young people, especially girls, from considering careers in STEM.”
“We need more engineers and scientists and we need more people from minorities in the industry so that the amazing things we design serve our society well.”
The event was introduced after the establishment was awarded the Athena SWAN Bronze Award, a prestigious accolade which recognises a commitment to advancing women’s careers in science, technology, engineering, maths and medicine in higher education and research.
The conference also looked at how gender affects personal identity, how working in a traditionally gendered environment takes a variety of skills, resilience and ambition and how students’ views on gender have evolved.
