Fundamentals celebrates Women in Engineering

Fundamentals CEO, Dr Jon Hiscock said: “Our company is founded on a mission of applying the fundamental principles of engineering to solve problems and deliver innovations which make electrical grids more efficient, reliable and greener.

“We achieve this by employing the brightest and best engineers: and some of them happen to be women. Here are three of our team, developing their careers with us at every level. Because we don’t just hire good engineers. We grow our own.

“These three individuals are living proof that engineering is indeed a career for women – and nowhere more so than in the exciting field of electrical power. We are proud of their achievements and hope they will be an inspiration for others to follow.”

Billur Ozk?l?nc, Application Engineer, Fundamentals Limited

Role: providing technical support for customers to optimise their use of Fundamentals technologies, including the SuperTAPP SG automatic voltage controller, to make their networks more efficient, safer and reliable.

Skills: Billur has been a professional engineer for 11 years. A graduate in both electrical and mechanical engineering, she has a wealth of practical as well technical expertise in power system protection, control and automation.

Background: Billur gained her first degree at Yil University in Istanbul, during which she took part in a student exchange at Kaiserslautern Technical University in Germany, including an internship working in power plants. After working for three years with ABB in Turkey as an MV/LV network designer and site maintenance specialist, she spent four years with Siemens in Qatar as a substation control system engineer. She has also worked as factory maintenance engineer. Billur is currently studying part time for a master’s degree in data science at Queen Mary University, London.

Billur said: “I always wanted to be an engineer. As a child I loved mathematics and have always liked understanding concepts. I am not an expert in everything, but I enjoy learning and I am ambitious. That’s what drew me to power engineering, because it involves so many technologies. I very much enjoy my role in technical support, because I can use a lot of my experience to help people in different ways.

“I am very interested in Fundamentals’ developments in artificial intelligence, which I think is going to be a big thing in the industry.

“Fundamentals is the best company I have worked for. The atmosphere is really supportive and I am learning so many things to develop my identity as an engineer. I couldn’t be happier.”

Elizabeth Macharia, AVR Product Manager, Fundamentals Limited

Role: working with customers and colleagues on the continuous development of Fundamentals’ SuperTAPP SG automatic voltage controller and other AVR products, to ensure they meet the present and future needs of users, in a changing network environment.

Skills: Elizabeth has been a professional engineer for six years. She describes her work in AVR as ‘very much a partnership with customers’; listening to their feedback and keeping them up to date with new features and functionality, as substations evolve from analogue to digital.

Background: Elizabeth gained her first degree in Electrical and Electronic Engineering at the University of Brighton, followed by an MSc in Electrical Power Systems at Bath University. She started her career as an engineer with a start-up company in Edinburgh, before joining Fundamentals as a Product Application Engineer three years ago.

Elizabeth said: “When I was about 13, a lamp in my room stopped working, so I opened up the fusebox with a pair of scissors, worked out how the circuits operated and found a loose copper wire. When I fixed that with some electrical tape and the lamp worked, I thought ‘this is interesting – I could be good at this!’.

“I was good at maths and science at school, but one of my inspirations was a woman physics tutor with a PhD. She encouraged me and I thought ‘if she can go far, so can I’. Plus I also had a woman chemistry tutor. Then at university I was encouraged by talks from women in industry. So I believe it is vitally important for women engineers, including me, to inspire others – and for those who aspire to join the profession to talk with people they can look up to.

“Since joining Fundamentals I have learned and grown a lot, and been given a great deal of responsibility, thanks to the encouragement and support I have received from everyone I have met. For example, the induction process was brilliant, working in every department and on-site to learn from people and understand exactly what the company does.

“Fundamentals says it wants to be a great place to work – and in my experience, that is very much the case.”

Lauryn Bailey, Trainee Electronics Engineer, Fundamentals Limited

Role: In the last months of her five-year apprenticeship with Fundamentals. Currently working with our Hardware Manager in the Product Engineering Team, on the design of new printed circuit boards (PCBs).

Skills: Since 2018, Lauryn has rotated through virtually every department at Fundamentals, gaining experience and developing a multitude of skills. Her present work on PCB design started with a small board, progressing to larger and more complex units with help from her colleagues.

Background: Lauryn’s path into engineering started when she transferred from a regular school to UTC Swindon – a University Technical College, described as ‘an innovative, employer-focused, high-tech school for students aged from 14 to 19, specialising in engineering and digital technologies’. After specialising in engineering and computer science and taking her A levels, she joined Fundamentals as an apprentice, simultaneously studying at Newbury College and working towards a BSc, which is accredited by Buckinghamshire University

Lauryn said: “When did I get interested in engineering? Well, my mother always said I was nosey: taking things apart to see how they worked - and in some cases managing to put them back together again! The transfer to UTC Swindon really got me on track, because it was so focused on practical engineering skills. Tutors had industry backgrounds, there were excellent links with industry partners and a lot of preparation for actual job roles.

“I am not sure I would have done well on an academic course at university, so the apprentice route with Fundamentals has proved perfect for me. My plan is to be a ‘universal engineer’ and see where that leads, because technologies are constantly changing, and so are the challenges and opportunities.

“I really like the fact that engineering is no longer a boys’ own club. I have heard a few remarks that engineering is not for girls but my answer is: take them on and beat them! And things are changing. When I started studying in 2016, only 5% of engineering students were women. Now it’s around 15%.

“My advice to any young woman who wants to be an engineer is: get to know people who can help you – and never be afraid to ask questions.”