November Become an Engineer and Shape the World we live in!

The School of Engineering, in collaboration with Launchpad at NUI Galway and Engineers Ireland, organised a series of career talks during the recent Undergraduate Open Days on October 4^th-5^th, 2019.

The events titled ‘Become an Engineer and shape the world we live in’ were hosted by Dr Magdalena Hajdukiewicz and Dr Maeve Duffy from the School of Engineering, and involved interesting talks from eight Engineers.

The inspiring speakers from different engineering disciplines, including civil, mechanical, biomedical and electronic/electrical, described their reasons for choosing engineering and showed a diversity of their career paths.

With Engineers Ireland reporting a shortage in almost all engineering occupations, and a persisting significant gender gap, where only 13% of 2018 engineering graduates were women, it is crucial to promote engineering as a profession, among both men and women, and ensure a sustainable society, environment and economy.

Dr Hajdukiewicz said: "I believe educational institutions and engineering professionals play a significant role in reaching out to young people and their parents, to demonstrate and communicate the exciting opportunities and professional independence an engineering career can provide."

This was the third time this event was organised during Open Days and it is planned to be scheduled for future Undergraduate Open Days.

Dr Duffy said: "In choosing an engineering course, it is important to understand what a typical day in the life of an engineer involves after graduation. Our graduate speakers provided excellent insight into their varied roles, while demonstrating how much their work has impacted, even early in their careers."