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NTU researcher among the ‘Top 50 Women in Engineering’

NTU researcher Professor Eiman Kanjo has been named among the Top 50 Women in Engineering by The Women’s Engineering Society (WES).

    Professor Eiman Kanjo
    Professor Eiman Kanjo

    The WES has revealed the list as part of International Women in Engineering Day 2022 to celebrate women who demonstrate the creation or improvement of a product or process that makes a difference.

    Eiman, Professor of Pervasive Sensing and Head of the Smart Sensing Lab in NTU’s School of Science and Technology, researches topics including mobile sensing, edge computing, data science and technology for wellbeing.

    Under the leadership of Professor Kanjo, her team at NTU won a 2021 Vice-Chancellor’s Outstanding Research Award. Professor Kanjo is also the Award Lead of the new NTU-Turing Data Science Network funded by the Alan Turing Institute.

    For 2022, the WES, in association with The Guardian and Ball Corporation, a global supplier of sustainable packaging, invited nominations on numerous factors, including their ability to support and combat climate change, work as an advocate for women in STEM, their drive to make a difference within the engineering industry and achieving beyond what would normally be expected.

    The number and standard of nominations were high, emphasising the exceptional achievements made by women in this field. The WE50 awards were judged by a panel of industry experts.

    This year more than ever, female engineers are applying themselves to sustainability and creating a built environment that is kinder to the natural world.

    Female engineers are working hard to combat global CO2 emissions by creating products that monitor, capture and reduce carbon emissions, as well as developing energy solutions to decarbonise entire countries.

    At the heart of many of the projects featured in this year’s list are those that help us to be more eco-friendly, whether it be infrastructure, transport systems and all types of equipment that help us to be more sustainable.

    Professor Kanjo said: “My hope is that engineers and technologists, female and male, play a more prominent role in shaping the world's future. We design and develop systems that respond to local communities’ needs and we work hand in hand with end users’ organisations to understand what we can do.

    “I am so grateful to WES for this award, and to my family and my late father who always believed in me and encouraged me to be the engineer I am. Also thank you to all the people who have supported me over the years, including my brilliant Smart Sensing team and colleagues at NTU, without whom this would not have been possible.”

    Elizabeth Donnelly, CEO of WES, said: “Once again WES is delighted to celebrate the achievements of women engineers. It's a joy that so many innovative women are making a difference to our everyday lives and working to mitigate the impact that engineering has on the environment.”

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      The Top 50 Women in Engineering Awards (WE50)

      The WE50 is an awards programme created in 2016 by the Women’s Engineering Society to raise awareness of the skills shortage facing the industry, highlighting the huge discrepancy between the number of men vs. women currently in engineering professions. ​Each year, the WE50 has had a different theme, and has now recognised approximately 300 outstanding UK-based female engineers. www.wes.org.uk/we50

      The 2022 WE50 Judges are: 

      • Dr Bola Olabisi – Founder & CEO of the Global Women Inventors & Innovators Network (GlobalWIIN) (Head Judge)
      • Lauren Touré – Diversity & Inclusion Manager, Ball Beverage Packaging EMEA (WE50 Sponsor)
      • Dawn Childs FREng – CEO, Pure Data Centres (Operations), and President, Women's Engineering Society
      • Carl Hayward – Business Excellence Manager, Costa Express
      • Dr Giorgia Longobardi – CEO, Cambridge GaN Devices
      • Mara Makoni – Consultant, PA Consulting & Board Member, Association For Black Engineers
      • Dr Mark McBride-Wright CEng MIChemE – Founder and Managing Director, Equal Engineers, Equal Engineers
      • Libby Meyrick – Chief Executive, Institution of Engineering Designers
      • Susan Robson – Principal Consultant, National Grid & Board Member, Women's Engineering Society
      • Emily Spearman – Head of PMO, Orsted & Board Member, Women's Engineering Society

      International Women in Engineering Day (INWED)

      INWED is an international awareness campaign aimed at raising the profile of women in engineering and focuses attention on the amazing career opportunities available to girls in engineering and related roles.  INWED is now in its ninth year and the theme this year is ‘Inventors and Innovators’.

      The official social media hashtags area #INWED22 and #ImagineTheFuture www.inwed.org.uk

      Women’s Engineering Society (WES)

      The Women's Engineering Society is a charity and professional network of women engineers, scientists and technologists offering inspiration, support and professional development. WES’ vision is of an engineering industry that employs the diversity of the society it serves to solve the biggest societal issues of our time, and WES’ mission is to support women in engineering to fulfil their potential and support the engineering industry to be inclusive. WES was founded on 23 June 1919 by an influential committee drawn from the National Council of Women, to resist pressure to leave engineering jobs when men returned from the forces and to promote engineering as a rewarding job for women. WES organises International Women in Engineering Day (INWED) on its birthday every year, a global celebration of women in engineering.

      About Nottingham Trent University

      Nottingham Trent University (NTU) received the Queens Anniversary Prize for Higher and Further Education in 2021 for cultural heritage science research. It is the second time that NTU has been bestowed the honour of receiving a Queen’s Anniversary Prize for its research, the first being in 2015 for leading-edge research on the safety and security of global citizens.

      The Research Excellence Framework (2021) classed 83% of NTU’s research activity as either world-leading or internationally excellent. 86% of NTU’s research impact was assessed to be either world-leading or internationally excellent.

      NTU was awarded Outstanding Support for Students 2020 (Times Higher Education Awards). It was the University of the Year 2019 (Guardian University Awards, UK Social Mobility Awards), Modern University of the Year 2018 (Times and Sunday Times Good University Guide) and University of the Year 2017 (Times Higher Education Awards).

      NTU is the 5th largest UK institution by student numbers, with over 33,000 students and more than 4,000 staff located across five campuses. It has an international student population of 4,000 and an NTU community representing around 160 countries.

      In the past 15 years, NTU has invested £450 million in tools, technology and facilities.

      NTU is in the UK’s top 10 for number of applications and ranked first for accepted offers (2019 UCAS UG acceptance data) It is also among the UK’s top five recruiters of students from disadvantaged backgrounds.

      75% of NTU students go on to graduate-level employment or graduate-entry education / training within fifteen months of graduating (Guardian University Guide 2021).

      NTU is 4th globally (and 3rd in the UK) for sustainability in the 2021 UI Green Metric University World Rankings (out of more than 900 participating universities).

    Published on 23 June 2022
    • Subject area: Computing, engineering, maths and other technologies
    • Category: Press office; Research; School of Science and Technology