Jack Haworth
/0 Comments/in Electrical, Electronic, Engineering, Manufacturing, Nuclear collaborative, observant, passionate A-Levels, Apprenticeship/by Antonio PortasCase Study: Jack Haworth
“Once I actually understood engineering … I thought it’s like a perfect mix of practicality and theory. What you are learning, you can see it applied to real life applications.”
A different route into engineering
Jack always wanted to become electrician, an engineer and to have a degree. His route into engineering is very different than the majority of other graduates and he is passionate about raising awareness of different routes into engineering.
During 6th form Jack studied English literature, history and business however and soon realised that that wasn’t working for him. As soon as he finished school he applied for an electrical engineering apprenticeship at TSP Engineering in Workington.
Jack did a Higher National Certificate (HNC) and a Higher National Diploma (HND) in electrical and electronic engineering, and then a degree in electrical plant engineering.
“I wanted to get involved in this podcast and try to inspire people and make people more aware of the different routes that you can take to become an engineer and the different careers within engineering.”
From this point onwards he applied to the Sellafield graduate scheme where according to him opportunities were endless.
“It’s probably like the best thing I could have done because I’ve worked on the tools and I’ve worked on the things that other people have designed, and then you kind of like get an idea of, say, like how things could be done better.”
His engineering apprenticeship made him observant and having hands-on experience of equipment allows him to think about how to make components more accessible, easier to work on or fix. With 8 years of hands-on experience Jack hopes that he will soon become a chartered engineer.
Robots on Extreme environments
Jack is currently working for the Robotics and Extreme Environments Lab run by the University of Manchester in collaboration with Sellafield. He collaborates with his colleagues designing robots that can work in extreme environments that are dangerous for humans. He is particular proud of two of these robots: Carma and Mirrax.
Carma has been designed to inspect outdoors areas for radiation and its currently being fitted with a GPS sensor to map the environment around. This is based on a LIDAR sensor as Jack explains:
“A LIDAR sensor is method for measuring distances by illuminating the target with laser light and measuring their reflection with the sensor and so the time differences in the returned laser allows to build up a map of the environment… so this this robot is deployed around legacy areas of Sellafield to be able to declassify them so that you know that the clear of radiation”.
Mirrax is a 3 legged autonomous robot which runs on a little roller wheels and it only 150 mm wide so it can squeeze in small areas of nuclear cells which are highly radioactive. Mirax also used LIDAR sensors to map its surroundings:
“It’s got a middle arm that lifts up and on this arm is a LIDAR sensor and a gamma radiation sensor and this can also tilt, so this allows the 2D Lidar to build up a 3D map of the environment so that we can work towards knowing exactly what’s in there and help to navigate the robot around the cell… It’s also picking up the radiation hotspots within the cell to then end with, uh, hopefully decommissioning the cell after this.”
To help develop these robots, Jack learned 3D-CAD and electronics:
There are a lot of electronics and stuff that needs to get in there, so I’ve been designing and 3D printing components to hold things in place and building stuff up so that the robot is more robust.
Working on a nuclear site
Jack works at Sellafield which is one of the few places in the country that handles nuclear waste. The general public still has a very apprehensive perception of nuclear energy and the safety of nuclear sites. According to Jack once you learn the science and you understand the safety protocols you actually feel safe.
“If you follow the rules, which there is a lot of rules and there’s a lot of safety in place, which sometimes people could say it’s maybe a bit over the top, but you can understand why it’s there and the purpose of it. Sometimes a lot more difficult to actually get things done, but I really enjoy it!”
Engineering skillsets and following dreams
Jack believes that in addition to having hands-on experience of equipment, engineers should be good team players as no one knows everything:
“Always look at how you can make things better or better ways of doing stuff… I think you’ve got to be good at solving problems and sometimes to solve problems, you’ve got a be creative. You’ve got to be able to think outside the box, but also be able to apply engineering theories to your problems”
Jack is also a strong advocate about different routes into engineering such as apprenticeships.
“When I started my apprenticeship, there was people starting it who were 24 years old. You’re never too late to change and do what you want to do, like what’s going to make you happy… People put a lot of pressure on themselves thinking like, oh, I don’t know what I want to do. I don’t know what I’m supposed to do or what people expect me to do. Try and be open to all things like I was.”
Position
Electrical Engineer at Sellafield
Key Attributes
collaborative, observant, passionate
Qualifications
A-Levels, Apprenticeship
Employer
Shrouk El-Attar
/0 Comments/in Electrical, Electronic, Engineering creative, passionate, resilient A-Levels, Degree/by Antonio PortasCase Study: Shrouk El-Attar
“That idea of what an engineer looks like is really out of date and it needs to change […] people engineer in their heels, people engineer in their dresses, and for me it’s such a creative field!”
A journey of resilience
Shrouk left her native Egypt at the age of 15, arriving in the UK with her family. She was eventually granted refugee status on the basis of her sexuality, but her mother, sister and brother were deported. Showing remarkable resilience, she enrolled to study electrical engineering at Cardiff University, but could only start to study once her asylum case was complete – which took several years. She believes that more needs to be done to enable asylum seekers to access higher education, and to help people considering engineering as a career:
“We need to produce more than 186,000 engineers every single year, just to meet our engineering shortfall by 2024, and the same time we prevent people from accessing engineering”
Improving the quality of life of others
Since graduating from university, Shrouk has collaborated with others in a variety of projects. She’s designed robots that can measure tiny things just a few nanometers across, and built a machine that can detect cancer cells based on how electrons wobble in the presence of magnetic fields.
Currently, she gets to release her creativity designing and testing products which help improve the quality of life of many women and others across the world. She find engineering to be a very collaborative field:
“You work with other engineers, scientists, data scientists and artists to make your product look nice …”
Changing perceptions of engineering
Shrouk is a passionate advocate for changing perceptions of engineering, as there is still a long way to go in terms of attracting creative people into the sector. She also works towards valuing non-univeristy routes into engineering:
“We need to change our language. We need to make it more accessible, we also need to change the default routes into engineering. Why is just the university route considered? Why can’t we take on more apprentices?”
A passionate advocate
In her free time Shrouk is a belly dancer, and she fundraises to help the LGBTQ community in countries such as Egypt. In 2018 she was awarded Young Woman of the Year in the Women on the Move Awards, from Migrants Organise and the UNHCR (the UN Refugee Agency).
Inventive podcast
Shrouk is featured in an episode of the Inventive Podcast:
Position
Electronics design engineer
Key Attributes
creative, passionate, resilient
Qualifications
A-Levels, Degree
Procter and Gamble
/0 Comments/in Chemical, Chemistry, Digital, Electrical, Engineering, Logistics, Technology/by Carol
Procter and Gamble
What do having a shower, washing the pots after dinner and changing a baby’s nappy have in common? They all involve making things cleaner. And Procter and Gamble have products which are used for all three. Procter and Gamble is a company which develops and manufactures lots of different products which help people to make their world a little bit more pleasant. The company started out making soap and candles, but now produces a wide range of home and personal care products from Fairy liquid, Pampers, Gillette, Tampax and Ariel. But not candles nowadays! The company has offices across the world. The Innovation Centre in Longbenton, Newcastle is one of the sites where new products are developed. Jobs that people working at Procter and Gamble have include: You can read about some of the people who work at P&G, and watch some short films on the company’s careers website. Topics in science and maths that link to Procter and Gamble:Who Are They?
Careers
Science and Maths links
Sectors
Chemical, Chemistry, Digital, Electrical, Engineering, Logistics, Technology
Employer Size
Huge multinational
Focus/reach
Global
Employer Links
SMD
/0 Comments/in Electrical, Electronic, Engineering, Mechanical, Offshore, Science/by CarolEmployer: SMD

Soil Machine Dynamics (SMD) design and manufacture subsea robotic machines. The deep sea floor is still one of the most unexplored, and inhospitable, places on Earth. No light, no warmth and high pressure all make it a challenging environment to work in. Why work under the sea? Well, every time you use the internet it’s likely that some of the information came through cables which are laid in a trench under the sea floor. Those trenches need to be dug and the cables need to be laid somehow. Or if you’ve seen off-shore windfarms, have you wondered how the electricity gets back to shore? More cables on the sea floor. It isn’t possible for people to lay these trenches themselves, so a robotic machine, also called a Remotely Operated Vehicle (ROV) is used to dig the trenches and lay the cables. The engineering that goes into the development of ROVs is staggering as they need to be both robust enough to survive in such a harsh environment as the bottom of the sea, and easily controllable. This video shows how an ROV digs a trench and lays a cable in it. The language is aimed at people looking to buy one of the machines so uses a bit of jargon, but the animation does help to show how the machine works.Who Are They?
Careers
To design, develop and make ROVs requires a lot of different STEM, and non-STEM, based roles.
Among the different roles at SMD are:
- Mechanical Engineers
- Electrical and Electronic Engineers
- Software Engineers
- Hydraulic design engineers
- Sales Engineers
- Health & Safety Advisers
- Quality Systems Engineer
- PR and Communications Officers
- Test Technicians and Assistants
Although based in the North East, SMD is a global company, so there could be opportunities to travel.
You can see what current vacancies SMD are available here, and also read about two of their employees, Charlotte and James.
Science and Maths links
Topics in Science and Maths that link to SMD and what the company does:
- Forces
- Electricity
- Corrosion
- Moments and balance
- Pressure of a liquid: Pressure in liquids student worksheet
Siemens
/0 Comments/in Electrical, Energy, Engineering, Mechanical, Offshore/by Emma
Siemens
Who Are They?
You will have probably used Siemens technology; their well known products include mobile phones and televisions. Siemens is one of the worlds largest and most successful technology companies, and they are passionate about innovation and change.
Siemens was established over 170 years ago and today employ nearly 14,000 people in the UK alone, with manufacturing sites in Byker, Newcastle-upon-Tyne and another key site in Stockton, Teeside. The company is a large multinational company with bases in nearly 200 countries across the globe. Siemens specialise in a number of sectors:
- Power generation services including gas, wind power and renewables
- Energy management
- Building technologies
- Financial services
- Healthcare
Siemens are one of the world’s biggest producers of energy-efficient resource-saving technologies, as well as constructing offshore wind turbines which you will see across the region.
Siemens are not just about renewables though. They also design, develop and manufacture for example MRI scanners which are used in hospitals all over the world. The Freeman Hospital, Newcastle, has Siemens Engineers working at the hospital on a daily basis to make sure the scanners are working. Siemens also develop IT software which is used within a range of industries and variety of organisations including NASA to simulate the Mars Curiosity Rover!
Check out this great interactive 360′ tour of a wind farm, which allows you to explore wind turbines in further detail.
Careers
Some of the roles that people who work at Siemens have are:
- Client solutions engineer
- Customer support engineer
- Controls engineer
- Software engineer
- Manufacturing engineer
- Technical software architect
- Commercial sales manager
- Project manager
- Accountant
- Offshore commisioning technician
- Civil engineer
Science and Maths links
Topics in science and maths that link to Siemen include:
- Energy resources
- Energy and power
- Electric circuits
- Medical Physics (MRI)
- Health and Disease
- Ratio
Sectors
Electrical, Energy, Engineering, Mechanical, Offshore
Employer Size
Huge multinational
Focus/reach
Global
Employer Links
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Sectors
Electrical, Electronic, Engineering, Mechanical, Offshore, Science
Employer Size
Large enterprise
Focus/reach
Global
Worksheets
Pressure in a Liquid KS3
Employer Links