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IAPER Guest Speaker Series, Friday 23 June 2023

Inspiring Women in STEM 
Guest Speaker Series

Friday 23 June 2023

As part of the Improving Access and Participation in Engineering Research (IAPER) Project, we are running a series of guest speaker seminars showcasing successful women in STEM from underrepresented backgrounds.

For our third seminar in the series, in celebration of International Women in Engineering Day on Friday 23 June 2023, it was really special to welcome Professor Winifred Ijomah and Zahraa Kadri as our guest speakers.

Those who attended the seminar had the opportunity to hear about:

  • The obstacles that the speakers have faced during their careers;
  • Advice on how to navigate through difficult situations as being a minority in your field; and
  • Tips for a successful career in the engineering and tech field.

Participants also had the chance to network and connect directly with our guest speakers.

Guest speakers

Professor Winifred Ijomah

Winifred Ijomah is a Professor in Sustainable Design and Manufacturing at the Department for Design, Manufacturing and Engineering Management (DMEM), at the University of Strathclyde in the UK. She established and heads the University of Strathclyde's Sustainability and Remanufacturing Research Group, specialising in holistic, interdisciplinary, practitioner-based research.

Winifred is the Director and founder of The Scottish Institute for Remanufacturing, a pan-Scotland expertise hub established to spearhead the Circular Economy in Scotland using product recovery. She has elements of her work incorporated in British Standards Institute, (e.g. BS 8887-220:2010- Design for manufacture, assembly, disassembly) and is a member of national and international committees established to assist industry to meet international environmental legislation.

Winifred is the founder of, and until April 2021, Editor-in-Chief of Springer’s Journal of Remanufacturing, the first academic journal in the remanufacturing field. She initiated and chaired the first International Conference on Remanufacturing; the first international academic conference for remanufacturing; and now a biennial event running in conjunction with Rematec, the world's leading remanufacturing exhibition and trade event.

Winifred’s work focuses on product end-of-life, particularly remanufacturing and spans both product and process design with a view to enhancing remanufacturing potential. She aims to enhance knowledge and expertise that will enable the use of remanufacturing to address the challenges of the modern production system.


Zahraa Kadri

Zahraa is a Senior Consultant and a Chartered Mathematician working in Arup’s Advisory Services portfolio. She specialises in data in the civil engineering sector and transport-related asset management across 10 years in the engineering sector. In 2020, Zahraa was awarded one of the Top 20 Women in Data and Tech in the UK.

Zahraa has extensive experience in transportation projects involving digital innovations, customer insights, asset management decision support tools and asset valuations. During her 10 years in the engineering sector, she has led on building analytical methodologies across several award-winning projects and informed key decision-makers across their strategic asset management problems. Her involvement in data and analytics in highways has contributed towards road safety campaigns such as reducing tailgating on motorways.

Over the span of her career, Zahraa has spoken at several virtual and in-person events related to her career and field, such as the Digital Expo Conference, CIHT (Chartered Institute of Highways and Transportation), Brunel University, Oxford University and PIARC.

Zahraa is an active member of the British Standards Institute AMS/1 Committee where she is involved with developing a guidance document for managing data assets. She is a young professional member of the PIARC Asset Management Technical Committee where she is involved with researching the renewal and rejuvenation of aging infrastructure.

 

  Interested in our Inspiring Women in STEM Seminar Series? Discover more of our events here.