Engineer and eco racing driver
I am a 
on wind turbines with blades so big that people can climb inside them to check that cracks haven’t appeared! There’s a lot of physics, computing and problem solving in my job, which makes the days just fly by.
I work for a company called VESTAS, the world’s largest manufacturer of wind turbines. There are 16,000 people in the company, but in my office there are only four of us - two female and two male engineers. The male / female ratio in my office isn’t representative of the industry overall, which is made up of only about 10 per cent women. I think in general women engineers are more attracted to environmental and health related companies, as many women enter engineering to make the world a better place to live.
On the whole, amongst engineers, I’d say there is very little discrimination against women. Just sometimes among technicians. For instance, if we make a field visit to a turbine sometimes a technician will only talk to the men. One was taken aback when it was me, rather than my male colleagues, who was the most keen to climb a wind turbine to inspect it.
I decided to enter an aerospace engineering degree because I enjoyed physics at school and because working as an aerospace engineer sounded really exciting. Thankfully I haven’t been disappointed. During the last six years I have worked on micro air vehicles (tiny aircraft the size of a human hand), lots of jet plane engines and on an engine that is designed to fly three times faster than Concord.
I changed to renewable energy engineering just over a year ago now because I realised that I care a lot more about keeping our planet a nice place to live than making aeroplanes go faster. I would have stayed in the aerospace industry if I could have been involved in designing a radical new engine that would greatly reduce the emissions from aircraft engines – perhaps one that could run on hydrogen made using electricity from renewable resources.
A final thing about me? This July I was driving a specially designed car that can do 6,000 miles per gallon of petrol. It’s not road legal unfortunately, but it’s amazing what engineering can achieve!
Jenny is a member of GetSETWomen and Noisemakers. She featured in an Independent article on women in aerospace. She is one of few women eco racing drivers, driving for the top England team, Team Green, in the Shell eco marathon and other races.
Comments
Kate:
I have to say, your eco racing car looks very uncomfortable to drive - what, no cup holders? I am very impressed.
Kathryn:
Jenny, thanks for being the first blogger! You\'ve set the bar very high for everyone else - how do we compete with a racing car driver!
Rachel:
Jenny, was your experience that the aerospace industry had no interest in reducing emissions or using renewable energy? This is very depressing if so!
Jenny:
First a reply to Kate. I have to say that the eco-marathon car definitely isn\'t made for comfort. When I\'m driving it feels like I\'m doing a permenant half sit up, I can\'t move my hands away from the steering handles, because there just isn\'t room and when it rained this year I got very wet inside the car. The team manger did add some extra foam this year, however, so at least my bum has stopped going numb during the race:-)
Jenny:
And now the more serious one Rachel. It\'s not that the aerospace industry has no interest in reducing emissions. I know for sure that Rolls-Royce has a project aiming to reduce the emisssions of its engines by 10% I think. Also the aero industry has been very keen on reducing fuel burn for years, long before the big fuel price rises, as fuel costs have always been a significant proportion of airlines costs. I just felt that I had the skills and the opportunity to help make even bigger reductions in carbon dioxide emissions by turning to renewable energy. If a job had been advertised to work on a revolutionary new aero-engine that could significantly cut climate change emissions I certainly would have applied, but I felt at the time and I still do, that the biggest impact we can make on climate change is to embrace and develop renewable technologies.
Ros:
Thanks for being so up for doing a blog. Perhaps you could say a little more on your role at work, are you regularly inspecting the wind turbines or working on new designs? What factors cause problems with the structure? How do you check for cracks? Do you personally have to deal with the anti wind turbine lobby, if not who does in your company –what sort of skills do they need? It’s great to know that you don’t feel that you have met too much discrimination, I wonder if you are quite a strong personality. Oh and on the car – quite interested in the specs and what your top and average speeds where, but not sure if any one else is …..?
Jenny:
Crikey Ros lots of questions! I\'ll take them one at a time. My official title at work is a Control Engineer, this is quite different to all my work to date - so I\'m learning an awful lot of new stuff. Modern day industrial wind turbines are controlled by a number of computers. In Vestas turbines we have 3 computers in every turbine that control everything from stopping the turbine if the wind gets too high, so that it doesn\'t break, to continually pitching the blades to gain the optimal power out of the wind, to synchronising the generator speed of the turbine to the grid frequency when we connect to the grid. I work on improving the software that does all this control. This involves thinking about the mechanics that we are controlling and also ensuring that everything we do won\'t over stress the turbine or place a service technician in a dangerous situation. I don\'t need to go into wind turines very often, although when we put new software in the turbine we need to go and get it working and check everything is OK, which meant I got to go to a site in Poland a couple of months ago. I do make sure I go up turbine on a regular basis, however, as it is very difficult to design good control algorthms without understanding the mechanical systems they control. As we are a wind turbine manufacturer we don\'t have to deal with the wind lobby too much in Vestas. We just wait to sell turbines to the developers who have managed to get through the lobbying and planning process. On the car side, I\'m afraid that our top speed at Rockingham speedway is a disappointing 30mph. However I assure you that when your bum is about 2 inches from the ground and you have very minimal steering, that is plenty fast enough for me:-) What other specs would you likefor the car?
Ros:
Sorry looks like I have taken up rather a lot of your time. So, not to monopolise you further is there a website with details about the vehicle – engine design and specs, running gear, fuel delivery, etc . Otherwise it’s ok I can live with out knowing……!
Ruth Wilson:
Hi Ros, I can help you out a bit on this. There\'s a wonderful set of photos + commentary at the Team Green website: http://staff.bath.ac.uk/ensajg/tg/vehicles4.htm Those cars are amazing! I gather that though there are very few adult women drivers there is a schools competition and girls are involved in all sorts of ways :-)
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