Amy’s goal to build a future for others
AMY WRIGHT chose a career in engineering after visiting lesotho in Africa at the age of 17.
she had been struck by the lack of basic infrastructure in the country and the impracticalities of people living in small shelters made of corrugated iron sheeting.
Amy says: ‘i thought that there must be a better alternative which could be made with local materials. i came home and researched this and found that civil engineering as a career would allow me to solve these problems. so a love of development engineering and construction was born.’
While studying for a master’s degree in civil engineering at Nottingham University, Amy was able to fulfil her goal of helping to improve living conditions for others.
she created and project managed a student-led group, which introduced a small- scale hydropower and solar scheme to a remote village in Malawi.
This provided lighting to a community centre, a primary school and health centre as well as power for a vaccinations fridge.
After graduating in 2012, Amy, now 28, worked as a graduate site engineer and a consultant civil engineer before joining Farrans Construction in October 2015.
she became the senior site engineer on the Northern spire project, the largest structure in the North-east of england and the first bridge to be built over the river Wear in sunderland, Tyne and Wear, for 40 years. The bridge finally opened in August.
Amy, who is now based in Northern ireland with Farrans Construction, was named one of the Top 50 Women in engineering 2017 by the Women’s engineering society.
she has also created Zombie Apocalypse school workshops which are being rolled out across the UK by the institution of Civil engineers.
Amy, who is originally from sunderland, is one of six finalists for this year’s IET (the institution of engineering and Technology) Young Woman engineer of the Year awards.
The awards recognise and showcase outstanding young women working in modern engineering. The winner will be announced in london on December 6.
Amy said: ‘We have to smash the stereotype of a typical civil engineer and show the diverse range of roles that are available.’
For information about the IET awards and all the finalists, log on to conferences.theiet.org.