BUSINESS
SHINING A LIGHT ON SURREY’S STEM STAR The UK’s first lockdown forced Oxted resident, Chartered Engineer and Visiting Professor at Brunel University London, Alexandra Knight, to ask herself how she really wanted to spend her precious time. When the answer was inspiration and inclusion in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths), she drew on her former experience as Technical Director at Amey and made her next move.
“I’ve always been a creative person, and someone who’s wanted to develop new ideas and experiment in order to fulfil that creativity”, explains Alexandra. “Yet, despite growing up with my engineer father and choosing maths, physics and chemistry at A-Level, as a girl I never really knew how to combine these subjects with a creative element.” Fast-forward two decades and Alexandra is now the founder of STEMAZING, an organisation that runs the Inspiration Academy – an initiative supported by Amey. On one hand the academy aims to support women in becoming visible STEM role models and, on the other, helps shape curious, creative and courageous children. “The Inspiration Academy is a two-tiered programme”, continues Alexandra. “There’s a four-month online course designed to empower women living in Surrey as STEM role models, enhance their public engagement skills and increase their confidence in delivering STEM sessions. This culminates in them running a six-week STEM course for 5 – 9 year-olds, which forms the second aspect of the academy. Once we’ve trained the women to be confident on camera and build their portfolio of simple STEM sessions, we then provide the platform for them to deliver STEMAZINGKids, a course made up of weekly 30 -minute live interactive
26
www.platinummediagroup.co.uk
sessions that children across the UK can join in order to engage with STEM in a fun, creative way.”
PLACING STEM AT THE TOP OF THE AGENDA
From building jet-powered cars out of nothing but paper, a balloon, straw and wooden skewers, to making lava lamps using vegetable oil, water, food colouring and an Alka Seltzer tablet, STEMAZING really is – well, amazing. So too is the speed at which Alexandra has developed the programme from concept to reality. In less than 12 months, she has launched a national programme for putting STEM inspiration and inclusion at the top of the agenda for women and children simultaneously. Yet, even this time last year, things were very different. So, what changed? “I had a great career in industry as a Technical Director at Amey Strategic Consulting in a role that indulged my
passion for STEM and creativity”, she adds. “My last project involved turning Scotland’s Forth Road Bridge into an intelligent bridge using data from sensors that allowed us to monitor how the bridge was responding to loads and even predict how it was likely to react in the future based on weather forecast data. This really exciting field of digital asset management is the future of engineering and I loved being a part of it. It also made me realise what I wanted to do next.”
FROM SIDELINE TO FULL-TIME
Alexandra had already set up STEMAZING as a hobby in 2019, so when she decided to take the leap and focus her energy on it full-time, the hardest thing to do was leave a job and an organisation she loved. Whilst she has now left her role as Technical Director, Amey has become the first organisation to sponsor the Inspiration Academy, helping Alexandra realise her nationwide vision and play a role in shaping the STEM role models of tomorrow. Two women from Amey’s Surrey waste collection team even have a place on the next course. On completion, they will deliver the six-week STEMAZINGKids course to children at two schools in Surrey and help inspire our next generation of innovators and problem solvers.
