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home working Shining a light on
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 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.
Considering that the county remains in the midst of a pandemic, inspiring young people whilst they are at home, possibly with less access to resources and role models, has arguably never been so important.
“Having worked alongside Alexandra during her time at Amey, her passion for STEM came through in everything she undertook”, says Sunita Dulai, Account Director for Transport Infrastructure at Amey. “I was thrilled when she approached us to support and be part of her Inspiration Academy. Amey is a huge advocate of STEM, which is evidenced by our STEM Ambassadors programme and the home-learning resource for kids that we launched shortly after the UK went into lockdown. So to be involved with STEMAZING, enabling us to also develop our people to deliver these school programmes in Surrey, we hope to cultivate and share Alexandra’s STEM passion locally in Surrey.”
In addition to Amey’s support, STEMAZING has also received sponsorship from the World Refrigeration Day organisers, Brunel University London and the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, all of which are committed to giving women in STEM a voice to engage children and ensure that STEM remains at the forefront of young people’s minds.
Now, with backing from well-known names in business and academia, Alexandra aims to run nationwide programmes that can be accessed by hundreds of budding women in STEM role models and thousands of young children at a time. Given the primary focus of STEMAZING, which is to engage people who are underrepresented in STEM, the Inspiration Academy prioritises places for schools that have a high percentage of families who qualify for school meals. Thanks to the sponsors, all women and schools participate for free and STEMAZING can also offer the key resources for the six-week course free to a number of schools that need the support the most.
The planned intake for this round of the Inspiration Academy is 40 women in STEM and up to 1,200 pupils for STEMAZINGKids, which includes classes of 30 pupils from 40 schools. Alexandra’s ambition is to scale this in future and make STEMAZING a global initiative.
STEM BEGINS AT HOME
Even global ambitions tend to begin at home, and what could be closer to home than Alexandra’s two children, who relish the opportunity to work alongside their mum.
“My five and seven-year-olds are the perfect guinea pigs”, says Alexandra with a playful smile that only reinforces her passion for what she does. “Although I should add that they’re willing participants. My daughter regularly asks if she can help me develop my experiments to the point whereby sometimes I have to say no so that she can get on with her schoolwork! I think the message of doing something to make a difference in the World is rubbing off on them – when I asked my son what he wanted to do for his birthday as it’s likely to still be in lockdown, he chose to go litter picking to help clear up our local little part of Surrey!”
Through working with so many enquiring minds, could she have discovered the world’s next big inventor? Or has she discovered any women with a passion for STEM that equals hers?
“There is one that comes to mind, whilst judging a competition for Primary Engineer. This little girl came up with the idea of a renewable energy-heated park bench to make it more comfortable for homeless people to sleep on. This idea displayed innovation and empathy in equal measure and really illustrated how STEM can be harnessed to engage the next generation and benefi t society.”
Alexandra’s energy and dedication is extraordinary. However, in order to secure the programme’s longevity and catapult STEMAZING into a global environment, there are three key requirements.
“STEMAZING is calling for women interested in becoming more confident, visible STEM role models and schools with underrepresented children to sign up to the Inspiration Academy. Moreover, we’re looking for sponsorship from businesses that have an interest in investing in their local communities in order to fund the programme’s delivery”, concludes Alexandra. “Given the current interest in STEM, and how businesses such as Amey are increasingly committed to delivering social value, I’m confident that there’s a bright future ahead, not only for the programme but for all those who contribute to it.”
