Our second meet and greet event of the year had the theme: “Black Engineers in the Wider (Working) World.” This could be classed as a continuation in a series from our first meet and greet which looked at Black engineers in academia. This session took place on Thursday, 3rd March 2022 and included talks from three engineers at different stages in their careers and interesting facts about black engineers in line with the theme. There was also a quick presentation of the submissions for the recently concluded logo competition. The session then culminated with a mixed interaction by those in attendance.
Those in attendance were welcomed by the society chair who introduced the first speaker, Roger Ngwompo, Lecturer at the University of Bath. Roger enlightened us on his journey through education, work experiences and the shift from industry to academia. This also included his change in environment and culture from France to Bath. This shift was further discussed as a matter of interest in the short Q&A session after his talk.
The second speaker was Bath alumni Berenice Dalrymple, Engineer at Thermal Energy International. Berenice presented her experience of graduating with a Lower Second-Class Honours (2:2) and the importance of leveraging relevant experiences and skills gained through various activities and placements. She shared her journey from graduate engineer to a full-fledged engineer and gems of advice for navigating this stage in career progression. This clearly stuck with those in attendance as the short Q&A session after was mainly focussed on career path and her work to extracurricular activity balance while a student.
Our final speaker was executive board member of the AFBE-UK, Michelle Watiki. She is currently in her first year as a graduate engineer at Rolls-Royce. She presented her motivations for choosing and adjusting her career path as she moved through education and work placements. She also highlighted the multitude of opportunities that are available with the right drive for success. As a speaker unconnected to the Bath experience, she showed that success is not decided by your environment but your attitude wherever you go.
The evening went on into the night with everyone present meeting and greeting. Such an interesting mix of people interacting over snacks was quite a great way to end the session. We mixed and mingled in different groups until the Chair decided it would never end and decided to wrap until our next social event.
Sanjae King (Chair)
PhD Research Programme in Electronic and Electrical Engineering
Department of Electronic and Electrical Engineering
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