Teenager engineers global competition

Wednesday 14 January 2015

A Jersey teenager hopes to get her female peers designing in a bid to get more of them interested in a career in engineering.

17 year-old JCG student Rachel Hayden has launched a competition challenging girls aged 13 to 18 to come up with a design for a sports venue that will transform Fort Regent.

The sixth form student who is considering a career in civil engineering said: “Engineering is an industry that is really under-represented by women and this will give them an insight into the career.

“It’s not a subject we can study at school but they can apply the skills they already have. Engineering combines your creativeness and your ability to be mathematical and logical.”

Rachel is running the competition entitled “Building the Future, Shaping our World” through the International Women’s Academy (IWA). It’s open to individuals or teams of up to four and there are four tickets to the opening ceremony of the Jersey Island Games 2015 up for grabs. The winners will also get to present their design to the States Assembly and Rachel hopes it will help sway politicians in deciding what will happen to the site.

Rachel isn’t stopping with her peers in Jersey though, she has engineered her competition on a global scale – challenging young women everywhere to come up with a new sports venue for their local community on a derelict or brownfield site.

Rachel said: “I felt that running a female engineering competition not just locally but globally, would be a fun and exciting way to promote the engineering industry to women around the world.”

IWA Co Founder Dr Peter Le Masurier said: "Rachel has shown inspirational leadership in developing the Engineering project, Building the Future, Shaping our World. It will be a fantastic opportunity for students on Jersey and more importantly she will be making the competition available to students in many underprivileged countries around the world. This work is an example of a student enabling global female empowerment."

All the entries which will go on show during the Island Games will be judged by a panel including Jersey’s Chief Minister Ian Gorst, Dr Jon Hare who is an Engineering Professor at the University of Southampton, Head of Transport and Technical Services, John Rogers, Civil Engineer Becky Slater and Steven Bailey – the Games Director of the Jersey Island Games 2015.

The International Women’s Academy builds sustainable systems and infrastructure to help empower women to become the future leaders of science, technology and business.

You can find out more about the competition on the Building the Future, Shaping our World Facebook page or by clicking here.