By Mikayla van Loon
From Yarra Ranges Tech School’s first artist in residence to one of the UK’s top 50 women in engineering, Jess Coldrey has taken her success to the international level.
Announced at the end of June, Jess’ name made it to number nine, featuring among some of the most experienced and also up and coming engineers in the sustainability space.
“It was definitely very exciting. I was quite surprised. As someone quite young and someone who didn’t traditionally train as an engineer, I felt really grateful to be recognised,” she said.
“People who shape the field aren’t always the engineers themselves. There are a lot of great women in STEM, in education, policy, advocacy, sustainability, and even artwork.
“So I suppose while it was flattering, it also made me realise how many types of people it really does take to make the cog turn around, make everything better and more sustainable.”
Undertaking her Masters in humanitarian engineering (with management) at Warwick University, having been a scholarship recipient of the Sir John Monash Foundation, Jess said her reasoning for going overseas was because this was the first university to combine engineering with a humanitarian angle.
“I thought it was a very important new field and perhaps something that we’re missing in Australia,” she said.
“So I wanted to go overseas, so I could learn more about the approaches that we’re teaching and bring them back to Australia so we can improve our approaches to engineering.”
Although a small course of about 20 people, Jess said there was representation from 12 different countries.
“It’s just amazing talking about different challenges and hearing from everyone how things are managed in their country, or issues, their experience and how they’re seeing those factors play out in different places in the world.
“It gives a really international mindset for everything. We think about our own issues and engineering as a country, but looking overseas towards how other places are doing, I think can be a big source of inspiration.”
As someone who came through civil engineering, Jess said each person in her course has a different perspective but the humanitarian side to engineering has been teaching about improving food access, managing disasters, improving health and improving access to power.
Upon returning to Australia at the end of the year, Jess said she will be looking to find a job in engineering strategy and innovation policies, an area that has really sparked her interest.
Nominating herself for the top 50 came from encouragement from women in an engineering society she joined when she moved to England, now Jess hopes it will help her build a career back home.
“Coming from an artistic background, I’ve always been interested in STEM. I would really like to make my mark in engineering and I think it’s a good first step and will hopefully open some doors when I’m looking to start my career.”
