Mechanical engineers help Brownies earn their Inventing badge

A group of Brownies has been inspired to consider careers in engineering after visiting campus to discover robotics, 3D printing labs, and carnival costumes – and earn their Inventing badge.

Eighteen Brownies aged between seven and ten years old visited the University to see the manufacturing, robotics, and 3D printing labs in the School of Mechanical Engineering.

Professor of Applied Creativity, Briony Thomas, along with three technicians, introduced the children to engineering in action by showing them a robot dog, laser cutters, and magnificent carnival costumes created by engineers at the University for Light Night celebrations in Leeds.

The visit was coordinated by Postdoctoral Research Fellow Sophie Hutchinson, who leads a Brownie unit in Far Headingley when she’s not researching Spinal Biomechanics.

After spending time on campus, the Brownies were tasked with building either a sustainable carnival costume or a robot that could help in some way.

Inspired by their tours of the robotics labs, some girls chose to create a pizza vending machine and a homework-doing robot.

Their hard work earned them an Inventing badge to add to their collection of Brownie achievements.

Sophie, also known as Snowy Owl to the Brownies, said: “These girls are all under 10, and at that age, your worldview of careers is really just what your parents and family do.

“If you don’t have those role models to show you different paths, you don’t have any exposure to alternative careers.

“In the past, the Brownies have said to me that I don’t look like an engineer – so I wanted to show them what an engineer really is, and what they do.

“I didn’t know what an engineer was until I was about 14, so it’s really fantastic these girls are learning about this at such a young age. It was so important to show them that engineering isn’t just about building sites and hard hats, but actually high-tech labs and making a difference to people’s lives.

“It’s lovely to think that I might be that role model for these girls, and their feedback was so positive – they’ve definitely been inspired by their visit to campus.”

Since their visit, Sophie says the Brownies have been asking lots of questions about engineers and the group has been discussing famous female engineers such as Ada Lovelace, who is considered the first computer programmer, Sarah Guppy, the first woman to patent a bridge, and Stephanie Kwolek, who invented the super-strong synthetic fibre Kevlar.

Read the full news story on the Faculty Pages for Engineering & Physical Sciences