Top engineering award is child’s play for Glasgow woman

10 January 2008

The IET (Institution of Engineering and Technology) has today announced that Mamta Singhal, age 27 from East Kilbride, Glasgow has scooped the Women’s Engineering Society (WES) Prize at the prestigious 2007 IET Young Woman Engineer of the Year Awards.

Mamta began her engineering career as a creative development engineer for toy manufacture Hasbro helping produce a range of hugely popular toys including Action Man™ and Shrek 2™

Currently Mamta is lecturing in Mechanical Engineering at Strathclyde University, and studying for an executive MBA.

Robin McGill, chief executive of the IET said: “I would like to congratulate Mamta on this fantastic achievement. Mamta is a very talented engineer and is particularly passionate about informing others of the great opportunities and challenges that a career in engineering can provide. A great role model for other young women, Mamta has a promising career in engineering and technology ahead of her.”

McGill continued: “This year’s IET Young Woman Engineer of the Year competition has attracted hundreds of high calibre candidates, clearly demonstrating the impressive quality of young women now following successful careers in engineering. However, the IET is concerned that only 5.4 per cent of the UK’s engineers are women and more needs to be done to demonstrate that engineering provides an excellent career choice with many great opportunities. The IET is committed to raising the profile of engineering and encouraging more young people, including women, to consider a wider participation within the profession. In particular, we hope the IET Young Woman Engineer of the Year Awards will help to address the shortage of female role models within engineering, especially in light of the current skills shortages within the industry.”

Mamta’s responsibilities at Hasbro included the design and manufacture of toys ensuring that products were made with the correct materials and conformed to the specified mechanical function level. Throughout her time at Hasbro, Mamta worked on toys and games including Action Man™, GI Joe™, Transformers™ and licensed games such as Thunderbirds™, Shrek 2™ and Monopoly™.

Being responsible for more than 100 international engineering projects, Mamta gained significant experience applying her engineering, technology and material theories expertise to operations management. Mamta was responsible for successfully planning and managing a project to manufacture a unique toy product for the French market. Mamta also helped to successfully launch and license the Lord of the Rings Monopoly ensuring that the product was designed and delivered within tight deadlines.

Mamta is keen to share her enthusiasm for engineering with others and has given various talks, in particular The Women’s Society, to tell people about why she enjoys engineering and why more should consider entering the profession.

Mamta will receive an engraved trophy and a cheque for £500 at the BT Centre, London from scientist and TV personality Dr Maggie Aderin.

The Young Woman Engineer of the Year Awards are the most prestigious honours of their kind in the UK and attracts prominent supporters and sponsors including BT, Women’s Engineering Society, Shell and Arup. The awards are this year celebrating their 30th anniversary. To mark this special milestone some of the previous winners from the past 30 years will be attending the event.

All media enquiries to:

Jenny Bond

T: 020 7344 5445

E: jennybond@theiet.org