The Institution of Engineering and Technology (IET), a diverse home for engineering and technology across the world, has announced the winners of its Young Woman Engineer of the Year Awards (YWE).

Where Women Work is a supporter of this important and prestigious award that celebrate the best in female engineering talent. 

Ella Podmore, Materials Engineer for McLaren Automotive

IET has named Ella Podmore as its Young Woman Engineer of the Year. 

Ella is a Materials Engineer for luxury British supercar maker McLaren Automotive. She is responsible for all the material investigations in the business across all development phases of the company’s supercars; from concept drawings, all the way to customers in the field. Balancing her time between experiments and leading technical meetings, Ella created this department from the ground-up and plans to demonstrate the importance of materials in the automotive industry even further. As the leading STEM ambassador for McLaren, Ella helped launch the recent competition McLaren Automotive ran with BBC Blue Peter asking children to design their ‘supercar of the future’ and was one of Autocar’s Top 10 ‘Rising Star’ in 2019.

"Huge congratulations, Ella! We can’t wait to work with you to smash stereotypes," tweeted the IET following the announcement.

Shrouk El-Attar, Electronic engineer for Elvie

Shrouk El-Attar has been awarded the Women’s Engineering Society (WES) Prize. This award, which the IET says in "well deserved" for Shrouk, is for an engineer who is committed to inspiring the next generation of diverse and passionate STEM pioneers. 

As an Electronic engineer at Elvie, Shrouk engineers smart tech that improves the lives of cis women and trans men, whilst breaking down barriers and smashing taboos. Shrouk previously worked with surgeons operating on the eye, on IoT Tech at Intel and at Fujitsu in Kawasaki and did her master’s research in Electron Spin Resonance (ESR). Shrouk has been a STEM Ambassador since 2011, teaching children about engineering solutions and most recently headed up a project, teaching maths to children of refugees.

Denize Ivy Pilarta, BAE Systems Submarines apprentice

Finally, the winner of the IET's Mary George Memorial Prize is Denize Ivy Pilarta, an apprentice at BAE Systems Submarines who is already making a big impact in the engineering industry.

Denize is responsible for ensuring the structural integrity of submarines, working alongside technicians confirming critical components are free from unwanted defects. As a passionate STEM ambassador, Denize supports many educational events including: World Skills Live UK and ‘The Road to Engineering’ hosted by BAE. She has been awarded ‘MAKE UK Engineering Apprentice of the Year: Rising Star National Winner’ for her dedication to continuously improve, and actively promotes the endless possibilities within STEM to young girls.

Find out more