SELEX Galileo engineer wins IET’s Young Woman Engineer of the
Year Award 2010
Edinburgh, 10 December 2010 – Out of the hundreds of applications
from some of the UK's top female engineers, SELEX Galileo’s Arlene
McConnell has been named as the Institution of Engineering
Technology (IET)’s Young Woman Engineer of the Year 2010.
After winning the award, which was presented at the IET’s Savoy
Place in London, Arlene said: “I’m thankful that I’ve been given a
platform to help inspire other young women in engineering. SELEX
Galileo has given me the opportunity to work with exciting, cutting
edge technology, and I’m keen to get other young women to look at
taking up similar roles in the future.”
Arlene, a former member of 603 Squadron Royal Auxiliary Air
Force, is now a radar and advanced targeting systems engineer at
SELEX Galileo and has contributed to the development of some of the
Company’s most advanced products. In her first 2 years, Arlene
worked on the laboratory test and integration of a surveillance
radar as part of the Seaspray AESA radar project and also got
involved in the interface definition for the Raven ES-05 radar,
which will be installed on Saab’s Gripen Next Generation fighter
aircraft.
Alastair Morrison, Senior Vice President Radar and Advanced
Targeting said: “I’m so pleased that Arlene’s talent has been
recognised by the IET. Arlene is representative of the highly
skilled, creative thinkers here at SELEX Galileo in Edinburgh, and
we’ll be relying on engineers like her in the future to meet the
demanding requirements of national and export customers as we
expand into new markets.”
During her time at the Company, Arlene has been encouraged to get
involved in outreach activities at the University of Glasgow and
further afield to encourage women to take an interest in joining a
high-tech focused company like SELEX Galileo. In the coming year
Arlene will also act as an ambassador for the IET, who are keen to
promote rewarding careers for women in engineering.
“These awards are important because they highlight the
incredible contributions female engineers are making in companies
like ours” said Riccardo Meloni, SELEX Galileo’s Human Resources
and Organisation Director, adding: “Role models like Arlene are
absolutely key to encouraging talented young women to take up
careers in engineering.”
Notes to the editors
The Institution of Engineering and Technology is the largest
Engineering organisation of its kind in Europe, with over 150,000
members worldwide. The IET Young Female Engineer of the Year Award
“recognises a young woman who has firmly established herself as an
energetic and technically excellent professional.”
SELEX Galileo turns over around 1.7 billion Euros (£1.4 billion
GBP) every year and invests 15% of this back into research and
development to ensure that the Company stays at the forefront of
technology development. The Company employs 2800 engineers and a
total of over 7000 people, across the UK, Italy and US.
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