The low number of women engineers in the workplace is a concern worldwide. In the UK, the proportion is only 6%, and in South Africa this is a key issue for ECSA; so something a little different for the new year is our story about a remarkable woman engineer, Morongwe Raphasha, who is making a difference helping young women to become engineers in this country through the dynamic organisation, WomEng. Following the progress of the Pneudrive Challenge, I also noticed that three talented young women featured in the final winners list. Congratulations to Madeli du Toit (Stellenbosch), Portia Sibambo (Wits) and Tiisetso Ramolobe (Wits) for your impressive achievements. On the home front, Technews has sponsored an organisation called One Girl, which provides education scholarships for young girls.
This made me think of some famous women who have pulled off significant engineering achievements. Women engineers have been contributing their ingenuity alongside their male colleagues for centuries and there are some rather interesting examples.
Sarah Guppy (1770-1852) contributed to the design of Britain’s infrastructure. In 1811 her first patented invention described a way of making safe piling for bridges. Beatrice Shilling (1909-1990) was an aeronautical engineer who corrected a defect in the Rolls Royce Merlin engine during World War 2 – when she wasn’t riding motor bikes. Emily Roebling (1803-1903) was the chief engineer on the Brooklyn Bridge after her husband became paralysed. She is credited with being at the helm of one of the biggest engineering feats of her time. The Brooklyn Bridge was completed in 1883.
Lord Byron’s daughter, Ada Lovelace, a mathematician and scientist, was the world’s first computer programmer. In the 1840s, she collaborated with Charles Babbage, the inventor of the analytical engine that is generally held to be the world’s first computer. She worked out a language for the engine and predicted that it would compose complex music, produce graphics and be harnessed for both practical and scientific use.
An intriguing contribution comes from the famous movie star of the 1930s and ’40s, Hedy Lamarr (1913-2000), who took time out from some memorable acting to invent a remote-controlled communications system for the US military during World War 2. Her frequency hopping theory still forms the basis for modern communications technology, including Wi-Fi and Bluetooth.
Martha Coston (1826-1904) developed signal flares that are still used by the US navy today. Kate Gleason (1865-1933) designed and perfected a machine that could produce bevelled gears quickly and cheaply and the family’s factory became the leading US producer of gear cutting machinery prior to World War I; and one of the most travelled pieces of highway in the US was designed by Marilyn Reece (1926-2004), who said she studied engineering because she liked mathematics and “didn’t want to be a teacher.”
Another gamechanger is Siemens, a company that believes that business can only truly succeed if it helps to fulfil the needs of the society in which it operates. Besides helping to drive a country’s economic growth, the technology giant insists that a business should also add lasting value to the community. To this end, Siemens recently invested in a study called ‘In South Africa. For South Africa: The Business to Society Report’ to determine its contribution to South African society. This is worth a read and gives some encouragement against the backdrop of our current economic woes.
Beckhoff came to the party for our New Technology section with a feature on a new research facility housing the European XFEL X-ray laser, which relies on PC-based control and drive technology from Beckhoff. This superconducting electron linear accelerator will open up completely new fields of research, making possible 3D nanoworld images, deciphering of the atomic details of viruses and cells and examination of ultra-fast chemical reaction. I have to admit I am a fan of nanotechnology and I also enjoyed our story on the nanoclutch, which demonstrates the transmission of torque at the nano-level.
We also have a couple of different feature stories. South Africa is a centre of excellence in a number of medical fields and in our Medical feature we have one about the Da Vinci robot introduced at Pretoria’s Urology Hospital for routine surgery, based on 39 drives and DC motors from maxon motor; and in our Agriculture feature, engineers at DeLaval International in Sweden devised an hydraulically powered robotic milking system that makes the cows actually want to be milked. To top it off, if you like being scared out of your wits check out our Entertainment feature on the Wicked Twister based on linear induction motors at the Cedar Fair in Ohio, USA.
Kim Roberts
Editor
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