Work in engineering – Lottie Tour!
Malvern Panalytical is a supporter of WES – the Women’s Engineering Society, who are organizing the third LottieTour this year for Tomorrows Engineers Week #TEWeek18, 5th to 9th November 2018. During the week, Lottie Dolls will be taking part in the types of work that we do in R&D, keep an eye on the #LottieTour to see what Lottie does during her week here.
During Future Engineer’s week, The Malvern site of Malvern Panalytical hosted ‘Stargazer Lottie’ for a week of work experience. The purpose of her visit was to find out what exactly it means to be a woman in an engineering profession and what sort of jobs she might be expected to do if she becomes an engineer when she grows up.
Lottie spent a lot of time in the Application Lab with Amy, preparing samples and making measurements using some of Malvern Panalytical’s newest instruments, she also spent some time with the Mechanical engineers, designing parts and 3D printing them. She even helped Mick and Steve in the prototyping shop, programming the CNC machines and setting up billets of material to be machined. She joined in with meetings, including a team stand-up (Lottie even bought the biscuits!) and had a meeting with some of our American colleagues via a Microsoft Surface Hub Skype meeting.
Today Lottie is working in the Lab, preparing samples. She’s measuring particles that are nanometers in size, which technology will she use?
We wanted to make sure that Lottie saw more than just the technical aspects of what it means to work at Malvern Panalytical, so she went out running with Paola on the beautiful Malvern Hills. She joined her team for lunch in our newly refurbished kitchen area, which we call ‘The Woods’.
Monday
Today Lottie is working in the Lab, preparing samples. She’s measuring particles that are nanometers in size, which technology will she use?
To prepare her samples, Lottie is using a micropipette. The sample volumes are very small so she has to be really precise with her measurements.
Tuesday
Today Lottie is making measurements on some of Malvern Panalytical’s instruments. Here she is changing the Laser module in a NanoSight NS300 so that she can measure fluorescent particles.
Lottie is running a test on the NanoSight NS300 – she’s watching her particles move under Brownian motion, the smaller they are, the quicker they move.
Lottie is going to use the new Zetasizer Ultra, which measures the size and Zeta Potential of nanoparticles. Zeta Potential can tell her about the stability of her formulation.
Lottie is preparing the Morphologi 4-ID for a measurement. She wants to know if her sample was correctly manufactured. The instrument uses Raman Spectroscopy to tell her the chemical make-up of a sample.
Lottie wants to measure flow characteristics. For this she can use the Kinexus Pro+ Rheometer – she’s just choosing which measurement geometry to use before she starts.
Wednesday
Today Lottie is working in the Machine shop – this is where we prototype designs. Here she’s putting a billet of metal into the CNC machine. Soon she will have her prototype.
Now Lottie needs to programme the CNC machine so that her part can be made – she will load in a drawing, check it and then set the CNC machine going.
Lottie is printing some parts using a 3D printer – she designed these parts using CAD and sent the file to be printed in plastic, later she can see if the parts will do the job she designed them for.
It’s Lottie’s turn to buy biscuits for the stand-up meeting. Today she bought shortbread and is waiting for the rest of the team to turn up.
Lottie has been joining in with outside work activities, today she went for a run with Paola, up to the Malvern Spring and the top of the Worcester Beacon.
Thursday
Lottie has her passport ready to travel to meet with colleagues and suppliers. She is traveling to the Malvern Panalytical site in Almelo, which is in The Netherlands.
Friday
Today Lottie is at the Malvern Panalytical site in Almelo, The Netherlands. She ttraveledthere yesterday and will be spending today meeting with colleagues.
Lottie said she had a very interesting week and would definitely like to work somewhere like Malvern Panalytical when she grows up.