“The interface between engineering, technology and policy is something that particularly interests me”
I am a second-year mechanical engineering undergraduate at Imperial. After graduating, I hope to go into renewable or nuclear energy as I would like to have a tangible impact on global challenges. One of the key points for me choosing engineering was the rescue of the trapped Chilean miners in 2010. Seeing the efforts to save their lives and overcome challenges to extract them from an extremely complex location inspired me and illustrated the vast reach and importance of engineering.
Engineering has been responsible for many of the improvements to quality of life and technological advancements that humanity has seen. At the same time, it has brought about changes that have had negative impacts on the world and the people around us. An area I am particularly passionate about is tackling the climate crisis. This has a devastating impact on some of the most vulnerable people in the world, the same people who have contributed the least to the issue. It’s this injustice that drives me to want to apply engineering to tackling problems and improving people’s lives. Africa as an entire continent is only responsible for 3% of global emissions, but faces some of the most severe climate impacts from floods to droughts and more.
Before university, and alongside my degree I have been involved in climate policy and advocacy. My main focus has been education, climate mitigation, energy policy and youth engagement. In my gap year I had the privilege of working on a variety of projects ranging from climate education in the UK, advising for UN climate conferences, and working on adolescent health with the World Health Organisation.
The interface between engineering, technology and policy is something that particularly interests me. Through my campaigning I have taken part in the UN Climate Change Conference COP26, where I was interviewed on BBC News and presented on Sky News. I also visited the Netherlands to speak at a British Council and Foreign Office panel about the role of sustainability in higher education, and visited the UK foreign office to support bilateral diplomatic relations on energy. The role government and politics plays in enabling engineering to succeed is often overlooked, and it’s been an honour to meet with government ministers from multiple countries and UN agencies and learn and engage with this process.