ANU graduate Bridget Legg (Bachelor of Engineering (R&D) ’13) returned to campus to share her university and early career experiences with year 11 and 12 students at the ANU Girls in Engineering and Technology Program – GET Set earlier this month.
The GET Set program is designed to provide female students an opportunity to explore engineering, fields of study and most important engage with like minded people and ANU students who can share their stories.
Encouraging more females into STEM related areas is important to the College and often an initiative that former students like Bridget would like to contribute to. “These types of events give female students a chance to ask questions and raise concerns that they might not feel as comfortable asking about in a male dominated environment“ says Bridget.
While GET Set has been running for eight years, Bridget did not participate as a high school student but can now see the value in programs such as these. “I think events like this could have increased my awareness of engineering as a field of study. I went to an all girls school and never heard engineering discussed as an option by my peers or teachers. It was great to see so many young women come along to hear about engineering.”
Bridget majored in Renewable Energy Systems and was able to tailor the research component of her degree to this area of study. “The research projects gave me a really good combination of skills… I got to work in a world-class photovoltaics (PV) lab making and testing PV cells.”
“It’s those kind of projects which may only have a small impact as individual projects but all the work that’s being done here really does have a big impact and it’s something that’s really great to be a part of, especially as an undergraduate.”
Studying systems engineering opened up a variety of career opportunities for Bridget and her fellow graduates. “I went into energy efficiency but I’ve seen my friends from University go into other jobs so some have gone into software engineering, some of them have gone into consulting roles and those businesses are always keen to get engineers. There’s definitely a really wide range of career options that you have coming out of this degree.”
“Doing this kind of work can have a big impact and it’s really rewarding. It also means that you get to do a really wide range of work in your job… You get to go in and learn about something new.”