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Watch: Our interview with Emily

I’m studying Chemical Engineering which means looking at chemical reactions that happen and the different processes the chemicals go through when they react. Most of my study is about scaling up chemical products.

An example is if chemist has come up with a new pharmaceutical in a test tube. How do you roll it out to 2 million people? You have to scale it up. We have to make sure each tablet has the same amount of the drug and it’s distributed evenly. You can apply similar logic to any industry really - whether it’s orange juice or oil and gas.

For me, the best thing about being an engineer is the ability to use your science, maths and technical knowledge to solve real-life problems. I thought about doing a science degree but what I love about engineering is that you can apply it to so many real-life situations. When you think about, so many things that you interact with on a daily basis from the roads you drive on, the buses you get to the toothpaste you use - almost everything has been influenced by engineering.

I don’t have a set plan for the future yet but I definitely want to use my engineering knowledge. I’m really interested in alternative and renewable energies as well as water. We’ve done a few projects on my course about desalination which really interests me and will probably be quite important in the future. I’ve also found out through work with a society I’m involved in that you can use engineering in international development and aid so things like rainwater harvesting and building latrines which are really important example of how engineering can make a difference to people.

We interviewed Emily in 2015.