Roma Agrawal Explained

Roma Agrawal
Birth Place:Mumbai, India
Alma Mater:University of Oxford
Imperial College London
Occupation:Structural Engineer
Employer:AECOM

Roma Agrawal is an Indian-British chartered structural engineer based in London. She has worked on several major engineering projects, including the Shard. Agrawal is also an author and a diversity campaigner, championing women in engineering.

Early life and education

Agrawal was born in 1983 in Mumbai, India, before moving to London.[1] She also lived in Ithaca, New York for five years. She completed her A-Levels at North London Collegiate School. In 2004, she gained a BA in physics from the University of Oxford, and in 2005, an MSc in Structural Engineering from Imperial College London.

Agrawal attributes her enthusiasm for engineering to her love of making (and breaking) things, cultivated by playing with Lego as a child.[2] Agrawal attributes her entry into engineering to a summer placement at the Oxford Physics Department where she worked alongside engineers who were designing particle detectors for CERN.[3]

Career

In 2005, Agrawal joined Parsons Brinckerhoff (later called WSP) on a graduate program, becoming a chartered engineer with the Institution of Structural Engineers in 2011. She spent six years working on the tallest building in Western Europe, the Shard, designing the foundations and the iconic spire.[4] She describes the project as a career highlight: "I think projects like that only come once or twice in your career, so I feel very fortunate to have had the opportunity to work on this".[5] The 1016feet tall structure required a top-down construction methodology, which had never been done before on a building of this scale.[6] The spire required modular construction that could be built and tested off-site, enabling quick and safe assembly at height in central London.[7]

Alongside the Shard, Agrawal worked on Crystal Palace Station and the Northumbria University Footbridge. She worked for WSP for ten years before joining Interserve as a Design Manager in November 2015.[8] In May 2017, Agrawal joined AECOM as an associate director.[9]

In 2018 Agrawal was appointed Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE).[10] She was appointed a Fellow of the Institution of Civil Engineers in 2018 and elected an Honorary Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering in 2021 [11]

Awards

Public engagement

Following her six years working on The Shard, Agrawal found herself presenting on her work to children at school and students at university and found a passion for raising awareness of engineering.[17] She has since presented to over 15,000 people worldwide.

Agrawal's career has been covered extensively in both online and print media.[18] She was a founding member of the Your Life Campaign, designed to change school children's perception of science and engineering backed by the Department of Business, Innovation and Skills.[19]

In 2014, she was part of Marks and Spencer's Leading Ladies campaign, alongside Annie Lennox, Emma Thompson and Rita Ora.[20] Later that year, she was chosen as one of six women engineers to follow on Twitter by The Guardian.[21] She has given two TEDx talks, "City 2.0" (2013) and "Three Moments that will Change the World" (2015). She has featured on several BBC, Channel 4, and Science Channel television programs. Since 2017, she has appeared as a judge on the Channel 4 reality programme Lego Masters[22] and as a structural engineer expert on Mysteries of the Abandoned. She judged the trophy design competition for the Queen Elizabeth Prize for Engineering in 2015 and 2017.

Agrawal's book, titled Built: the Hidden Stories Behind our Structures, an introduction to structural engineering, was published in 2018.[23] The IET E&T magazine described it as a "a treatise on structural engineering". They went on to say

Diversity

In 2013, Agrawal was voted one of Management Todays Top 35 Women Under 35.[24] She raises awareness through social media, podcasts and interviews.[25] [26] [27] [28] After being a finalist herself in 2012,[29] she was a keynote speaker at the IET's Young Women Engineer of the Year award ceremony in 2016, and in 2017 was listed as one of the "Inspiring Women in Engineering" by the Women's Engineering Society.[30]

Bibliography

YearTitlePublisherISBN
2019Built: The Hidden Stories Behind Our StructuresBloomsbury Publishing
2021How Was That Built?Bloomsbury Publishing
2023Nuts and Bolts: Seven Small Inventions That Changed the World (In a Big Way) HodderTBC

Notes and References

  1. News: Roma Agrawal on bridging the diversity gap in engineering and inspiring a future generation : Soapbox Science . 5 December 2018 . Nature . 16 September 2014 . 26 December 2018 . https://web.archive.org/web/20181226064704/http://blogs.nature.com/soapboxscience/2014/09/16/roma-agrawal-on-bridging-the-diversity-gap-in-engineering-and-inspiring-a-future-generation . dead .
  2. News: Structural Engineer Roma Agrawal talks about STEM careers . 10 September 2014. Womanthology. 29 September 2017.
  3. Web site: Once a physicist: Roma Agrawal. Institute of Physics. 6 January 2022. https://web.archive.org/web/20190713062821/https://www.iop.org/careers/working-life/profiles/page_65775.html . 13 July 2019.
  4. News: Inspirational Woman: Roma Agrawal Structural engineer who helped design London's Shard skyscraper. 23 June 2017. WeAreTheCity.com. 1 October 2017.
  5. News: Roma Agrawal, IET Young Woman Engineer of the Year finalist. Women in STEM. 1 October 2017. 29 March 2018. https://web.archive.org/web/20180329152849/http://www.womeninstem.co.uk/women-in-engineering/roma-agrawal-iet-young-woman-engineer-of-the-year-finalist. dead.
  6. News: Roma Agrawal – The Shard. 8 August 2013. 1 October 2017.
  7. Agrawal Roma. Parker John. Slade Ron. 1 March 2015. Building on the Edge. Civil Engineering Magazine . 85. 3. 60–67. 10.1061/ciegag.0000979.
  8. News: Aecom hires Shard engineer Roma Agrawal. Building. 1 October 2017.
  9. Web site: Shard engineer moves to Aecom. www.theconstructionindex.co.uk. 1 October 2017.
  10. News: Queen's Birthday Honours full list for 2018 - from celebs to unsung heroes. Maddock. David. 8 June 2018. mirror. 8 June 2018.
  11. Web site: Academy celebrates first new Fellows elected under Fit for the Future diversity initiative . Royal Academy of Engineering . 22 September 2021.
  12. Web site: Roma Agrawal. Women's Engineering Society. dev.wes.org.uk. 29 September 2017. https://web.archive.org/web/20170930041206/http://dev.wes.org.uk/romaagrawal. 30 September 2017. dead.
  13. News: Winners 2014 – Women in Construction Awards. https://web.archive.org/web/20140803152517/http://womeninconstructionawards.co.uk/winners-2014. dead. 3 August 2014. Women in Construction Awards. 29 September 2017.
  14. Web site: Engineering Excellence Awards 2014 – winners revealed. Infrastructure Intelligence. 29 September 2017.
  15. Web site: Lewis Kent Award Winners. Institution of Structural Engineers. 29 September 2017. 30 September 2017. https://web.archive.org/web/20170930024620/https://www.istructe.org/lewis-kent-award. dead.
  16. Web site: Designed to inspire: Roma the Engineer wins top Academy Award RAEng. Royal Academy of Engineering. 29 September 2017. 29 September 2017. https://web.archive.org/web/20170929232212/http://www.raeng.org.uk/news/news-releases/2017/june/designed-to-inspire-roma-the-engineer-wins-top-aca. dead.
  17. News: Structural Engineer Roma Agrawal talks about STEM careers . 10 September 2014. Womanthology. 29 September 2017.
  18. News: From India to London Bridge: How the UK's rising engineering star Roma Agrawal helped build The Shard. Kasumu. Barbara. Daily Telegraph. 4 July 2013. 29 September 2017. 0307-1235.
  19. Web site: Over 2000 new jobs and apprenticeships from leading STEM organisations – GOV.UK. www.gov.uk. 29 September 2017.
  20. Web site: In The Moment: The Leading Ladies Style & Living M&S. www.marksandspencer.com. 29 September 2017.
  21. News: National Women in Engineering Day: six Twitter accounts to follow. Minter. Harriet. 23 June 2014. The Guardian. 29 September 2017. 0261-3077.
  22. Web site: New Channel 4 series to find the most talented LEGO builders. Immediate Media Company . 4 April 2018.
  23. Web site: Built. Bloomsbury Publishing. 29 September 2017.
  24. News: 35 Women Under 35: Meet your next boss. 29 September 2017.
  25. News: Why stereotypes are causing a skills gap in UK engineering. Agrawal. Roma. 23 June 2015. 29 September 2017.
  26. Web site: Spotlight on Women in Science with Roma Agrawal : Naturejobs Blog. blogs.nature.com. 29 September 2017.
  27. Web site: Careers. https://web.archive.org/web/20150224025629/http://www.physics.org/careerprofile.asp?ProfileId=52. dead. 24 February 2015. www.physics.org. 29 September 2017.
  28. News: Roma Agrawal, IET Young Woman Engineer of the Year finalist. 18 January 2013. Talent 2030. 29 September 2017.
  29. Web site: IET. IET 2012 Young Woman Engineer of the Year award finalist Roma Agrawal.. YouTube. 19 July 2013. 29 September 2017.
  30. Web site: Role models Women's Engineering Society. dev.wes.org.uk. 29 September 2017. https://web.archive.org/web/20170929232933/http://dev.wes.org.uk/rolemodels. 29 September 2017. dead.

This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Roma Agrawal".

Except where otherwise indicated, Everything.Explained.Today is © Copyright 2009-2024, A B Cryer, All Rights Reserved. Cookie policy.