Rachel Brown

I could say that I was inspired to become an engineer because I had fantastic teachers, I could say it was because Maths and Physics were some of my favourite subjects at school, or I could say it was because I was inspired by winning national and international engineering competitions at a young age, which are all true. But in reality, the reason why I wanted to become an engineer was because I saw it as an opportunity to make a difference, no other subject allowed me to see my product solving pain points for users, which was something I found really amazing.

I used my Arkwright Engineering Scholarship funding towards a trip to Mexico, quite literally! I was fortunate enough to win a place at the ExpoCiencias, an international engineering and science competition in Villahermosa Mexico, with my invention Move-A-Volt. Move-A-Volt is a human powered phone charger which I developed in Year 12, and through Arkwright connections I was able to present it to an international audience, which still blows my mind to this day.

I am now studying at Imperial College London for my MEng in Design Engineering. Currently ranked first in my year I am proving that girls are just as good engineers as the boys, whilst also trying to make the most of my time left by inventing products, improving systems, and praying my 3D printer will work. Overall, Design Engineering and Imperial have opened up so many doors for me and shown me a whole new world compared to what I experienced at school.

My future plans are to firstly finish my degree, then enter the world of work, for which I currently am deciding between two offers within the Design Engineering field. As a Design Engineer I belong in either a big companies innovation team or in my own business selling my own weird and whacky products, so we shall see where life takes me!

Advice to current scholars would be make the most of your scholarship! It isn’t just the money; it is the connections and the experiences that could be massively beneficial for you. Also think about the future and not just in the short term especially when you make your connections.

Students thinking of applying to Arkwright, honestly if you think that you want to go into engineering the Arkwright scholarship is probably one of the best things you could do, just show your passion for Engineering as a subject and make sure you plan to make the most of all opportunities given to you!