This summer our industry celebrated National Women in Engineering Day which champions the work women do within the industry as well as promoting the excellent career prospects available.

To celebrate, the Engineering Innovation South-West Network launched a Dragon’s Den inspired competition ‘Women with Bright Ideas 2014’. Seven finalists were tasked with creating a commercial and manufactural concept to pitch to panel members and investors and ask for help with the development of their idea.

Paul Mullen was selected to join the panel team to judge and scrutinise the ideas brought to the table by the budding entrepreneurs. The team comprised of industry leads included Jessica Bent(Withy King Solicitors), Angela Hobbs (Triteq), Peter Stirling (Stirling Dynamics), Ali Hadavizadeh (University of Bath), Lynn Elvins (Design Wales),Ian Weston (NT CAD CAM) and Haydn Earl (EI-SW).

After a series of pitches, and careful consideration by the panel, it was agreed that two of the designs were of equal quality and innovation resulting in a joint first place.

Catherine Dodd and Rose Phelps of Doddl Cutlery pioneered a revolutionary, ergonomic set of children’s cutlery which is designed to make mealtimes a stress free experience by giving children tools that allow them to eat more independently and progress to using adult cutlery quicker.

Also sharing first place is Chloe Meinick, a brilliant designer and inventor based in the Pervasive Media studio at Bristol’s Watershed Centre. A recent graduate, with an impressive CV of awards and appointments, Chloe has been developing her ‘Musical Memory Box’ aimed at helping Dementia sufferers. The beautifully upholstered box involves objects that are placed into the box, triggering a pre-assigned audio which is then played back to the user. This unique product incorporates a striking design, innovative electronic design, and a genuine mindfulness of user experience.

The competition process was valuable to all who attended. As a business, we took great pleasure in being involved in such an important event for our industry and the women who make it great and are excited by the possibility of assisting with the development of some of finalist’s projects.

‍