Department of Engineering / News / PhD student Laura James reaches finals for The WISE Excellence Award

Department of Engineering

PhD student Laura James reaches finals for The WISE Excellence Award

PhD student Laura James reaches finals for The WISE Excellence Award

The Women Into Science and Engineering (WISE) Excellence Award has announced the finalists for the annual awards for outstanding women scientists, engineers, and technologists.

Laura James

The WISE Excellence Award, a cheque for £1,000 and an engraved silver business card holder, will be presented to a woman who has, in the opinion of judges, demonstrated a commitment to the promotion of science and engineering to girls and women. Six finalists will attend a reception on 2nd November at the Engineering Employers' Federation (EEF) in London, where the award will be presented by the Princess Royal.

Laura James, who is just starting the final year of her PhD in Engineering, is one of the six finalists. Laura works in the Centre for Photonic Systems, a vital component of the new Centre for Advanced Photonics and Electronics (CAPE), where her supervisor is Prof Ian White.

Her main research is on the Smoothed optical ATD packet switching (SOAPS) project, a collaboration with Intel Research Cambridge, to build an optically switched network for short distance data transport. Laura has been a Science and Engineering Ambassador for a number of years and really enjoys running practical engineering activities for children in local schools as well as at special events, such as Science Week and Techlinks. She also organises regular speaker lunches for the Women@CL group, for women in computing in the University.
 

References:
Centre for Photonic Systems: http://www-g.eng.cam.ac.uk/photonic_comms/
Smoothed optical ATD packet switching (SOAPS) project
Since the launch of the WISE campaign in 1984 the number of women taking engineering degrees has doubled. To read more about the WISE campaign go to: http://www.wisecampaign.org.uk/

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