Yewande Akinola

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Yewande Akinola
Born1984
Ibadan, Nigeria
Alma mater Cranfield University
University of Warwick
Employer Laing O'Rourke
Known forDesign Engineering

Yewande Akinola MBE HonFREng (born 1984) is a Chartered Engineer who specialises in sustainable water supplies. She works as Principal Engineer for Laing O'Rourke and hosts television shows about engineering for Channel 4 and National Geographic.

Contents

Education

Yewande Akinola was born in 1984 in Nigeria. As a child she designed model-sized houses. [1] Her father, J. M Akinola, was Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Works of the old Western Region in Nigeria. [2] Yewande Akinola studied Engineering Design and Appropriate Technology at the University of Warwick, which she completed in 2007. During her degree she was a mechanical engineer for Thames Water, where she worked on clean water treatment sites. In 2007 she was employed by Arup Group as a Design Engineer designing water supplies and water management systems. Whilst working for Arup, she earned a master's degree from Cranfield University in 2011. [3]

Career

Yewande Akinola is interested in developing water and sanitation for underdeveloped countries. [1] She has worked on projects in the UK, Africa, Middle East and East Asia. [4] She is the founder of the Global Emit Project, which mentors young people who are interested in engineering. [5] [6]

In 2010 Yewande Akinola presented Titanic: The Mission for Channel 4 [7] and National Geographic Society. [8] In 2012 she judged the Queen Elizabeth Prize for Engineering competition to create a trophy. [9] That year, she was shortlisted and won the IET Young Woman Engineer of the Year Award. [10] She has also presented for CBeebies and Yesterday TV. [11] [12] [13] Yewande Akinola has appeared on BBC Radio 4. [14] In 2014 Yewande Akinola designed a Rainwater Harvesting System. [15] [16]

In 2013 Akinola worked with Girl Guiding UK to encourage more young women into engineering. [17] She featured in a Royal Academy of Engineering campaign "Designed to Inspire". [18] She was featured on the QEPrize 2014 campaign "Create The Future". [19] She delivered a keynote talk at the 2016 Ada Lovelace day celebration. [20] She featured in the Institution of Engineering and Technology 2017 campaign "Portrait of an Engineer". [21] In 2021 she was elected an Honorary Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering [22]

Awards

1998 - Nigerian National Mathematics Award [2]

2009 - UK’s Society of Public Health Engineers Award for Young Rising Star [3]

2012 - Exceptional Achiever Award by the Association for Black Engineers (AFBE-UK) [2]

2012 - Young Woman Engineer of the Year from the IET [23]

2013 - Management Today’s top 35 women under 35 [24]

2014 - PRECIOUS Award for Outstanding Woman in STEM [25]

See also

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References

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  7. Agard, Karlene. "Megaproject Trends For 2019: Yewande Akinola On The Next Frontier In Design". Forbes. Retrieved 11 March 2019.
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