Laura engineers a double celebration

Laura Heathwaite’s job focuses on maximizing the performance of companies in the manufacturing industry.

Today (Tuesday 20 November), she graduates from the University of Teesside having maximized her own academic performance with a BEng in Instrumentation and Control Engineering.

Laura, 27, from Billingham, has also clinched the Cecil M Yuill Foundation Award for achievement by a female student in any field of engineering.

The achievement is even more satisfying when you consider that Laura studied part time for her degree, whilst working for four days a week as a Systems Engineer at Industrial Technology Systems (ITS) Ltd, based in Middlesbrough.

Laura is now looking forward to celebrating her graduation with her parents. She said: ‘My degree has provided me with a background in instrumentation and control, which can be applied in my day-to-day role at ITS.

‘In my role I am responsible for the design, configuration and testing of vision systems to maximise the performance of companies in the manufacturing industry. The modules I studied in measurement processes, light reflections and gratings and successful project execution have all proved really useful.’

Laura is also enthusiastic about her prospects in what many people consider to be a male-dominated profession. She said: ‘The work is varied and challenging and has plenty of job satisfaction as I’m working with new technologies to solve manufacturing problems.

‘I was very pleased and shocked to hear that I’d won the Cecil M Yuill Award. I hope that my knowledge, coupled with the experience I have will enable me to progress in my career at ITS, perhaps moving into different areas of the business to develop my programming skills.’

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