Professor Yewande Akinola gives inaugural lecture as Royal Academy of Engineering Visiting Professor at Westminster

Dr Bonfield chaired the event, introducing Professor Akinola and discussing her role at the University as Visiting Professor.

In an ever-evolving world, engineering and technology are at the heart of the huge transformation we are experiencing, and a career in STEM has become a way of life. In her inaugural lecture, Professor Akinola shared her discovery of the roles innovative engineering and technology play in bringing progress to our world, from the development of our built environment to more specific and intentional problem-solving.

Throughout her address, she spoke about her journey to becoming an engineer, which started during her childhood with the rich culture surrounding  her as she grew up. She also highlighted how she spent much of her teenage years designing and making models of better living spaces for her family and loved ones, and her mother’s encouragement to pursue a career in engineering. 

She also discussed her professional journey as an engineer, and said that the basis and foundation for her career in engineering was focused on design for upliftment (progress, buy-back time and energy), design for sustainability (continuity) and design for context (people and lifestyle). 

She gave examples of some of the major moments in her career, including taking part in a show where she and a group of three others walked in the shoes of men and women who built the Titanic to build the ship to its original specification, using the same methods and constraints from the time. She said: “In so many ways, I think this was the awakening for me that there had to be this relationship between engineering and society. Society really had to see that engineers were there to create the world that they lived in, and help to enable people moving from one place to another to help enable better transport and better sustainability.”

Following Professor Akinola’s main address, attendees were invited to ask her questions in a dedicated Q&A session with Dr Bonfield, which included questions about her appointment as UK Ambassador for Clean Growth and Infrastructure for Innovate UK, the synergies between cost, sustainability and success and the cross-fertilisation of different disciplines. 

Professor Izzet Kale, Research Director at the College of Design, Creative and Digital Industries, closed the event, thanking Professor Akinola for sharing her experience, describing the lecture as “truly inspiring for us all”, and for allowing students at Westminster to learn from her expertise. He also gave his thanks to the Royal Academy of Engineering for making her Visiting Professorship at Westminster possible.

Professor Akinola is an engineering designer and innovator, having worked all around the world on different building projects in the engineering design consultancy and the construction industries. She began working with the University as a Royal Academy of Engineering Visiting Professor in 2019, interacting with University colleagues as well as with students through teaching sessions on construction and innovation. She also runs career events at Westminster to help students gain an understanding of what day-to-day work is like in construction and design consultancy companies.

Watch the full event on the University of Westminster YouTube channel.