International Women in Engineering Day 2022 – Laura Matthews

24th June, 2022

For our final feature for International Women in Engineering Day 2022, we spoke to Laura Matthews, a Project Services Engineer at ODE, about her role supporting engineering projects and her interest in sustainability.

What do you find rewarding about your role in engineering?

Seeing projects benefit from the service and support our team provides. The role of a Project Services Engineer is to help improve engineering projects by bringing more control, transparency, and predictability to the table. Being part of the successful delivery of a project is enormously rewarding.

What new developments in the industry are you most interested in?

I’m most interested in developments that focus on increasing the sustainability of renewable energies and fossil fuels. Currently, not all renewable energy is entirely sustainable despite being described as such. For example, some forms of bioenergy production, such as the burning of biomass, is viewed as unsustainable due to its level of carbon dioxide emissions and subsequent impact on climate change. However, with its enormous potential, I am keen to see developments that open the door to new methods of converting biological matter into energy. Sustainability is the ability to meet the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs – it would be great to see this notion at the forefront of all future innovations within the industry.