Ada Lovelace Day is an international day celebrating the achievements of women in science, technology, engineering and maths (STEM). Ada Lovelace Day is a fabulous initiative aimed to increasing the profile of women in STEM and encouraging more girls into STEM careers.

To celebrate Ada Lovelace Day, Where Women Work asked women working in the STEM sector who is a pioneering woman who has inspired them and why?

Dr Xiaoli Chu, Lecturer in Electronic & Electrical Engineering at University of Sheffield says

"Professor Andrea Goldsmith is Professor of Electrical Engineering at Stanford University. I admire her because her publications have got nearly 55,000 citations according to Google Scholar and she is also an inventor on 28 patents. She founded and served as Chief Technical Officer of two companies, one of which went public in 2016. Professor Goldsmith has received several awards for her work including the IEEE Communications Society Edwin H. Armstrong Achievement Award, and Technical Achievement Awards in Communications Theory and in Wireless Communications. She has served in various leadership roles in the IEEE and in professional organizations aimed at diversifying STEM fields."

Himanshi Kaushik, Assistant Manager in Talent Management & Development at AECOM in India says

"A pioneering woman who has inspired me is Indra Nooyi, former CEO of PepsiCo where there are many women engineers involved in the manufacturing and product chain. Indra Nooyi truly inspires me because she appears to effectively balance the role of CEO and motherhood. Her work on ‘Performance with Purpose’ at PepsiCo is fantastic because it’s not only the bottom line financials that matter, but Indra Nooyi believes that organisations and employees must have a purpose - a purpose to positively impact people's lives."

Talented women engineers forgiung great careers

Here are just a few of the many impressive women engineers working on amazing projects:

- AECOM's Roma Agrawal loves the technical challenge of engineering
- Claire Dowsett's brilliant Schneider Electric career
- Saheela Mohammed's outstanding contribution to University of Sheffield's Faculty of Engineering
- Rio Tinto's Hannah is a mechatronics engineer and Anne Wittmeyer is a research scientist
- I’m a Barbie Girl in an Engineering World says Dr Rachel Rothman
- No day is the same for AECOM's Bridget Ssamula

Inspired by women working in STEM? Why not research the range of roles available - especially in engineering - with prime employers?