Abbie Hutty

Abigail Hutty (born 1986/1987[1]) is a British mechanical engineer based in Stevenage. She has worked as the lead structures engineer on the European Space Agency ExoMars rover vehicle. In 2016, she was elected as the youngest ever Fellow of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers. She advocates the science and technology education of young people and promotion of careers in the space industry. Her public appearances have included the Royal Institution Christmas Lectures and The Sky at Night.

Abbie Hutty

CEng
Abbie Hutty at Google Mountain View in 2017
Born
Abigail Hutty
Known forWork on ESA's ExoMars project
Scientific career
FieldsMechanical Engineering
InstitutionsEuropean Space Agency

Early life and education

Hutty grew up in Kent, completing A-Levels in Maths, Design and Technology, Physics and French at Weald of Kent Grammar School for Girls in 2005.[2] Hutty became interested in engineering during her GCSEs, watching the Martian mission of the Beagle 2. She studied Mechanical Engineering at the University of Surrey, graduating in 2010, and then completed a one-year placement with Surrey Satellite Technology, before beginning a graduate program at Airbus Defence and Space.[3][4][5]

Career
A prototype ExoMars rover at the Royal Astronomical Society National Annual Meeting 2009 in Hatfield, England

Hutty joined the Airbus Defence and Space graduate scheme in 2010, focussing on dynamic and stress analysis.[1] She was offered a permanent position in the Spacecraft Structures Engineering Group and began work on the ExoMars rover, which is due to launch in 2020. Her work was to bring the design to the manufacturing stage.[6][7] In 2014 she became a Chartered Engineer with the Institution of Mechanical Engineers.[8] She subsequently became the Senior Spacecraft Structures Engineer for ExoMars at Airbus.[9]

Awards
  • 2010: IMechE Frederick Barnes Waldron Best Student Award[1]
  • 2012: Astrium STEM Ambassador Award[10]
  • 2013: IET Young Woman Engineer of the Year[11]
  • 2013: IMechE Young Member of the Year[12]
  • 2014: Royal Academy of Engineering Rising Star Award[13]
  • 2016: Elected youngest Fellow of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers[1]

Public engagement

Hutty spends considerable time working with the media to promote engineering, taking part in the BBC's Sky at Night, Stargazing Live and Euronews.[14][15][16] She is a celebrated science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) ambassador, acting as a guest judge at national STEM fairs and speaking at schools, museums and learning centres.[17][18][19][3]

She appeared in the 2014 Royal Institution Christmas Lectures.[20] Alongside talking about the ExoMars mission, she regularly dispels common misconceptions the public hold about engineering.[21] Hutty gave a TEDxLondon talk in 2017, titled "Why we need new role models in science and engineering".[22] Later in the year, she appeared on BBC 2's Horizon discussing the practicality of people travelling to Mars[23] and has hosted tours of the Airbus facilities.[24] She is enthusiastic about the possibility of finding life on Mars.[25]

Diversity

After winning the IET Young Woman Engineer of the Year award in 2013, Hutty became a more active campaigner for diversity within the engineering profession.[5] In 2016, Hutty was listed in the top 20 influential women in engineering to follow on Twitter.[26] That year she featured on the "Finding Ada" podcast, which highlights the work of women in STEM, describing her role at Airbus.[27] Hutty is a 'role model' to many young women and engineers, and regularly blogs about her experiences in the industry.[28] She took part in the 2015 social campaign "#ILookLikeAnEngineer" to debunk the public image of working engineers.[29][30] In 2017, she was invited to speak at the United Nations Expert Meeting on Space for Women.[31]

References
  1. "Youngest elected Fellow is spacecraft engineer Abigail Hutty CEng FIMechE MIET". Institution of Mechanical Engineers. 20 December 2016. Retrieved 17 October 2017.
  2. "Profile – Robotics Zone". roboticsm16.imanengineer.org.uk. Retrieved 5 October 2017.
  3. "Abbie Hutty". New Scientist Live. Archived from the original on 6 October 2017. Retrieved 17 October 2017.
  4. "Abbie Hutty, MEng Mechanical Engineering". University of Surrey. Retrieved 17 October 2017.
  5. "I'm excited to work on a mission to Mars but my feet are firmly on the ground – Abbie Hutty, Lead Spacecraft Structures Engineer at Airbus Defence and Space". Womanthology. 19 April 2017. Retrieved 17 October 2017.
  6. "Q&A with spacecraft engineer Abbie Hutty – The Engineer The Engineer". www.theengineer.co.uk. Archived from the original on 6 October 2017. Retrieved 5 October 2017.
  7. esa. "ExoMars 2020 rover". European Space Agency. Archived from the original on 6 October 2017. Retrieved 6 October 2017.
  8. "Engineering Council Case Study: Abigail Hutty" (PDF). Retrieved 5 October 2017.
  9. "Robots in Space: The Final Frontier". Institution of Engineering and Technology. Archived from the original on 17 October 2017. Retrieved 17 October 2017.
  10. "Abbie Hutty wins '2013 IET Young Woman Engineer of the Year' award | University of Surrey – Guildford". www.surrey.ac.uk. Retrieved 5 October 2017.
  11. "The IET Young Woman Engineer of the Year Awards – IET Conferences". conferences.theiet.org. Archived from the original on 6 October 2017. Retrieved 5 October 2017.
  12. Engineers, Institution of Mechanical. "October 2013 Young Member Newsletter". www.imeche.org. Retrieved 5 October 2017.
  13. "Engineering Stars recognised at Royal Academy of Engineering Awards Dinner". RAEng. Retrieved 5 October 2017.
  14. "Introducing Abbie Hutty 2013 IET Young Woman Engineer of the Year". 15 January 2014. Retrieved 5 October 2017.
  15. "Meet Europe's first Mars rover". BBC News. Retrieved 5 October 2017.
  16. "Tim Peake pilots 'Martian' rover | BBC Sky at Night Magazine". www.skyatnightmagazine.com. Retrieved 5 October 2017.
  17. "Meet the celebrity judges | The Big Bang Fair 2018". www.thebigbangfair.co.uk. Archived from the original on 6 October 2017. Retrieved 5 October 2017.
  18. "Developing the Next Mars Rover – IMA". IMA. 9 December 2015. Retrieved 5 October 2017.
  19. Engineers, Institution of Mechanical. "Mars – Man or Machine". nearyou.imeche.org. Retrieved 5 October 2017.
  20. "Mars Rover autonomous navigation, Highlights, 2014: Sparks Will Fly – How to Hack your Home, Royal Institution Christmas Lectures – BBC Two". BBC. Retrieved 5 October 2017.
  21. "View | Tomorrow's Engineers". www.tomorrowsengineers.org.uk. Archived from the original on 6 October 2017. Retrieved 5 October 2017.
  22. TEDx Talks (27 June 2017), Why we need new role models in science and engineering | Abbie Hutty | TEDxLondon, retrieved 6 October 2017
  23. Wallaston, Sam (13 September 2017). "Horizon: Mars – A Traveller's Guide review – a nice change from water parks and bar crawls". The Guardian. Retrieved 17 October 2017.
  24. "Life on Mars: a project that's out of this world". Science Council. Retrieved 17 October 2017.
  25. "Abbie Hutty on finding life on Mars and how engineers have all the fun!". Principia Space Diary. Retrieved 19 October 2017.
  26. "Top 50 Women in Engineering on Twitter | Careersmart". careersmart.org.uk. Archived from the original on 6 October 2017. Retrieved 5 October 2017.
  27. "ALD Podcast, Ep 4: Abbie Hutty & Anne-Marie Imafidon – Ada Lovelace Day". findingada.com. Retrieved 5 October 2017.
  28. "Abbie Hutty | Women's Engineering Society". www.wes.org.uk. Archived from the original on 6 October 2017. Retrieved 5 October 2017.
  29. "This Is What An Engineer REALLY Looks Like". Retrieved 5 October 2017.
  30. "This is why women are tweeting #ILookLikeAnEngineer". The Independent. 13 October 2015. Retrieved 5 October 2017.
  31. "Inspiring Future Stem Women : The Value of Realistic Role Models" (PDF). UNOOSA. Retrieved 17 October 2017.
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