Tell us about your role and how you became interested in engineering

I’m Nicole and I’m a Mechanical Design Engineer. I work on the Mining Expendables team in Weir ESCO in Portland, USA, where I design, optimise and analyse our mining size castings.

My interest in engineering began in high school. I liked my maths and science classes and was fortunate enough to take an intro to engineering course in my sophomore year. That solidified my interest in engineering. In college, I really started enjoying mechanical engineering. I worked on various projects where I could be hands-on and creative while working to solve problems.

In 2019, I got a 3-month summer internship in the new product development team. During this time, I really enjoyed design engineering. I worked on CAD models and analysis programs to help design new parts - it was so cool!

What’s the most exciting/innovative project you’ve worked on?

I recently worked on a new project to optimise a wear cap. I worked on finding solutions for problems that customers were seeing in the field by adding wear material in key places to make it last longer in certain applications, and added new handling features to improve safety.

I also designed the tooling for this new part and worked with our foundry team to ensure that it provided improvements. The feedback was incredibly positive, and the foundry team want to implement similar tooling design for other parts.

This project was exciting because I was able to work on it from start to finish - from data collection to the final parts coming out of the foundry. It was also exciting because I was able to increase safety, delight the customer with an improved design, and optimise the tooling while lowering the cost of material.

What would you say to other young people who may be considering a career in engineering [or your field in our sector]?

Being a design engineer is an amazing field to work in. I think it is a great intersection of maths, science and creativity – used to solve a multitude of problems. My advice is to research different engineering disciplines – talk to engineers about their jobs and the fields they work in. The field of engineering is broad, so find out what sounds fun and interesting to you.

What makes you feel that you can be yourself and belong at Weir?

The people at Weir create a great environment where I feel that I can be myself. I have been wonderfully supported and feel that the people I work with genuinely care about me as a person. Being in a positive work environment allows me to come to work every day with a good attitude and mindset, and I feel that my best work is a result of that.

How do you see your future career?

I see myself continuing to grow as a design engineer while gaining leadership experience. I would like to eventually become a team lead or manager in engineering.

Sustainability is at the heart of what we do at Weir. Why is it important to you?

Sustainability in the mining industry is important to me because I understand how important it is for our future. Globally, we need to reduce our environmental impact and footprint, reduce carbon emissions, and ultimately reduce and slow the effects of climate change. It is important to me that I’m part of a company where we work on making our industry more sustainable, because mining is an important building block of our world.

As individuals we need to be actively thinking of ways to make this industry innovative and work towards sustainable and positive change. Together we can make a bigger impact.

What is your greatest achievement/most exciting thing you’ve done outside of work?

I attended Colorado School of Mines. In my senior year I was honoured to be awarded Scholar All American for my achievements on the soccer field and in the classroom. School and soccer are both important aspects of my life and I am proud to balance and succeed in both areas.

I still play soccer and have played on a Women’s Premier Soccer League (WPSL) team for the last 8 summers – it is the top league for women’s soccer in the United States, right below the National Women’s Soccer League (NWSL).