Dr Liz Miles, Senior Lecturer in Humanitarian Engineering from Coventry University, will be speaking to us about her work.

This event is open to all. If you wish to attend please contact Sandra Beaufoy by Monday 24 November – s.beaufoy@warwick.ac.uk

UNESCO UNITWIN in Humanitarian Engineering What is Humanitarian Engineering?

This presentation summaries the findings of a 3 year investigation at Coventry University as to what exactly is Humanitarian Engineering and why is it important to the education of the engineers of the future? These findings provided the foundations for the newly formed UNITWIN Network to take Humanitarian Engineering to a deeper International level, which will allow engineering to be used in a culturally sensitive manner to foster a global sustainable future.

The presentation will cover the subject strands within the Network and the presenter would welcome an innovative debate on how she can take the Network forward to deliver impact on policy makers, engineering educators and engineers across the globe.

Dr Liz Miles studied at Leeds University where she gained her Ph.D. entitled ‘Hydrogen in Steel Welds’ and was awarded a Royal Society Fellowship to go and study for 2 years in the National Research Institute for Metals in Tsukuba Science City, Japan. Upon her return from Japan she took a position in her family’s heavy engineering company, becoming the third generation to join the business. Whilst highly qualified in engineering practice Liz soon discovered that she was lacking many of the skills required to run such a business and after three years, was the first family member to leave the business.

It was at this point that Liz’s interests in entrepreneurship and general engineering education were developed as she began her teaching career as an academic at Coventry University teaching engineering management, entrepreneurship and business start-up in an effort to ensure that newly qualified engineers would not suffer the same lack of skills set that she had.

After working on this in the Faculty of Engineering and Computing, Liz became the Business Development Manager for Entrepreneurship across the University as a whole. In 2007 Liz joining the Royal Academy of Engineering initially as an Education Innovator but later as the Project Director for the HEI strand of the London Engineering Project. She then returned to Coventry University as a Senior Lecturer in project Management and has most recently been heading up the development Faculty’s new strategy focusing on Humanitarian Engineering.