Joanna Fraser

Joanna joined the School of Science and Engineering in 2022 as a part-time Finance Administrative Assistant. This position involves organising travel and conference attendance, as well as the administration of orders for research and teaching within the School, such as placing and receipting orders, along with organising returns and replacements along with other administrative tasks, such as submitting reimbursement forms and organising DHL pickups.

Then in 2023 along with her Finance administrative assistant role Joanna began working with Margi Vilnay on the Royal Academy of Engineering’s Diversity Impact Programme - EMBEDD (Engaging Minoritised Beneficiaries in Engineering Diversity Development). This project encouraged inclusivity and diversity in engineering education by training our engineering students to develop and run an Engineering Experience Programme (EEP) summer school for High School pupils, which allowed the pupils to experience different types of engineering, go on visits to engineering facilities, the V&A and the Robotarium at Herriot Watt University and work on a project to be presented to parents, collaborators, students and staff at a celebration on the last day of the EEP. This in turn encouraged many of these pupils them to apply to and attend university and college to study different types of engineering.
This project ran for two years and was extremely successful leading to Margi and Joanna obtaining further funding to develop an online platform enabling other Universities to run a similar project.