Episode 043 - Colette Bell

Engineering Success interviews Colette Bell is an Engineer at Roke. Colette works as a full-stack software engineer on her current project, she also chairs the Women in Roke ERG and leads the STEM outreach out of Roke’s Manchester office. Colette has a MEng degree in Materials Science & Engineering from the University of Manchester, where she won the Department of Materials Prize for Best Project 2020 for her research on machine learning in materials analysis. Despite her background and industrial experience in materials and processes, the research inspired her to pursue a career in innovative digital technologies, this took her to Roke. In her first year, Colette picked up the ‘Outstanding Contribution’ award for her work with the women’s network, ED&I and STEM, and was part of the winning and runner up teams awarded the ‘Project Team of the Year’. Rotations on the graduate development program have so far included AI innovation, hardware and software development and exposure to the bidding lifecycle. Still investigating which specialism she wants to pursue in the future, she’s continues to upskill with support from the wealth of technical experts at the company. Inspired by a woman chemical engineer who visited her school when she was young, Colette is driven to provide similar inspiration to young people who might not have exposure to engineering as an accessible career. Through running Girls in Engineering days, hosting work experience and campaigning for Roke’s attendance at nationwide STEM events such as The Big Bang, she hopes to keep spreading the word about the huge variety of rewarding engineering careers available to all.