Scholarship Visionary 2017: Sarah Barrington
Sarah Barrington MEng AMIMechE is an Associate Engineer at McLaren Applied Technologies. She was awarded a James Clayton undergraduate scholarship by the Institution in 2012 and graduated from Newnham College, University of Cambridge in June 2016 with a First Class Honours degree with Distinction.
Sarah says the scholarship was instrumental during what she describes as: “the most exciting and pivotal years of my academic, professional and personal development”. On being named the Scholarship Visionary 2017 she said: “The Institution’s recognition is an honour that I take forward into my career. Thank you for this wonderful opportunity and for continuing to engage and inspire people across so many generations, industries and disciplines.
“I feel that the opportunities and experiences I had at university helped me develop a broad set of skills and prepared me to thrive in a fast-paced professional engineering environment. Without doubt, the Institution’s support empowered me to grasp opportunities without financial worry and enabled me to build my confidence in this rewarding profession.”
She was awarded the Anne Jemima Clough Prize for Academic Performance in her MEng exams; and the Eleanor Sidgwick Memorial Prize by Newnham College for her MEng thesis. Among her many achievements at university was standing for, and becoming President of the Cambridge University Engineering Society.
Sarah is proud of the Engineering Society’s pioneering role in setting up the Engineering department’s first ever student-led diversity and welfare scheme. She was heavily involved in the University Eco Racing team (CUER), through which she developed a range of skills, and was able to promote the many rewarding features of being an engineer.
She said:“CUER taught me a huge amount about how to lead and coordinate a large team throughout a complex, multidisciplinary project. I enjoyed helping to design and build our concept vehicle and was thrilled to join the team twice for the biennial World Solar Challenge, a 3000km race across the Australian outback.
“However, I found the most rewarding experiences to be back at home in the UK, on outreach visits with schools and working with inspirational partners. In particular, I enjoyed participating in a series of London Science Museum ‘Lates’, showcasing our concept to students, as well as being invited to discuss the team and my choice of career as an engineer on BBC Radio 4’s Woman’s Hour.”
Sarah developed a deep interest in data science during her Master’s thesis, focusing on the potential of advanced analytics and big data to revolutionise industry. She undertook many summer internships, including with McLaren Applied Technologies, where she now works.
“My role within the Modelling and Decision Sciences group at McLaren is extremely varied. I work with my team to apply the advanced technologies we pioneer in our racing team to many other industries including healthcare, energy and public transport.
“Our core focus is to design and build solutions that help users to make more informed decisions in an intelligent way, for example, through using machine learning algorithms to predict patient progression throughout clinical trials. We also use modelling and analytics to drive operational performance, such as using sensor data to inform predictive maintenance and process optimisation in manufacturing.”
She says it is vital to her job that she stays on top of trends about cutting-edge technologies and is currently undergoing the Machine Learning Engineer Nanodegree programme with Udacity and is also a photographer and blogger.
Looking to the future, Sarah says: “To me, building a career in data science has become of great interest as I see the clear potential of advanced analytics to revolutionise industries – and also people’s lives.”