Fire Safety Engineer
Name: Becca Lawson
Career stage: Mid-level - 5-10 years' experience
Working: Office
High School Subjects: 'm Australian, but I went to high school overseas (US)
Favourite: I loved almost everything! I just liked learning! But my favourites were probably history and math and japanese
Further study: University
where and what: University of Sydney - I did a combined degree: Bachelor of Civil Engineering (Hons) and Bachelor of Project Management
"One of my all time favourite projects was doing evacuation modelling for the Sydney Opera House precinct"
the inside scoop…
What does a fire safety engineer actually do? We design spaces to keep people safe from fire. That means usually when there is a large or complex space or building we have to think about where and how a fire might occur and then how the smoke and flames will spread. This will then help us design safety systems to keep people safe and help them evacuate. It also means that we get to build a lot of 3D models and fill them with smoke and analyse fire and also how people move.
What does a day in your life at work look like? A typical day includes talking to architects and site engineers and Fire Brigade, writing reports and reviewing drawings, building models and using some spreadsheets to perform calculations and every so often we go on to a construction sight to test and view systems!
What's the best part of your job? I love the variety of work I get to do, I love my team and I love the field. It's niche and not many people are aware that this sort of engineering exists but its so important!
What made you realise construction could be for you? No friends or relatives worked in the field, I just really like problem solving and puzzles and building things and I had a slight preference for science and maths classes, but realised that I didn't want to study science becuase I was more interested in finding novel solution than precise research - I decided somewhere within a gap year to give engineering a go
Do you have any advice for young women picking a career? My advice would be to challenge your doubts and make mistakes. (This is a generalisation) but boys will typically just go for something without thinking if they are good enough but girls need to feel like 150% confident before going for something. Althought you shouldn't worry about this, if you think that you're not good enough, didn't do the top maths course or haven't done enough science, it's false, and if you have an interest in studying then pursue it and you can learn and fill gaps along the way!
Tell us about a favourite project you're working on. I'm lucky in that I've enjoyed many projects! But one of my all time favourites was doing evacuation modelling for the Sydney Opera House precinct. We have software that allows us to build 3D models and input agents to mimic human movement so that we can tests buildings and precincts for crowd movement.
Tell us about balancing work with your other interests, or family My degree had a lot of contact hours and while fun was also very dry and technical (I'm pretty sure I haven't written an essay in 10 years!). I think one of the things I've relearned is to make sure I fulfill that side of me that loved Japanese and history as well. I think I tried too hard to take on what I thought was the persona of an 'engineer' in Uni because I felt I had to prove myself as being logical or something. But staying happy and enriched in other ways is important and also improves my ability as an engineer.
Becca is open to engaging further via: Speaking at a high school.
If you'd like to enquire more, please fill out the form below with the subject name: "Becca Lawson" and we'll pass your message on.