Lucy Collins struggles to keep her head above water. Not that she's worried. Shane Gilchrist talks to one of the special guests of the NZ International Science Festival.
Lucy Collins, submarine designer. As far as job descriptions go, this takes a bit of beating.
A special guest at the forthcoming New Zealand International Science Festival, Collins will discuss her career as well as convey her passion for getting more women involved in science and engineering.
Having specialised in submarine design after seven years as a naval architect, Collins is now based at University College London, where she is completing a PhD while helping to run a masters-level course in naval architecture, which includes the world's only submarine design programme.
How does one end up, at the age of 29, designing submarines? By chance, in Collins' case.
"I was always fascinated by buildings and bridges. I also went through a brief period of being completely fascinated by space shuttles when I was 10 or 11.
"I looked into how I could build space shuttles and found out I had to work for Nasa, which would have meant living in the United States for 10 years in order to get citizenship.
"I thought that's not going to happen,'' Collins explains via phone from her London office earlier this week.
The first person in her immediate family to go to university (her father is a writer, her mother a support worker for deaf children), Collins grew up in London, where salt spray and ships was not part of her world-view.
"No-one in my family sailed or did anything like that.
"However, my dad said my grandpa was very good at technical drawing so perhaps that got passed down,'' she says, adding her path took her to Sheffield University, where she studied civil and structural engineering - "so I could design bridges''.
In her final year there she spied a Ministry of Defence advertisement in a magazine.
Intrigued, she delved further, cross-referenced her skills with potential outcomes and, lo and behold, entered the world of naval architecture.
"I'd never heard of the term, but there was one line in the description that said designing a submarine was as challenging and complex as a space shuttle. It really brought back all of that interest I had had as a child. I was drawn to that challenge.''
Having completed her MEng in civil and structural engineering, Collins joined Britain's Ministry of Defence in 2009, spending two and a-half years in the Defence Engineering and Graduate Training Scheme, during which time she completed an MSc in naval architecture.
Since 2012 she has also been a research assistant at University College London (on secondment from the MoD).
In 2014 Collins spent a week aboard a submarine (a Royal Navy Trafalgar Class vessel).
The only woman among 125 men, the experience was vital.
"I got to see how these sailors lived and worked. If I hadn't experienced how a submarine operated at sea, how could I, as a designer, be expected to know how those spaces come alive when there are people in them?
"I learnt a lot. You have to remember that sailors are often in those spaces for three months or more. That's their life.
"A submarine is one of the most complex set of systems ever produced by mankind: it has to make its own water, atmosphere, propulsion, operate under the sea (be neutrally buoyant) and be as silent as possible.
"Like a space shuttle, they have to withstand massive forces.''
Beyond the myriad details of designing military vessels with multi-million-pound budgets, a process that often takes not years but decades, Collins occasionally pauses to consider the wider view, ruminating on the history and influence of naval power's geo-political implications as well as the significance of sea-based trade.
"So much of world trade - actually, 90% - depends on shipping.
"When I speak to young people about being a naval architect, I often point out that all of them will be wearing something that has been transported by sea.
"We are building ever bigger container ships. At the moment, shipping contributes 4.5% of global CO2 emissions. At UCL we are involved in all types of research in regards designing more efficient vessels.
"Although it is the most energy efficient mode of cargo transport, we still recognise that 4.5% is a big number and we are aiming to reduce it. So we are involved in a low-carbon shipping project.''
Chair of the UK-based Women In Science and Engineering's (Wise) Young Women's Board, Collins is passionate about getting more women involved in engineering, and more girls pursuing science, technology, engineering and maths (Stem) subjects.
"We are campaigning to recruit a million more women in Stem subjects. In the UK, only 9% of engineers are women.
"There is a big problem at high school level because girls aren't taking physics, which is the great enabler for studying engineering at university. Four out of five A-level students are male.
"By not choosing physics at that stage, these girls are missing out on the opportunity to study engineering in the future.''
The talk
• A special guest of the New Zealand International Science Festival, Lucy Collins will speak at the Hutton Theatre, Otago Museum, on Monday, July 11, at 7.30pm. Entry: Gold coin donation; booking not required.
For more information, visit: www.scifest.org.nz
