“A lot of women have similar stories to me where they had never really heard of engineering. Why is that? I want to support women, continue learning, and solve challenging problems”

For Lauren Williams, the first engineering student to receive a Naylor Fellowship, her path to research started with “I can do it!” energy.

“I loved all the advanced math and science courses,” she says, “but I wasn’t familiar with engineering. When the boys in my classes started talking about engineering, I was like, if they can do it, I can.”

Williams earned her BEng at Dalhousie University in Halifax, and today she’s working on her MASc at the University of Toronto Institute for Aerospace Studies.

Her area is fluid mechanics – a combination of engineering and math – and she’s working on algorithms to make the lab’s flow solver more efficient. “A flow solver simulates airflow over the wings and body of an aircraft,” she explains. “In our lab, it is used to design unconventional aircraft configurations that experience less aerodynamic drag and therefore consume less fuel compared to today’s conventional aircraft.”

Williams impressed the scholarship committee by leading engineering student groups, swimming at the varsity level (freestyle and butterfly), and with her passion for fluid mechanics. “U of T was the only school I applied to!” she says. The award proved a big support for her first move outside the Maritimes.

Thinking ahead to the future, Williams is sure she’ll be encouraging other women to pursue engineering. “A lot of women have similar stories to me where they had never really heard of engineering. Why is that? I want to support women, continue learning, and solve challenging problems. Anything you can think of probably has an engineer behind the scenes making it happen, which I think is pretty cool.”