Enhancing opportunities for women researchers to lead collaborative and interdisciplinary research projects
Announcements
📢 WISH Invited Speaker 2026- Viveen Taylor
On 19th March 2026 between 13:00 - 16:00
📢 WISH Invited Speaker 2026- Professor Ronita Bardhan
TBC
📢 WISH Invited Speaker 2026- Andrea Charlson
On 23rd April 2026 between 10:00 - 13:00 at TBC
📢 Kingston University's INWED 2025 -WISH Event
On 24th June 2025 at PRMB1009 (JW Hall) between 10:15 - 14:30
Visit London Climate Action Week's event page
📢 Upcoming Seminar WISH Talk: Empowering Change: Climate Resilience and Diversity in Higher Education
On 12th May 2025 in PRSB between 12:00-14:00
📢 Panel Discussion: Intersecting Pathways:Opportunities and Challenges in the LGBTQIA++ Community and Beyond
On 3rd April 2025 in PRSB3033 between 10:00-12:30
📢 One of WISH's Founders Speaks at KU's International Women's Day Event
Kingston University staff gathered in the Town House to celebrate the Top 20 Women to Watch across the university, recognising the outstanding contributions and leadership of female academic leaders.
A panel discussion followed, focusing on the #IWD2025 theme: #AccelerateAction, emphasising the importance of driving change and creating inclusive opportunities for women across all sectors.
We are especially proud to see Farzana Rahman, one of WISH's main founders, representing ECE and advocating for gender equity in STEM. Farzana's insights underscored the importance of fostering inclusivity and empowering women in traditionally male-dominated fields.
📢 WISH has received an Inclusive Value Award at the KU People Awards 2024!
We are thrilled to announce that WISH has been recognised as the runner-up team in the Enterprising category at the KU People Awards 2024 in the Inclusivity category, marking another achievement in our commitment to fostering an inclusive environment for KU academics. This follows last year's success, where WISH was recognised as the runner-up in the Enterprising category at the 2023 KU People Awards.
📢 WISH 2025 Funding Approval
The ECE Faculty has approved a budget of over 20k pounds for WISH renewal! We will be sending a funding application form to KU academics soon. Please keep an eye on your email inbox and WISH announcement section for updates.
📢 WISH Seed Funded project PIs Presentation and Networking
WISH is organising a collaborative event on Friday, September 13 at PR SB3033, from 10:00 - 13:00.
📢 WISH is invited as panelists at British Council's Women In STEM event in Peru
The British Council Mentoring for Women in STEM: Designing and implementing a mentoring programme with an eye towards internationalisation- The event will take place on 3-4 October 2024 in Arequipa, Peru, where it aims to promote international collaboration to share best practices in mentoring women in STEM across academic and industrial settings.
Members of the British Council believe that Kingston University's valuable contributions in supporting women in STEM fields would greatly enrich the discussions and provide significant insights into the successful implementation of mentorship programmes.
They are highly interested in learning about opportunities for mentoring women in STEM and experiences Kingston University may have in this area. WISH will present best practices and successful case studies corresponding to their commitment in supporting female academics and researchers, highlighting relevant elements that should be considered in a STEM mentoring program.
📢 We are excited to announce the upcoming WISH Renewal for 2025!
Stay tuned for more details and important updates as we prepare for another successful year.
Latest Stats and Accomplishments
*On average, the respondents gave a high success rate of 85% for their WISH project!
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Driven by Voices, Built for Change: Empowering Women in STEM Together
"Networking sessions for women to discuss their research and how we can work together to potentially bring our ideas and goals forward."
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"Need to increase the number of women students in STEM even at undergraduate level. The % of women haven't significantly changed since the 1980's."
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"Increasing ways to re-engage with research after a career break."
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"Female targeted funding including scholarships for PG research."
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"Training and support such as like an OU course which includes group discussion/material to read/written assignments."
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"Women leaders programmes on how to increase influence and drive impact."
WISH Judges and Leading Advisors
Projects we've funded
2025
Rheological and mechanical behaviour of sustainable bio-resin
- Reducing dependence on non-renewable materials for composites by developing sustainable alternatives.
- Improving the mechanical, thermal, and rheological properties of bio-resin and green composites.
- Insuring the production process is efficient and scalable for industrial use.
WISH Air Quality
- Engage local groups in two study areas (Kingston upon Thames and Lewisham) in air-quality data collection to be used to examine how citizen science data can complement other data sets using spatial, temporal and pollutant analysis and inform policy
The challenges and opportunities in bringing together the Voluntary and Community Sector with emergency management structures to improve community resilience
- Bringing together the Voluntary and Community Sector with local emergency management structures such as emergency planning teams within the Local Authority and Local Resilience Forums.
- The research represents an important step in responding to the governments call to promote resilience through stronger links between those with responsibilities for emergencies within Local Authorities and the Voluntary and Community Sector (VCS).
Numerical Study on the Aerodynamic Effects of Shark Skin-Inspired Riblets on Swept Wings
- It combines aerodynamics, biomimicry, and computational simulation in an interdisciplinary approach, fostering collaboration between fields such as fluid mechanics and aerospace engineering while addressing sustainability goals.
Sustainable Zen Garden
- built on UKSPF grant that addresses growing your own food inside any residential house with optimized controls on water and LED lights that are needed for the plants, in addition interesting recipes with the food grown can also be found in the application. It focuses on Zen garden addressing mental well being of the users.
Sustainable Design of Digital Pregnancy Kits to Reduce E-Waste
- The vision of this project is to compare the entire life cycle and the environmental impact of conventional PCBs and sustainable PCB-based digital pregnancy kits. The sustainable PCB will be based on additive manufacturing to reduce copper waste which will lead to a more sustainable way of manufacturing.
- The sustainable PCB will be based on additive manufacturing to reduce copper waste which will lead to a more sustainable way of manufacturing.
2024
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Exploring Air Quality Measurement, Citizen Science and Community Responses in Kingston.
Development and Rheological Characterisation of Novel Bio-based Composite Materials for Sustainable Engineering Applications.
Advanced modelling of reinforced concrete structures with ATENA.
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Dataset Development for Data-Driven Predictive Modelling of Innovative Building Façades.
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Supporting water companies’ infrastructure investment decisions using an open-source EBSD model.
2023
Development of an automated planning system for replacing hand lay-up of composites.
- Innovative Composite Materials
- Advanced Thermoforming Techniques
- Structural InnovationGender, Place and Scientific Research: Co-producing Environments Conducive for Inclusive Research Excellence.
- The project is still in the early stages, aiming to present the outcomes in an ECE seminar.
Dr Beenish Ayaz
Autonomous driving system controlled by mobile phone application for disabled individuals.
Creativity in Remote and Hybrid STEM workplace.
- Creative outputs and insightful findings.
- Changes to STEM workspaces in KU and St Andrews.
- Paper or journal.Improving stab resistance of fibre-reinforced polymers (FRP) impregnated with a novel shear thickening fluid (STF).
Aerodynamic design and optimization of a variable camber morphing aerofoil.
- Comprehensive understanding for future research.
- Research paper publication.
- External research funding is under plan.
WISH Collaborators
Dr Jyoti Navare
Talk Title: Time, Health, and Risk Society
Associate Professor in Business at Middlesex University
j.navare@mdx.ac.uk
Dr Victoria Hands
Talk Title: Sustainability, collaboration, and inclusion
Head of Sustainability at Open University
Dr Margaret Bates
Talk Title: Overcoming Barriers and Grabbing Opportunities
Managing Director at OPRL Ltd
batesmargaretp@gmail.com
Dr Natasha De Vere
Talk Title: Overcoming Insecurities
Associate Professor at the University of Copenhagen and Associate Professor and curator of Botany at the Natural History Museum of Denmark
Dr Doirean Wilson
Talk Title: Improving external collaboration and Experience in leadership
A multiple award-winning diversity expert and Business Sustainability and Strategic HRM Senior
D.Wilson3@uel.ac.uk
Professor Monique Raats
Talk Title: Improving external collaboration and Experience in leadership
Professor at University of Surrey, School of Psychology Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) Lead
m.raats@surrey.ac.uk
Dr Nicola Bailey
Talk Title: Design and control of bespoke systems for high precision robotic systems and upper-limb prosthetics.
Dr Bailey is a Senior Lecturer at King’s College London in the Department of Engineering.
nicola.bailey@kcl.ac.uk
Future Perspectives
- In 2026, encouraging new research projects as part of WISH, with guest speakers planned throughout next year.
- The WISH project created an innovative space for Women in STEM to share knowledge and research ideas that uplift Kingston University.
- The continuity of WISH will support and enhance the research culture for REF2028 submission.
- We aim to support postgraduate research (PGR) students in their academic pursuits and expand our reach to a broader audience, including male academics.