Born in Austria on November 9th 1914, Hedy Lamarr (Hedwig Eva Maria Kiesler) grew up to be one to the most beautiful and gifted Hollywood actresses of the 1940s starring in a range of classic high grossing MGM films.

Unknown to the public she was also a talented inventor. Her burning desire was to be a scientist and although untrained produced some ground breaking innovations.

Her first husband was an Austrian armaments manufacturer and Hedy, a young actress, was able to mix with scientists and professionals in military technology. This first awakened her to the field of applied science. Unhappy, in 1936, she decided to divorce and leave Europe for the USA and Hollywood where her acting career would quickly blossom.

Her second husband was Howard Hughes, a film producer, aviator and inventor. She advised him on the aerodynamic shape of his aircraft designs. Recognising her genius he made available his staff and workshops so she could develop her ceaseless flow of ideas.

In 1940, WW2 was looming and the US Government set up the National Inventors Council to coordinate potential military inventions from the public. Hedy wanted to join but instead was advised to use her Film Star status to campaign for War Bonds, collecting funds for the war effort.

This did not stop Hedy inventing. She thought that military radio frequencies could be easily jammed, especially for radio controlled torpedoes. Her solution was a method now called frequency hopping. In collaboration with a pianist friend they miniaturised automatic piano player devices and synchronised them. Instead of playing piano tunes, different radio frequencies would  substitute the key notes allowing a message to be communicated across the radio spectrum.

Hedy patented their system but it was dismissed by the military. She later discovered her invention had been used in secret by the US Navy and won Government compensation.

Hedy Lamarr was finally recognised in 1997, winning the US Electronic Frontier Foundation Pioneer Award and in 2014 posthumously inducted into the US National Inventors Hall of Fame. She died on 19th January 2000 aged 85.

Hedy's greatest invention lives on! The frequency hopping method is incorporated into Bluetooth and WiFi electronics of Smartphones and mobile devices to help keep our communication secure.

Blog written by John Faulkner, SATRO Volunteer

Freya Bowden - Summer STEM Work Placement Student - Weekly Reports

The STEM placement students are sending us weekly blogs all about their experience in the world of work! 

Work experience is great and it provides students with many benefits whilst gaining skills and helping choose the right future career path for pupils. Having work experience on a Curriculum Vitae will make a person stand out to employers as they will notice they have motivation and a real passion for work. It will also help to boost a students confidence in themselves!

See how Freya is getting on with her STEM placement! 

Week One 

"During my first week at Headway I spent Monday doing background research and looking through the data the centre had. Tuesday, I spent the day with clients, helping out with their worksheets and watching the session on memory. It was interesting to see how the clients are presented with different problems (symptoms) after their acquired brain injury. 

Wednesday I spent doing further research, reading papers and accumulating data from the survey on mobile phones carried out by the clients who attended Tuesdays session. Thursday again I spent with clients, and Friday I spent beginning my report. It’s been an interesting week, I’ve enjoyed learning more about memory, acquired brain injuries and the clients."

- Freya Bowden

Lois Whitelegg - Summer STEM Work Placement - Weekly Reports

The STEM placement students are sending us weekly blogs all about their experience in the world of work! 

Work experience is great and it provides students with many benefits whilst gaining skills and helping choose the right future career path for pupils. Having work experience on a Curriculum Vitae will make a person stand out to employers as they will notice they have motivation and a real passion for work. It will also help to boost a students confidence in themselves!

See how Lois is getting on with her STEM placement!

Week One

"During my first week I was able to become familiar with the work that is being done by the charity Cardiac Risk in the Young and the Cardiac Investigations Department at St. George’s Hospital. I was able to observe the diagnostic tools that are used to diagnose heart conditions, such as ECGs, Echocardiograms and Cardiopulmonary Exercise Tests. 

I have started to look into different heart conditions, specifically those which affect younger people, which has allowed me to start gaining an understanding of why research into inherited cardiac conditions is so important. I have also been able to start thinking about possible ideas for a project."

Week Two

"This week I decided to base my project on the psychological effects of a heart condition on an athlete. This is something that little research has been done on despite the large lifestyle adaptions a heart condition may lead to, particularly regarding physical activity. As well as this I have been able to shadow doctors in their clinics with patients, which has been a very valuable and interesting experience in gaining an understanding of different heart conditions and seeing the effective ways in which doctors interact with their patients."

Week Three 

"During my week I have started to research into methods of surveying patients, as well as writing my own survey to use for my study. I was also able to again be involved with the diagnostic processes, which has helped to deepen my knowledge of different heart conditions such as Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy. 

Furthermore I was able to shadow a doctor who did a Heart Failure patient ward round allowing me to go to various wards in the hospital and see the effects of Heart Failure on a range of patients in a different environment than I had been in previously, only seeing outpatients."

Week Four

"Now I have started to conduct my survey on patients and start analysing the responses. Also I have been able to assist in setting up the diagnostic tests for patients and assist in writing reports for patients. This has showed me the importance of accurately documenting the results of diagnostic tests so that they can effectively be used to help in diagnosing the patient." 

- Lois Whitelegg 

Sina Bastani - Summer STEM Work Placement - Weekly Reports

The STEM placement students are sending us weekly blogs all about their experience in the world of work! 

Work experience is great and it provides students with many benefits whilst gaining skills and helping choose the right future career path for pupils. Having work experience on a Curriculum Vitae will make a person stand out to employers as they will notice they have motivation and a real passion for work. It will also help to boost a students confidence in themselves!

See how Sina is getting on with his STEM placement!

Week One 

"I have learnt quite a lot only in the first week of my placement. We had the privilege to attend lectures given by Dr. Radu about semi-conductors, something I was entirely unfamiliar with but Radu managed to keep the lecture interesting and intriguing by involving us in his talk. He asked us to mimic the structure of semi-conductors with Play-Doh and demonstrated how its construction can be modified to maximise space. This then got followed by another brief talk from Dr. Vlad which taught us how to make a proper science paper. During the rest of the week, I familiarised myself with my subject at hand and learned valuable lessons about science research." 

Week Two 

"The second week was eye opening for me. My teammate and I got stuck on a certain aspect of our research and tried to make sense of it using our combined logic and by conversing with each other. After a few more hours of research, we completely understood the topic we used to be stuck on which was very rewarding. We also had the opportunity to visit the clean room, which is a laboratory at the University of Surrey designed to reduce contamination at maximum. The lab technician also introduced us to the most important pieces of technology and instruments in the clean room." 

Week Three 

"During the third week, our time was mostly spent experimenting. Again, we have come across a dead end when our experiment did not work properly and showed unenthusiastic results. We have tried to use our common sense and had a crack at working out the problem with the help of Dr. Vlad, but we have not come up with a significant solution. In a desperate attempt, I emailed the scientist that worked on the scientific paper we were concerned with and with much satisfaction, I received an email back from Australia by that same scientist informing us of ways to possibly improve our experiment. We have also spent time in the mechanical engineering department to test the tensile strength of our material." 

- Sina Bastani

Hannah Wagner - Summer STEM Work Placement - Weekly Reports

The STEM placement students are sending us weekly blogs all about their experience in the world of work! 

Work experience is great and it provides students with many benefits whilst gaining skills and helping choose the right future career path for pupils. Having work experience on a Curriculum Vitae will make a person stand out to employers as they will notice they have motivation and a real passion for work. It will also help to boost a students confidence in themselves!

See how Hannah is getting on with her STEM placement!

Week One

"The aim of my project is to create a nanotechnological mask using photolithography. Overall the current flows through transistors, which are semiconductor devices that are used to amplify or switch electronic signals and power. The process of photolithography involves indenting the base of a substrate using light. 

During my first week, I gained an understanding as to how semiconductors work to create transistors: by connecting the source, gate, drain, and semiconductor to an insulator, electric current is able to flow. 

However, voltage must also be applied to positively charge the gate and drain, which causes electrons begin to flow from the source to the drain via the semiconductor. Upon understanding how the semiconductor circuit works and doing research into the transistors, I was able to begin working on CAD programs to design more complex transistors." 

-Hannah Wagner

InKyu Kwon - Summer STEM Work Placement - Weekly Reports

The STEM placement students are sending us weekly blogs all about their experience in the world of work! 

Work experience is great and it provides students with many benefits whilst gaining skills and helping choose the right future career path for pupils. Having work experience on a Curriculum Vitae will make a person stand out to employers as they will notice they have motivation and a real passion for work. It will also help to boost a students confidence in themselves!

See how InKyu is getting on with his STEM placement!

Week One

"The first week of my project at Surrey University was mostly spent familiarising myself with the campus and its various facilities as well as doing provisional research towards my project. My supervisor had already chosen for me to carry out an investigation into whether graphite pencil leads could be used to print an RC low-pass filter PCB. Researching various aspects of the project that could help with the investigation was not an easy task as the project idea at hand was completely original and not many related studies had been done before."

Week Two

"The second Monday marked the start of an intense week of experimental work, testing out various solvents for the graphite ink and substrates to print the ink on. It was not an easy process as our provisionally made inks clogged the printers, so a lot of time was spent cleaning them.

Unfortunately, by the end of the week, we had to resort a premade nanosilver ink which was not particularly successful either as it had very low conductance. However, we left the printed ink in an oven over the weekend to sinter, so hopefully we may have some success the following week."

-InKyu Kwon 

Bo-Yan Chung - Summer STEM Work Placement - Weekly Reports

The STEM placement students are sending us weekly blogs all about their experience in the world of work! 

Work experience is great and it provides students with many benefits whilst gaining skills and helping choose the right future career path for pupils. Having work experience on a Curriculum Vitae will make a person stand out to employers as they will notice they have motivation and a real passion for work. It will also help to boost a students confidence in themselves!

See how Bo-Yan is getting on with her STEM placement!

Week One 

"To try and summarise my research project in a few sentences, our aim is to cultivate low-cost electronics with materials from daily life by producing a conductive ink and printing it onto a substrate, preferably paper, using an inkjet printer. This greener and cheaper electronic could benefit others, especially those in less economically developed countries where more expensive materials are not as readily available. The materials used in electronics, such as silver, could be replaced, making common technology accessible to a wider range of people. 

The first week is predominantly research based. To understand and investigate our objectives, I researched the materials for our project and the methods that may be preferable for the process, focusing on environmentally friendly substances and approaches. I found reports previously written about similar research which would be used to later compare to our own findings, and read about the physical and chemical properties of materials we could use." 

Week Two 

"In the second week, we began experimenting - finding the right solvent for our conductive ink and testing out graphite as our conductor. Different substrates were used to test our circuit, such as paper, which would help us achieve the household items criteria. 

I also started working on my poster and report for the CREST award, and continued the research aspect of the project." 

Week Three 

"We continued our experimentation into the third week and realised grinding the graphite into particles small enough to pass through the inkjet nozzle was quite difficult. As a substitute, we used a prefabricated ink containing silver nanoparticles, but had a problem with the printing. After each circuit was printed, lines of missing ink were left, which resulted in a circuit with a full section that could not conduct. Through printing multiple layers of the circuit, we created a circuit that avoided the problem. 

On the Friday, we attended a nanotechnology lecture presented by one our supervisors and learnt how nature works at a nano-scale, through insects and viruses. The second part of the lecture was testing out the SEM (Scanning Electron Microscope) which used a focused beam of electrons to create an image that enables us to view objects at micro- and nano-scales."

Week Four

"To try an alternative printing method that would be more environmentally friendly for the project, I had screen-printed the layers one-by-one to fabricate the RC filter. The circuit was made using regular printing paper as the substrate, a pre-fabricated carbon-based electric paint as the connectives, and egg white was used for one of the components in the circuit. These materials used in the project accentuated the ‘green’ factor we were striving for.

On the Thursday of the fourth week, we had our SATRO poster presentation at the university to demonstrate all our hard work and to explain the aims for our projects."

Week Five

"Due to a small fault in the circuit, we had to change the design of the filter so that we could avoid the same problem of short circuiting. The filter previously made was not suitable due to limitations of the frequency generator. Therefore we changed the shape or size of the components, and also changed the substrate to watercolour card to reduce buckling due to the water content of the substances used.

 We eventually fabricated a screen-printed filter that could attenuate frequencies above 170kHz. This filter used low-cost materials that were not environmentally damaging, and was fabricated using a versatile and manual printing process. 

Week 5 was also focused on writing my report to collate all of the research I had previously done for the project, our results we had collected and conclude what we have achieved. 

Overall, this summer research placement has given me an amazing experience into the scientific field of electronics. I have had so much fun over the past 5 weeks and would like to thank SATRO and those who have helped me with the project."

- Bo-Yan Chung 

Jamie Stewart - Summer STEM Work Placement - Weekly Reports

The STEM placement students are sending us weekly blogs all about their experience in the world of work! 

Work experience is great and it provides students with many benefits whilst gaining skills and helping choose the right future career path for pupils. Having work experience on a Curriculum Vitae will make a person stand out to employers as they will notice they have motivation and a real passion for work. It will also help to boost a students confidence in themselves!

See how Jamie is getting on with his STEM placement!

Week One

"After spending Monday on induction activities, we started properly on Tuesday. In the first four days of research, we've been introduced to a vast number of computer programs and various machines. We've also used computer programs to run calculations and spent some time in the cleanroom, being covered from head to toe. 

I've learnt how important it is to be flexible with your plans as it seems as though they constantly have to adapt as a machine is not available. I've also learnt an awful lot of new acronyms, and the importance of keeping clear, detailed notes." 

Week Two 

"The aim of my research project, put as simply as possible, is to investigate ways to create a repeated 'fin' shape pattern on a silicon wafer. This is useful for my supervisor who works with computer models for these patterns and would like to be able to produce small samples of fins for testing.

The reason why this fin shape is important is because it is used in industry to create a component called a FinFET which is essentially a 3D transistor. The fin shape has a higher surface area than a traditional planar 2D transistor and so a FinFET can be made smaller than a 2D transistor whilst still doing the same job. This enables more transistors to be fitted onto a single chip, increasing the speed of the computer."

Week Three 

"We've had some minor delays due to a software issue on a machine but for the most part we have been making good progress this week. We haven't actually been creating anything new but when working with nanostructures, a large proportion of time is spent just trying to figure out what you have created.

We spent a lot of time huddled around a whiteboard trying to understand some of the results that we've obtained but we think we have a reasonable idea of what is happening and will soon be running a computer model which should hopefully confirm our hypothesis. Going into the final week of research, we're aiming to combine everything we've learnt so far into a final attempt to make fins to a specific dimension."

Week Four 

"This week was the last week where we properly focused on research. We stayed for a fifth week which we were able to use to finish the last part of our results section however we saved that primarily for writing the report. Our last set of experiments was essentially the same as the first set of experiments, but with one key change to the process which had been causing problems for us. It took us 3 weeks to complete the first set of experiments but just 1 week to complete the second set because we were far more efficient when we knew what we were doing."

- Jamie Stewart 

Bevan Pun - Summer STEM Work Placement - Weekly Reports

The STEM placement students are sending us weekly blogs all about their experience in the world of work! 

Work experience is great and it provides students with many benefits whilst gaining skills and helping choose the right future career path for pupils. Having work experience on a Curriculum Vitae will make a person stand out to employers as they will notice they have motivation and a real passion for work. It will also help to boost a students confidence in themselves!

See how Bevan is getting on with his STEM placement! 

Week One 

"30th July 2018 was the first day of my research placement at WSP and I was pretty nervous. It was quite dull weather but it didn't ruin my excitement. When I first entered, I was quite taken back at the size of the office and the level of concentration that the employees had. I was first introduced to my line manager and was given a tour of the office. Later, I got a taste of what the environmental engineers do by writing a review. It was a good but tiring day.

The first week of my research placement has ended. It was a nice but exhausting week. Throughout the week, my main objective was to get as much information about my topic as possible before I start structuring my work. I learnt new concepts about landfills, such as the ground concept model and how development of former landfills was challenging with all the risks a landfill brings with it. This kind of information was new to me as I hadn't delved into the world of environmental engineering, which I found interesting and got me thinking about other topics related with engineering." 

Week Two 

"My second week of the placement was very exciting. I got put into a work experience week at WSP to help me understand the other departments at WSP and help me to broaden my research in landfills. 

This was a very fun week as I got to try different departments such as air quality, water, structures, geo environmental, planning and development and so much more. This was to make sure I get a taste of what each department does in their specialist fields including making a detailed plan of a swimming pool in a leisure centre in structure and doing a short desk study at geo environmental of our schools. This showed me that there was a lot of theoretical work to engineering as much as practical work. 

This week helped me immensely in terms of what to research on my topic of landfill development." 

Week Three

"It is the end of my third week here at WSP for my research placement. I am now desk-based to carry out further research on whether it is viable for a residential development on former landfill sites. My research options were broaden last week and I spent this week researching about risks from former landfill sites, including risks of landfill gas and leachate on surrounding properties, and the remedation needed for these risks. This new knowledge was quite interesting as it involved parts of geo-technical engineering, in terms of settlement of the soil caused by decomposition of the waste and the foundations that are suitable for building on former landfill sites. This was a more relaxed scene than last week as I could focus more on the topics I wanted to research with no distractions, which in my opinion was quite enjoyable." 

Week Four 

"The last week of my placement was spent doing the last few bits of my project and organising my research. My end goal for this week was to complete a report that included my research about development on former landfills and my own opinions on whether it is feasible to do such a development.

The last few weeks have been hectic with the amount of research and understanding that was needed for my project. So it was nice to have a look back and think about the new knowledge that I have gained in the four weeks of my placement. Overall, I found this placement very interesting and enjoyable as it showed me new aspects of engineering - geo-technical, planning development, geo-environmental, structures and much more." 

- Bevan Pun

Thoran Landers - Summer STEM Work Placement - Weekly Reports

The STEM placement students are sending us weekly blogs all about their experience in the world of work! 

Work experience is great and it provides students with many benefits whilst gaining skills and helping choose the right future career path for pupils. Having work experience on a Curriculum Vitae will make a person stand out to employers as they will notice they have motivation and a real passion for work. It will also help to boost a students confidence in themselves!

See how Thoran is getting on with his STEM placement! 

Week One 

"My first week at the University of Surrey has been an intriguing and eventful one. The first day was structured around introducing the various ideas that I would be using throughout my time and also giving me the chance to get to know everyone on the team. One week in, and I have already started to become familiar with simulation software that used to be completely alien to me, not to mention a better understanding of how transistors work and what they are used for. I look forward to continuing with my project as I know this is only a taste of what is to come!" 

- Thoran Landers

James Tait - Summer STEM Work Placement Student - Weekly Reports

The STEM placement students are sending us weekly blogs all about their experience in the world of work! 

Work experience is great and it provides students with many benefits whilst gaining skills and helping choose the right future career path for pupils. Having work experience on a Curriculum Vitae will make a person stand out to employers as they will notice they have motivation and a real passion for work. It will also help to boost a students confidence in themselves!

See how James is getting on with his STEM placement! 

Week One

"My first week at the Advanced Technology Institute at Surrey University consisted of meeting everyone I'd be working with and being given a tour of the facilities. I was also looking for and reading relevant scientific papers that would help me with my project. Although they were different to understand, my supervisor was on hand to help explain difficult concepts and I was able to bounce ideas off of him. 

We also outlined the project and attempted to replicate some of the experiments found in suitable scientific journals." 

Week Two


"We started off week two by refining experiments from week one. We had successfully coiled fishing line and we'd been able to induce a contraction to lift weights. I was able to calculate the best weights to use when coiling which we then tested by preparing samples and observing them under an optical microscope. We're hoping to test the mechanical properties next week as this helps greatly with my project; creating an 'artificial muscle' from electrspun nylon. 

I was also introduced to the electrospinning rig, a process which creates very thin fibres (nanometre scale)."

Week Three  

"I started off the week by visiting the mechanical testing facility and familiarising myself with the machinery. I tested two samples of fishing line coiled under two weights and was able to calculate the spring constant. I had read about thermally annealing (175c) the fishing line after coiling it, though until this week I had little understanding as to why this was necessary. I believed there was a change in crystalline structure which may be altered depending on the method of cooling. I prepared six samples, two quenched after annealing for one hour, two cooled at room temperature after one hour and two for comparison. I then tested their properties and was also able to measure the amount of contraction when applying heat." 

Week Four 

"The last week at my placement was focused on preparing a poster to present to the supervisors at the institute. As such, I spent most of my time gathering the necessary data and creating all the graphs required. I was also able to mechanically test some electrospun nylon and record its interesting properties. For the last few days I was attempting to electrothermally actuate the coiled fishing line though this proved difficult as the wire was too rigid to manipulate. 

On the final day, I had a get-together where we drank coffee and said our goodbyes. This whole experience has shown me how much I can push myself and I would strongly recommend it to anyone who gets the opportunity." 

- James Tait 

Thomas Ellison - Summer STEM Work Placement Student - Weekly Reports

The STEM placement students are sending us weekly blogs all about their experience in the world of work! 

Work experience is great and it provides students with many benefits whilst gaining skills and helping choose the right future career path for pupils. Having work experience on a Curriculum Vitae will make a person stand out to employers as they will notice they have motivation and a real passion for work. It will also help to boost a students confidence in themselves!

See how Thomas is getting on with his STEM placement! 

Week One

"A week into my placement at a geotechnical engineering firm, I've had a busy couple of days. My research is based around the use of CLEA model, an Excel program which is used to model when the amount of a certain chemical in an area becomes hazardous to human health, so I've had to learn how to use the model and Excel itself, which I hadn't used in a good three years. 

After a crash course in the program and the mechanics behind it, I got to grips with using the model by using a spreadsheet of data on various chemicals to model the parameters for each of them in a house with homegrown vegetables ad compare them to predetermined results to see if I was using it correctly. Subsequently, I was able to use the model to determine the values for public areas such as parks, which had yet to be modelled by the company.

 Finally, I was given a list of new chemicals which had yet to be modelled and had to put them through the model in each of the different area parameters I've used so far. I've just finished that and managed to successfully determine the values for those chemicals. It's been a very interesting time and I'm excited to see what's next." 

Week Two

"At the end of my second week of Work Experience, I've had another busy week. Initially, I moved onto looking at water contamination and the parameters used to determine whet her a chemical will prove dangerous if leaked. I've now moved onto modelling the vapour pathways used to determine the amount of a chemical that escapes into the air in a building when there is a contaminant in the ground beneath. This is an interesting avenue of research because the previous model used has been found to be inaccurate, so I am actively looking into and setting up alternatives.

It's been a very nice experience so far with both the interesting work I've been doing and the lovely people at the office, who've been very friendly and accommodating. I look forward to my next week here."

Week Three 

"This week, I’ve been creating a model to calculate vapour migration pathways based on my research into the topic last week. This has involved me creating several complex Excel spreadsheets with loads of interlinked equations to model all the different potential pathways. I then had to go through each one of these tables with pre-determined values to ensure the accuracy of the model and clear up any problems in the equations. 

Finally, I’ve put together a comprehensive guide to using the model, citing all the sources. It’s been a hectic few days and I’m glad to be able to have the weekend off to relax."

Week Four 

"During my fourth and final week at CGL, I've spent most of my time tidying up loose ends, going through the work I've done over the last month to make sure it's all completely finished and formatted correctly. It's given me the opportunity to reflect on everything I've learnt in this time - it's incredible to think that, just a few weeks ago, I knew nothing about Geotechnical Engineering, yet I've now generated the data and created a model that they'll use to write their assessments. I've also sat down with various members of the company to discuss projects both old and new to find out more about what they do, which has been just fascinating to see. 

Overall, this has been an incredible opportunity, which has taught me a lot about this invaluable area of industry and many skills that'll be useful in the future." 

- Thomas Ellison

I entered my SATRO Four Week Placement into the Big Bang Competition! - Oren Hargreaves

Over the summer, I spent 4 weeks at the University of Surrey where I undertook a project under the supervision of Dr Radu Sporea (Advanced Technology Institute, Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering). My project aim was to make an Arduino* open day project which would be interesting as well as showcasing the ability of hobbyist electronics.

My project, in short, was remote controlled tanks with lasers attached. Off the back of the project I received a CREST Gold Award as well as attending the SATRO STEMX Awards. I entered my project into the Big Bang completion (the largest science and engineering competition in the country) and made it through to the finals. This resulted in me taking 3 days out of school to head up to the NEC in Birmingham where I had my project judged. 

Whilst there I had the chance to speak to many like-minded, enthusiastic and interesting students who had also completed projects and also speak to people in industry about what jobs they do and how engineering is in their everyday lives. It was an experience I will never forget and despite not winning any awards,I had an amazing time and was inspired by the talent and hard work being showcased by the other projects.

- Oren Hargreaves 

*Arduino is an open-source electronic prototyping platform enabling users to create interactive electronic objects.

Oren Hargreaves was Highly Commended in the STEM Work Placement Awards at the STEMX Awards in 2017 and is hoping to study Electrical Engineering at University. 

Florence Nightingale by Guest Blogger, John Faulkner

Florence Nightingale was born into a life of privilege in 1820. By her death, in 1910, it is estimated, her social campaigns had helped to increase national life expectancy by 20 years! Read about her amazing lifetime achievement below. 

As a young woman, Florence decided to use her energy and social connections to improve the lives of others.At that time professional nursing did not exist. Seeking out experts, studying and learning from the few available books gave her the authority to give the very first formal nurse training. In 1854, using her connections, she took her nurses to tend casualties of the Crimean War in Russia. She discovered horrific filthy hospital conditions and keeping meticulous statistics found ten times more soldiers died from infections than their wounds. 

Organising and managing soldiers nursing, she improved hospital hygiene and health care. While touring the wards at night she became known as the 'Lady with the Lamp'. Florence was appalled soldiers had died from preventable disease. Back in Britiain, she resolved to do something to help the population at large who, in urban Victorian Britain, lived in unhealthy conditions. 

She used her fame to campaign for leaders in society and parliament to improve public health by providing clean water and sanitary infrastructure. 

Florence realised that simply writing letters would be ineffective. Straight statistics could quickly be forgotten or not grasped. She needed to think of a better way of presenting her message. 

She decided pictures might work and developed a form of Pie Chart - the Polar Area Diagram. A visual diagram of statistical data is much easier to use and understand. The Polar Area Diagram is similar to a usual pie chart, except sectors have equal angles and differ in how far each sector extends from the centre of the circle. 

Florence's Polar Area Diagram from the Crimean War: 

Her visual method proved to be very effective in her campaign to fight for better health conditions. 

Florence Nightingale is known, not only as the mother of worldwide nursing, but also as a pioneering statistician. Some of her achievements are listed below: 

• Trained and managed nurses for the Crimean War by her own means 
• Founded the first secular Nursing School in the world, at St Thomas's Hospital 
• Established the Nightingale Pledge for new nurses 
• Campaigned for women's rights in the workplace and society 
• Collected detailed health statistics to help control disease and improve health of the nation
• Pioneered the use of statistical methods in health and invented the Polar Area Diagram
• Among her many awards was the first woman to be awarded Order of Merit from King Edward VII