For IMechE fellow Holli Kimble, however, it means an earnest desire to consider all angles and swiftly identify solutions to a problem – even if they come from unlikely sources.
It is the reason why, for example, she engaged with companies including Google, Amazon and Innocent Drinks while leading the innovation strategy at Defence Equipment & Support (DE&S), part of the Ministry of Defence. Willing to hear about “anything from productivity tools to bean bags,” she “learned a lot, and tried to push the boundaries of what we could accept in defence as different ways of working”.
Success rewarded
It is also part of the reason why, just 14 years into her career, she has received an impressive roster of awards and appointments, including the Women’s Engineering Society’s Top 50 Women in Engineering 2023, and a Churchill Fellowship in 2019 for her commitment to learning for positive change.
An early plan to join the Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers drove two decisions – studying an MEng in mechanical engineering at the University of Exeter, and joining the Territorial Army. During her fourth year at university, however, she decided that she would rather work in engineering to support the military.
“I really want to be able to make an impact,” she says. “Applying my skills to design and develop systems, and to make sure that the right questions are asked.”
Focus on safety
She joined DE&S on the graduate scheme in 2010, taking part in MoD and industry placements developing explosive-related systems. That was followed by becoming a trials and technology manager in the DE&S project team, a “high-pressure role” where she started leading a safety-focused team and taking on a large area of work.
Her “steep” career trajectory continued with a brief stint as a safety adviser, allowing her to tackle some of the challenges she had identified in her previous role, followed by another promotion to innovation programme manager. Responsible for the innovation strategy and helping internal consultancy, she also had to take a global view, considering how the British armed forces could continue operating when faced with conflict or supply-chain disruptions.
‘Painting the sky’
From 2019 to 2023, Kimble held her most senior role at DE&S as team leader and chief engineer on directed energy weapons. Taking mature subsystems out of R&D, she led the development of radio frequency weapons demonstrators that could enable “painting the sky and watching drones fall out of it,” and laser weapons.
“The fact that you can engage the target at the speed of light brings with it its own challenges, but actually a completely different way of operating,” she says. “You can potentially use less conventional ammunition.”
Her innovation background influenced the way she set up that team, focused on asking the right questions and identifying challenges early on. Safety was paramount, she says, especially given the “sensationalised” representation of laser weapons in some parts of the media.
“There’s actually enormous opportunity to have control systems in these weapon systems that make them safer,” she says. “The rules that we’re using for photons are rather different than the conventional fragments flying through the air, being acted on by forces of gravity and friction. It’s a really different paradigm.
“My real passion was trying to develop the right tools and the right approaches for safety management of these systems, understanding what the rules should look like, and how systems can be designed appropriately to manage some of those risks.”
Sustainability agenda
Since 2017, Kimble has worked as an operational leader for React Disaster Response, trained to respond to disasters in the UK and around the world. In 2019, she was deployed to Mozambique following the devastation of cyclone Idai. Her agile team of non-specialists was able to access areas that had not yet been visited, and to conduct a “full range of needs assessments,” reporting back to the UN.
“To go and figure out what things need to be put in place, who needs to speak to who, was absolutely the most rewarding thing I’ve ever done. I definitely kicked into a gear that I didn’t even know I had, being able to operate on such a broad spectrum of different tasks,” she says.
Last year, she left DE&S and started consultancy Skadi Solutions, named after a Norse giantess associated with remote places, the wilderness and icy landscapes – all things that need to be protected, she says, hence a planned focus on the environment, alongside safety cases. “My mission is to make a difference that can be measured on the sustainability agenda,” she says.
To nominate an IMechE member making a difference, email profeng@thinkpublishing.co.uk
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Content published by Professional Engineering does not necessarily represent the views of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers.