Celebrating International Women in Engineering Day 2026
Celebrating the people, perspectives and expertise driving engineering forward.
This year’s International Women in Engineering Day theme, #EngineeringIntelligence, highlights the evolving role of engineering and the importance of combining technical knowledge, data and human insight to create better solutions for the future.
To mark the occasion, we’re sharing reflections from our newest team member, Helen Fox, Managing Consultant and Chartered Engineer, who brings over 30 years of experience across asset management, maintenance and engineering.
Throughout her career, Helen has witnessed the evolution of engineering intelligence, from traditional data-led approaches to a broader understanding of how insight, experience and human factors influence the success of engineering and maintenance programmes.
In her article, Helen shares her perspective on how engineering intelligence continues to develop and why the balance between data and understanding people is key to driving meaningful improvement.
We speak to Helen Fox, Managing Consultant at MCP Europe on this year's theme. #Engineering Intelligence and how this has impacted her career:
“As a Managing Consultant and Chartered Engineer with 30 years industry experience I have always used data as my primary tool for Engineering Intelligence. Initially this data typically derived from numbers and spreadsheets - like most Engineers I like a good pivot table and graph!
Within Engineering, quality data, presented well, is key to traditional Engineering Intelligence and used to defend theories, support business strategies, and communicate to and increasing wide audience. I have used this type of data extensively to support asset and maintenance programs. I learnt early on in my career however, without intelligence behind the data, many maintenance-based programs fail due to lack of understanding, buy-in or because they are over bureaucratic.
In more recent years with the acceleration of influencers and social media a different type of data has emerged, the power of impression, beliefs and social justices. This is an area the traditionally was often missing in Engineering and brings a whole level of new and developing intelligence. Understanding how this intelligence impacts humans, design, safety, organisations and the future within the sphere of Engineering is key to successful asset and maintenance programs.
As part of my work as a Managing Consultant, I have the privilege of going to clients' sites, using my knowledge and experience to drive asset and maintenance programs. One aspect is carrying out AMIS (Asset Maintenance Improvement System) assessments. These assessments blend a mix of traditional numerical data and modern intelligence-based questions and verification, to get a balance, drive engineering intelligence forward, and support organisations to add value to the asset maintenance systems.
I have been very fortunate in my career to witness the journey this ever-evolving intelligence has provided and utilise it within my career to drive continuous improvements in asset and maintenance management. It is now humbling to be invited to clients' sites to support them in their journey for betterment and hopefully to inspire our current and future engineers in the same way that some amazing engineers inspired me over the years.”
At MCP, we believe engineering is shaped not only by technology and data, but also by the knowledge, experiences and perspectives of the people behind it.
International Women in Engineering Day is a chance to recognise the achievements of women across the profession and celebrate the diverse expertise that continues to move engineering forward.
Thank you, Helen, for sharing your journey and for being part of the MCP team as we continue to support better asset and maintenance practices through engineering intelligence.
