Exploring the diverse group of people associated with the University of Sheffield
Elena Rodriguez-Falcon
Enterprising engineer “When I stood in front of a group of students for the first time, something clicked,” said Elena Rodriguez-Falcon (PgDip Teaching and Learning for University Lecturers 2007). “It was an exciting feeling, a passion I hadn’t felt before. I fell in love with teaching.” This experience drove Elena on to become a passionate advocate for developing new methods of teaching engineering students. She is now Director of Enterprise Education for the University, as well as a Senior University Teacher in Mechanical Engineering and Faculty Director of Women in Engineering. Following seven years in industrial management, Elena came to Sheffield from her native Mexico in 1999, to take an MBA Industrial Management at Sheffield Hallam University. “My first impression was that the city was quite peculiar,” she explained. “I arrived on a Sunday and all the shops were closed. Everything was so quiet! But it didn’t take long for me to become immersed in the culture and I loved it. I don’t want to live anywhere else in the UK. Mexicans are very patriotic people and I never thought I’d feel like this about anywhere else.” Having completed her MBA, Elena applied for a job in the Department of Mechanical Engineering “to practise my interview skills”. She was offered the job to develop three new degrees that embedded enterprise and management in engineering. “I applied common sense to what I was doing – I wanted the students to be taught as I wanted to be taught, experiencing real challenges.” She contacted local companies to provide problems for the students, encouraging them to assess the commercial implications of their solutions. She has now developed a network of people in industry who are supporting her teaching. The creation of the E-lab – funded by the White Rose University Consortium and opened by David Blunkett MP – 24
highlighted a real need. Elena said, “I wanted to provide an area where engineering students could come together to discuss enterprise. I soon realised that we were attracting students from across the campus.” In response, the University founded the Enterprise Zone, which is now known as University of Sheffield Enterprise (USE). “I always had a vision of contributing at a University-wide level,” explained Elena. She was the Director of Inclusive Learning and Teaching for three years from 2007, and could now develop a stronger voice, working within the University, as well as at national and international levels. The success of Elena’s approach has been recognised by the Higher Education Academy, the Royal Academy of Engineering, Enterprise Educators UK and the National Council of Graduate Entrepreneurship. In 2011, she received a Distinguished Alumna Award for Excellence from her Alma Mater, the Universidad Autónoma de Nuevo León in Monterrey, and received the Personal Tutor of the Year Award (Engineering) from the Students’ Union. She acknowledges that teaching keeps her grounded: “My students have developed devices for children with disabilities, working with the Children’s Hospital, and gone on to start their own companies.” In Mexico, Elena was used to working within a profession where 40 to 50 per cent of engineering students were women. As the Director of Women in Engineering, she faces the challenge of increasing the number of female students from the current 18 per cent. “Women make amazing engineers,” she said, “and our vision is for Sheffield to be the first choice for women. It’s about promoting the package of benefits of coming here. Not only are the courses well recognised but people need to know how amazing the city is – it’s about the degree, the career and the lifestyle. Once people come here, they don’t want to leave – like me!”
