 There is an engineer from Sternorder and has been working in Singapore and has been over there actually for the past 11 years. Her name is Nula McGlynn and she's part of a new initiative. It's called Visible Women. It's a new series. It's an initiative by the Irish Embassy, highlighting the contribution of women working in often male-dominated fields. So I'm glad to say that Nula now is joining us and we're streaming online as well. Nula, good afternoon. Well, it's good evening now. What time is it over there? So it's 9 p.m. John, we're seven hours ahead at the moment. Okay, that's Singapore, but not too late. We didn't get you too late or too early, so that's the main thing. Before I had children, it would have been a good afternoon, but that's getting out as night time. Oh yeah, it's a different routine altogether. And you're married over there, you've got three kids, so busy busy. Busy busy, yeah. So like you're saying, I came over to Singapore 11 years ago and met my husband here who's from the Malaysia part of Borneo. And we got married actually about seven years ago and now we have three children and I just had my third child seven weeks ago. So we're still on different times, the ones anyhow, I'm awake all night. Oh, I can imagine. I can imagine. But everything's going well. Oh, going perfect. Yeah, really good. Luckily, I had my parents out a while before she arrived, so they got to meet her. A lot of people would know your parents, especially in the Balbuffet, Stremortar area, Celine and Bartley. Yeah, but I would have known Bartley through the football and Celine through the Finvali post. The Finvali voice. The Finvali voice, I should say. Now, tell us your story because we want to talk to you and in particular about your career because engineering, it's often a male-dominated career. And you've sort of bucked the trend somewhat, but you started out at, well, first of all, at school, you were going to study art, is that right? So yeah, when I was at St Columbus in Balbuffet, in Stremortar, I mostly was interested in art. And when I was, you know, 17, 18 trying to decide what I would go on to study at third level education, I could not make up my mind. I couldn't decide properly on a specific art course. And my career guidance councillor at the time, Jimmy Gleason, suggested why don't you try civil engineering. It's a bit like drawing on the ground. And I was like, oh yeah, that could work. You know, I could give that a go. You know, and went to letter Kenny IT to do a two year certificate and then the year diploma. So at that time, it was just to diploma level that they done civil engineering. And I thought, well, you know, I can do it. And if it doesn't work out, it's not an entire waste of my time. I'll have a certificate at the end of it. But yeah, went on for the diploma, went on for the degree then in the University of Abertey in Dundee, Scotland. And then carried on working from then. It is drawing on the ground civil engineering. And, you know, my first job as an engineer with a theodolite out on the building site, making the points on the ground so that the machinery, the excavators and the workers could put this all in the right place. And that is exactly what it has been like. So go ahead. Not carry on. So you became a chartered civil engineer. So yeah, so I got my degree in the University of Abertey. And then I got my charter ship through the Institute of Civil Engineers London, the UK. I just went with that because I was working in the UK as well. We've got the similar in Ireland as well. And yeah, that took me about five years to get that. That's also, you know, very much, you know, when I found when I was doing that very male dominated as well. But it's a you have to when you're through your your universe through your work, you know, you have to put a CV together of all the different aspects of the work that you that you meet different entities that the charter ship, you know, want you to achieve, you know, such as health and safety or planning and quantity and project management, you know, and people skills that you have to show in order to display to become a chartered engineer. It's an important thing as well to do specifically in engineering. For me it was I felt it was important because I felt it could really show that that I knew what I would know to show my future employers. It's a it's although I have a degree. I thought this really cements the fact of my future employers. I'm respected in my field and I do know the different parts of my field and I'm able to able to meet the expectations of the Institute. So, you know, I'd be able to display that. Well, well able as as it has turned out because you you worked for a while in London and if I come big projects who are involved in the Olympic Stadium. Is that right? And the athletes village. Yes. Yeah. So at the down in Stratford worked along my company was PJ carries that are based in Wembley, an Irish company that originated from Tipperary Brothers that set it up in London. And there was working on the athletes village to do the underground to do all the ground works for the the the the flats that were made for the athletes that then got handed over to the people of Stratford as accommodation and then working and brilliant, brilliant project to be involved in and a huge monumental project and brilliant site Lendlis where the big company in charge of that at the time. And it was a delight working there. And a big scale project and then you you up sticks. It was sort of it was sort of after the I suppose it was after the downfall things were starting to pick up again and sit in some ways. But you decided just so it wasn't enough of the sort of projects you're interested in and you moved to Singapore. Yeah. We're going to. Yeah, John. That's it. I could I know I was getting magazines, you know, through the then could see that all the big projects were happening out East industry magazines and big projects were happening out East and and I could see the projects that our company that you know was working in and it wasn't you know this this the Olympics was kind of done then and there's not much. It was just an exciting time. Plus I was at an age where I was this is a good time to travel. It's good to get away and see something new before I don't get to get too late to do. And then yeah, working over in Singapore was the Olympic the National Stadium. So when I had arrived at the Singapore had a National Stadium and when I had arrived it had actually been demolished for the project. It was also put in hold because of the credit crunch and it had a delayed start for funding and just how it was funded. And so then it started in line with me coming over and so then I was able to work on that there. And that and that's where it came up in the visible woman visible woman was because it now I wasn't the only female engineer on the project. You know there was there was other female engineers, but it was a project where we've done a lot of firsts. There was a lot of firsts in engineering that was done on it and I was involved quite heavily involved with all that on the execution of it on the on the site. So it's a pioneering work in a way. Yeah, in a way, in a way there was great and you know it's one of the open air stadiums, you know, the largest span for that and then the art of the piece that they talk about in the embassy was the air conditioning off it. The design of the air conditioning was one of the pioneering design. Well, tell us just a little bit about that in that there's it's a retractable roof. Is that right on the stadium? Yeah, so it's a retractable roof. So it's it opens up like in the closes in about two hours. So you know, like if it's a bad weather, you can close the roof and then of course the capacity 58,000 so it's a big stadium. Yeah, it's a national stadium. And and it was built, you know, with in mind for doing soccer, but also doing rugby, doing athletics. So it's got like a retractable seats so that the capacity does reduce when the seats retract as well to make the inside larger. Okay. Given the warm weather over there, air conditioning would be important. And this is this is where some new technology came in. Yeah, well, but you know, like for me when I came over and I'm brand new to Singapore and I get no seated air conditioning is like you say it's very important. But at a stadium and it's open stadium as well, like for the sunshine. And when I heard there was air conditioning, I was like, well, this is crazy. Why would you put on air conditioning and a place where all the cold air is going to escape. And, you know, and how bad can it be but you're sitting in heat, like it can get up to mid 30, you know, high, low 30s, high 20s to low 30s is the temperature here. So if you're sitting outside, it gets quite hot. And base, but what they've done is they've done a really unique design of air conditioning was water tanks that have a what I kind of refer to it as a as a like a golf ball but it's about this size with the dimples out rather than in. And when the waters pushed through them, this created gets the golf balls to knock off each other. The chemical that's inside against the cold, the water creates the cold air. This cold air is pushed out through a system through every fourth seat in the stadium. So it's, you know, it's, it's, you know, it's in a proper layout. But then that's that's the system but then the cool, the even cooler part of it is when you go through the ticketing system, and you scan your ticket that tells the system which seat to cool. And then outside there's two solar panel farms creating enough power to create enough energy for this operation to happen. So it's total renewable energy that's there for the powers there sitting waiting to be harnessed. They're picking that up and they're pushing that through and putting out cold air for all the patrons that come to watch the game. And I've been to quite a few games and events at it now. And it is such a pleasurable experience being added because you don't feel cold air but it's a nice, you know, cool temperature. It makes it comfortable. It makes it comfortable. Yeah. So you know it works. So you know it works. And now, and I also noticed that in the right seat, don't, don't try and steal someone else's seat. But the system knows whether that seat is occupied. So don't be trying to go down a few rows into an empty seat. Yeah. Because you might be as cool down there. But it's amazing. So if the capacity is reduced, it'll only be cooling the seats that are occupied. Is that right? Yeah. Yeah. So it's only and so the, and then the extra power that's being made from the solar panel farm is being pushed into other systems that need electricity. But the actual kilowatt peak that's created is being used for this function. I was very impressed with that as it was coming over and, you know, it was like, wow, you know, this, this is brilliant. This is something that should be done. You know, it's a great way to harness an energy reusing. And along the way, I mean, over the period of time, which happened about here from qualifying to now, have you noticed more women popping up in roles like your own and more women around the table at meetings? Yes, I have indeed. I mean, when I went to university and to Dundee, there was two girls in the class out of 36. Now, in letter Kenny, there was about six of us in the class of 50 originally. You know, now I'm hearing that it's, you know, like through chatting with, I still talk to mentors, some students and all through the IC and speaking with people in Singapore. There's a lot more girls going to class now going to university. And then when I'm now working, I've got other project managers coming in to work with me on my building sites. Yeah, like you say, women are also, you know, looking after the high end part of the projects as well. There's more women are CEOs of companies now. They're more financial women in charge. You know, there's, you can see the difference now. Even in my own company that I'm working with now, there's a lot more women taking up, you know, the director's roles. Whereas when I would have started, you would have seen only male, it was male dominated like in the roles. Okay. So there's, I see the, I see the change, I see the change in Singapore, but I see the change worldwide, you know, as well. I see it in Ireland as well. There seems to be a lot more interest. I think there's a lot more known about it as well. Like when I chose civil engineering, I was given the advice by my career guidance counselor, but then I looked into it, but maybe it wasn't as made aware to me that I could do it. But now I can see that there's more information out there for young girls when they're choosing what they want to do. They can see that this is something that's available to them. So more, more young women are realizing that there's, there's more to it. They're just drawing on the ground. There's more to it than drawing on the ground. There's some, there's some cool tricks in it too. Yeah. And what's, what's life flag in general in Singapore? Well, you're off work at the moment. You'll be alone, alone as maternity leave. Yeah. So maternity leave is four months, but shorter now than Ireland. And you can take, you can take more time off with your, you know, with your, you did decide with your company, but the official is four months, which is what I'll be taking. It's, it's an enjoyable place like over here. I enjoy it. There's a good Irish community. The Irish embassy have done a really good job as well of bringing that community together and making sure that we support the other Irish group, you know, Irish people and Irish groups that are here. There's, you know, there's a lot happening just after COVID. You know, there's a few more events have been happening again now with people being able to meet up again. So there's a, so there's a good, good that, but I, but I also, there's a good community in Singapore. It's a, it's a very multicultural city. There's a lot of different nationalities living here, but it's quite a lot of, a lot of religions are respected here. There's a, for example, each, each religion has two public holidays per year. So as Christians, we celebrate Good Friday and Christmas, you know, but I don't get the other public holidays off. I don't get Easter Monday off for, you know, yeah. Once are nominated. Yeah. So there are nominated but then I'll celebrate Vsac day or higher. Yeah. And you know, it's always different. Yeah. It's really exciting that part of being here to get to learn a bit more about the different cultures. Well, listen, congratulations again, your rival and continued success to you. And it's a, it's a, it's been a great, great, it's been great. continued success to you and it's a great story and you know all the way over there in Singapore and then leading the way and in particular leading the way for women who are considering maybe engineering as a career. And you haven't lost your accent, you might be over there every year, lost none of your accent. All right, thanks Mila. You can't get stood all over. Cheers, thank you, cheers Mila, thank you very much. Have a good day, bye bye.