DC PRO lauds female engineers on International Women’s Day
DC PRO Engineering says it will mark tomorrow’s International Women’s Day by encouraging more women to take the lead in the region’s construction and engineering sector, insisting the booming industry needs them.
With Expo 2020 Dubai just over two years away, the sector is set to continue growing, opening new opportunities for both graduates and experienced industry professionals. However, while the UAE is leading the way with female empowerment, there remains a shortage of women in the engineering and construction sector, noted the company in its press briefing.
DC PRO employees a number of female industry professionals who play a significant role in shaping the region’s future. Karen Saliba is a mechanical engineer at DC PRO, and chair of Young Engineers in ASHRAE (YEA) Committee for the ASHRAE Falcon Chapter in UAE. Karen designs large and varied district cooling and tri-generation systems integrated with renewables.
Sarah Al Zahdi is an electrical engineer who designs complex district cooling electrical power systems with capacity to run tens of Megawatts. Sarah Is instrumental in integrating renewables with District Cooling.
Villy Maliaka, a mechanical engineer, designs complex mechanical building services systems that cover hospitals, hotels, residential as well as mixed-use buildings. Villy is conscious of rising energy consumption and strives to reduce energy and water consumption by 40 per cent while simultaneously reducing capital cost. She says she follows the motto to “Do More for Less”.
Nabta Kamal is an industrial control engineer. Nabta designs complex automation and control systems based on SCDA and Industrial Grade Programmable Logical Controller (PLC), and instruments to manage and automatically report plant energy performance hour on an hourly basis.
“The industry is evolving and there are numerous opportunities available for women to get ahead and have a significant, positive impact on the future of engineering and construction,” Saliba said. “The more women we have across the full spectrum of the industry will only benefit and encourage others to pursue a career in construction and engineering. With ASHRAE establishing a training centre in Dubai in 2017, the first ASHRAE training centre outside of Society Headquarters in Atlanta, Georgia, USA, we see the UAE as a hub for Engineers to excel. The UAE Government is making great strides in female empowerment across industry and society and we see women having a supremely bright future in shaping the construction industry, in line with the country’s goals.”
George Berbari CEO of DC PRO said “All four of these women, from a diverse range of backgrounds in Lebanon, Pakistan, Greece and Sudan, have shown great dedication and commitment to learning, developing new skills and have the drive to succeed. They play an integral part in our organisation and particularly in an industry that is so male-dominated. At DC PRO we strive to encourage more women into the profession. Currently 20% of our operations team is female, and that will continue to grow.”
