Finding success and a professional home
Ama Frimpong's career has always been on a journey to success, from innovating and designing new products to winning the IET’s Young Woman Engineer of the Year award in 2022, but now Ama is trying to use her skillset to help others and share knowledge.
Ama currently works as Head of Product Development for 52 North Health Ltd, an organisation that creates affordable and cutting-edge technologies that bring healthcare closer to patients.
No two days are the same for Ama as she balances design work, analysing data and testing products, all whilst maintaining relationships with her colleagues and networks.
However, Ama’s journey into STEM started during childhood where an interest quickly turned into a passion that would carry her into a diverse and rewarding career.
“As a child I always liked making things and enjoyed playing with toys that required quite a lot of building, putting together and constructing, but it was actually my dad that helped to spark my interest in engineering as we would fix washing machines together, fix microwaves and fix the car. I also gained a lot of street cred in sixth form for being the only one who was able to change a tyre so was called on to do that a couple of times!”
Originally Ama planned on becoming a medical doctor but once she stumbled across medical engineering, she realised that her love of medicine could be combined with her ability to innovate and turn ideas into reality.
Starting a journey and finding her feet
With her mind set on what she wanted to do and a natural ability for development, Ama decided to study Biomedical Materials Science at the University of Nottingham, followed by an MSc in Biomedical Engineering at the University of Surrey.
Ama also understood how important getting hands on experience would be as she looked to progress towards studying for a PhD.
“I did quite a few internships working in genetics labs, working on laparoscopic development, device development and working in some research.”
Whilst completing her PhD at the University of Leeds, Ama realised that she wanted to be able to focus on product development as well as grow her skills as a multi-disciplinary engineer, deciding that moving into consulting would be the best option.
“I went into consulting where I was able to get my hands into lots of different projects and across a wide range of areas from inhalers and respiratory devices to hospital equipment and devices and implants.”
Although finding her first consulting role wasn’t as straightforward as she hoped when finding out where to apply proved a challenge. Ama was able to find her answer with help from the IET’s community of young professionals where she met people from Frazer-Nash and Arup who were able to explain more about the world of consulting and give Ama a clear sense of where to apply.
Helping others
After spending some time working in consulting, Ama decided that she wanted to focus on getting products to market and joined 52 North Health where she works to this day. Ama’s role enabled her to work directly on products that she knows will change people’s lives for the better.
“We’re developing a product called Neutrocheck to provide people undergoing chemotherapy and immunosuppressive therapies with a device that helps identify their risk of a life-threatening condition called neutropenic sepsis. I spend most of my time in medical engineering as my love and passion lies in healthcare.”
Ama’s determination to give back to others isn’t just focused on healthcare as she also gives up her time to volunteer and work with organisations in her community.
“I volunteer my time with organisations that are working to better others, whether it’s people from ethnic minorities like myself, or just for young people from all walks of life. I also mentor a lot of people, both formally and informally, helping people navigate their career choices and career related questions and answers.”
Joining the IET
Deciding on what professional engineering institution to join can be a tough decision, especially for someone with such a broad skillset as Ama. However, in the end it was the people that made her decide the IET was her professional home.
“I applied for membership because of the networking, and I knew that to succeed I wanted to be surrounded by people who have similar experiences or similar trajectories. I also wanted to attend events and seminars as well as being able to apply for Chartership.”
Alongside networking with other IET members, it is also the access to information and knowledge that allows Ama to benefit from being an IET member.
“There’s no shortage of information and there are lots of libraries and open access areas and journals which I use in my day-to-day work. If I’m exploring a new area or field that I’m not familiar with, there’s likely to be information somewhere in the libraries or on iet.tv. I also read my E+T magazine, which gives me information about what’s happening in the world of engineering on a regular basis.”
Despite an exciting and successful career, there are still challenges that Ama has had to deal with and having the IET to support her has made a world of difference.
“My IET membership has helped me overcome challenges in my role and career and given me this new professional family where I can reach out to people and ask questions. That is really invaluable because journeys can be lonely in different ways and being able to have a network that you can reach out to has been really helpful. I’ve also been able to just learn from their experience as well.”
Now she has a career and institution that both feel like home, Ama plans to continue her mission of developing new products that benefit others and prevent life-threatening illnesses.