Jessica started her career aged 5 as an Apprentice Electrician working weekends with her father. Aged 16 she attended college to study A-levels in Physics, Chemistry and Mathematics, but her complete dismay with the ‘learning to pass the exam’ style of process led her to complete a range of vocational electrical qualifications in parallel at night school. She qualified as an Electrician aged 19.
During this period Jessica also worked as a Sales Advisor for Maplin Electronics. She bagged a side project to develop a portable electronic uterine contraction monitor for a Cardiff-based medical manufacturer. Her solution reduced manufacturing costs by 99% but she continued to develop it using optical fibre technology leading to wider industrial sensing applications. She secured a patent with support from a London Livery Guild and approached the CEO of Maplin to fund an improved technology. Maplin agreed and Jessica was offered a position in HQ as R&D Advisor to the CEO. She worked with the Board of Directors to revitalise Maplin’s educational strategy, and was a founding member of the Maplin Foundation, a non-profit subsidiary for developing young inventors. She was also awarded the Intel IET Inspirational Entrepreneur Award for her efforts to commercialise her technology.
Aged 17 Jessica became the first female UK Young Engineer and began an Astrophysics BSc at Cardiff University in the same year. Two years later she was head-hunted by Cardiff University to become a Research Associate in Lightning Strike Protection for aircraft. After successfully building an international network of collaborators and customers, Jessica left Cardiff University to take up an engineering role with Sony, Pencoed in January 2016. She now heads up a small research team responsible for developing the next generation of manufacturing platform in collaboration with Japan, for consumption by Sony factories globally.
