If you aspire to a career in engineering then make sure you are keeping an eye on the professional lives of these six women.

During the month of March, SiliconRepublic.com is paying particular attention to careers and skills in the engineering space, and what better way to continue that coverage than with an exploration of some of the most exciting women in this field.

The following engineers have contributed greatly to their industries, through their work, discoveries, builds, and advocacy for themselves and others. 

Áine Brazil

A managing principal at structural engineering company Thornton Tomasetti, Salthill’s Áine Brazil holds a bachelor’s degree in engineering from the University of Galway and a master’s degree in engineering from the Imperial College of Science and Technology in London. She was the first president of the Structural Engineers Association of New York and is a member of the American Concrete Institute, the American Society of Civil Engineers and the Institute of Engineers in Ireland. 

In her 30-plus-year career she has overseen several crucial projects; for example, she led the structural engineering team for the design of more than 3m square feet of high-rise office development in the Times Square area, as well as the expansion of New York Hospital spanning the FDR highway, the 60-storey 731 Lexington Avenue mixed-use project, and the Nationwide Arena in Columbus, Ohio.

She has been included on the list ‘New York’s 100 Most Influential Women in Business’, by Crain’s New York Business, and has authored numerous technical papers and lectured at universities throughout the US including Cornell, Princeton, and Columbia. 

Justine Butler

A chemical engineer with more than 18 years of experience in the pharmaceutical space, Justine Butler is currently the director of engineering at Jacobs Life Sciences for Ireland, the UK and the Nordic region. She has significant experience in leading teams and is responsible for the engineering design of a wide-ranging project portfolio. 

She is the first woman to hold this position at the organisation and is also among its youngest people working in a leadership capacity in her region. Butler was also the first young engineer to serve on Engineers Ireland’s council and executive committee after first chairing its young engineers committee. In 2024, she was honoured with the ‘Women in STEM – Engineering’ award, given by Engineers Ireland. 

Dervilla Mitchell

A former deputy chair of Arup Group, Dervilla Mitchell is a civil engineer with a background in the design of the built environment. She has led a number of major projects, including the Athletes’ Village for the London 2012 Olympics, Terminal 5 at Heathrow airport, Dublin airport’s Terminal 2, and Abu Dhabi airport’s Midfield Terminal. She is the co-chair of the Royal Academy of Engineering and also chairs the UK’s National Engineering Policy Centre’s decarbonisation group. 

Georgina Molloy

A programme manager for energy performance at the Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland (SEAI), Georgina Molloy is also the chair of the Engineers Ireland Women in Engineering group. As part of her role there, Molloy chairs a committee of 12 engineers with the aim of achieving better gender balance and supporting women who have chosen a career in the engineering space.

She is a chartered structural engineer with more than 20 years of experience working in consulting engineering practices large and small, and has spent a considerable portion of that time in scaffold and temporary works design and construction. Molloy is particularly passionate about working on refurbishment projects and enjoys being part of teams that bring old builds of historical importance back to life.

Norah Patten

Set to be the first Irish person in space, Norah Patten is an aerospace engineer and bioastronautics researcher at the International Institute for Astronautical Sciences (IIAS). She has received multiple recognitions for her contributions to the industry, such as a 2015 ’emerging space leader’ award, an appearance in Limerick’s ‘top 40 under 40’ for 2018, and an IIAS ‘science educator’ accolade, among others.

She is a regular keynote speaker, an author and an advocate for other women in the industry. Later in the year, Patten will join Kellie Gerardi of the US and Dr Shawna Pandya of Canada as crew members aboard Virgin Galactic’s new Delta vehicle for a space mission organised by the US-based IIAS.

Anisa Pjetri

A former senior structural engineer and project manager at AtkinsRéalis, Anisa Pjetri is now an associate director at the company. She earned a BSc in civil engineering in Albania and an MSc in structural engineering in London before relocating to Ireland, where she earned a chartership from Engineers Ireland and took up a position at AtkinsRéalis.

Pjetri has 12 years of international expertise in designing, planning and overseeing the construction of a wide variety of buildings, structures and infrastructure for residential, commercial, medical, industrial and hospitality projects. In 2025, she was a finalist for the Chartered Engineer of the Year award. 

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Peter O’Brien has received the 2025 Semi European Award, which recognises those who have had an impact on global semiconductor innovation.

Tyndall National Institute’s photonics expert Prof Peter O’Brien has been honoured by the global semiconductor industry for his work in the sector.

O’Brien is the head of research for photonics packaging and systems integration at the University College Cork-based deep-tech institute. He has received the 2025 Semi European Award, which recognises leaders whose work has had a significant impact in global semiconductor innovation.

Semi is a global industry association representing companies and research organisations across the semiconductor and electronics development and manufacturing supply chain.

O’Brien has been recognised for his contributions to photonics electronic packaging, his leadership in Europe’s semiconductor pilot lines, and his work in developing specialised training programmes for up-and-coming researchers in the field.

“It is a great honour to receive the Semi European Award for 2025,” said O’Brien. “Through this award, I would like to recognise my many collaborators around the world. Working together, we accelerate research and development, turning early ideas into impactful breakthroughs.”

Prof William Scanlon, the CEO of Tyndall, added: “Prof O’Brien’s leadership and vision have placed Tyndall at the forefront of advanced packaging globally, and his contributions are shaping Europe’s semiconductor future.”

Meanwhile, Eric Beyne, a senior fellow at the Belgium-based nanoelectronics and digital tech research and innovation hub IMEC, received the Special Service Award at the ceremony earlier this month for his contributions to high-density interconnection and packaging technologies, and helping advance next-gen semiconductor integration techniques.

“We are honoured to recognise Peter O’Brien and Eric Beyne for their outstanding contributions to advancing semiconductor innovation and strengthening Europe’s technology ecosystem,” said Semi Europe president Laith Altimime.

“Their leadership and vision have helped drive transformative progress across the industry while inspiring the next generation of engineers and researchers, reflecting the spirit of collaboration and innovation that continues to propel the semiconductor industry toward a more resilient, digital and sustainable future.”

Tyndall has made several major announcements this year. The Cork-based research institute recently announced a €100m expansion project.

It is also co-ordinating I-C3, Ireland’s National Competence Centre in Semiconductors, leading Ireland in a major €50m European initiative called Photonics for Quantum, and supporting a new €2.5bn pilot line to develop EU’s semiconductor leadership.

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Picture a VP of finance at a large retailer. She asks the company’s new AI analytics agent a simple question: “What was our revenue last quarter?” The answer comes back in seconds.

Confident.

Clean.

Wrong.

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That exact scenario happens more frequently than many organizations would care to admit. AtScale, which enables organizations to deploy governed analytics environments and semantic consistency, has found that simply increasing model parameterization alone cannot address the AI governance and context issues enterprises face.

When AI systems query inconsistent or ungoverned data, adding more model complexity doesn’t contain the problem, it compounds it. Organizations across industries have acted quickly to develop agentic AI, deploying systems that analyze data, generate insights, and trigger automated workflows. In response to this trend, the AI models have adapted to react quickly via larger model parameters, increased computing power, and additional features. The underlying assumption has been that as long as the model gets large enough, the eventual result will be reliable.

However, there are indications that this assumption may not hold up. Recent TDWI research found that nearly half of respondents characterized their AI governance initiatives as either immature or very immature. This may have more to do with data lineage and the business definitions on which these models are based than with the models’ capabilities.

At AtScale, there’s a consistent theme among our clients: When inconsistent data definitions followed organizations into their AI layer, the problems didn’t stop there. They propagated forward, typically at greater speed and with less transparency than the previous layer had offered.

Performance and responsibility are separate jobs. A model reasons. A governance layer defines what the model reasons over, constrains how it applies business logic, and ensures outputs can be traced back to a source of record. One cannot substitute for the other.

DoorDash has launched a new option for its gig economy workers to earn some extra cash. The delivery service introduced Tasks, which it describes as “short activities Dashers can complete between deliveries or in their own time.” It gives taking pictures of restaurant dishes or recording video of unscripted conversations in languages other than English as examples. These materials will be used to train artificial intelligence and robotics models.

A representative from DoorDash told Bloomberg News that it will use Tasks content for evaluating its in-house AI models as well as those made by its partner companies in retail, insurance, hospitality and tech. DoorDash is piloting a standalone app for Tasks where Dashers will submit their content. The blog post notes that pay will be displayed upfront, and compensation will vary based on the complexity of the activity.

This idea isn’t new. We’ve seen other startups in AI and robotics offering payment for content filmed by regular people. Considering how many lawsuits are underway against AI companies that have already benefited from unauthorized use of copyrighted materials, at least this approach lets people be directly compensated for training content.

Searching for a reason to buy collectors’ editions of Mattel products? With the toy drops unveiled during Mattel Creations Revealed event Thursday, you may be able to make a case for yourself. Homing in on fandoms ranging from anime to Barbie to Monster High, the company shared a fresh lineup of releases. Masters of the Universe fans: lock in.

You can stack Mattel Bricks to create Eternia’s legendary Castle Grayskull with a new set (pictured above) that’s the first of its kind for the toy giant. Get into your display — or play — with Masters of the Universe Nano figures depicting characters like He-Man, Evil-Lyn, Skeletor, Battle Cat and Teela. Available in the Brick Shop starting April 25, the set will retail for $65. For fans who want a bit of extra nostalgia, you can also buy the light-up Laser Power He-Man figure for $30 to add to your display.

Mattel has been on somewhat of a roll with its Monster High Skullector series, with doll collabs that feature iconic movie and TV favorites like Coraline, Wednesday and Morticia, Pennywise and Alien. Skeletor has been added to the collection and is quite the baddie. Just check out the outfit, high-heeled boots and signature smirk. Her staff speaks as well, but I won’t spoil it by telling you the catchphrase. The price? $65.

If the He-Man franchise isn’t for you, maybe you’ll be into the drop for Naruto. Burn up a Hot Wheels track with the Nissan Silvia S15 model that carries Naruto emblazoned on both sides. Making its debut as part of a partnership between Mattel and anime franchises, the car is priced at $25.

We’ve seen Barbie go couture in the past, and Mattel has just revealed its atelier design that takes handcrafted fashion up a notch. The new poseable Grand Couture Silkstone Barbie doll retails for $342, stands at 14.5 inches and wears a ruffled coat (with a train) with a shimmery embroidered dress underneath. Drop earrings and pink boots complete the high-end look.

Not to be sidelined at today’s event, Ken was spotlighted with the release of his own Uno card deck that features a variety of, well, Kens. Celebrate his 65th anniversary with the $13 deck, and you can decide if you’ve had Ken-ough of draw fours and skips.

One of the other pop culture moments — and figures — commemorated with a toy reveal today came in the form of WWE star Stone Cold Steve Austin. He’s been immortalized as a Mattel action figure that captures when he coined his 3:16 catchphrase 30 years ago, with the Elite Collection addition coming equipped with a crown, table and throne. Get it for your WWE collection for $30.

Navia Benefit Solutions, Inc. (Navia) is informing nearly 2.7 million individuals of a data breach that exposed their sensitive information to attackers.

An investigation into the incident revealed that the hackers had access to the organization’s systems between December 22, 2025, and January 15, 2026. However, the company discovered the suspicious activity on January 23.

Navia says that it responded immediately and launched an inquiry to determine the potential impact of the incident.

“The investigation determined that an unauthorized actor accessed and acquired certain information between December 22, 2025, and January 15, 2026,” the company says in the notification to impacted individuals.

Navia is a consumer-focused administrator of benefits that provides services to more than 10,000 employers across the U.S.

The company provides software and customer services for the administration of Flexible Spending Accounts (FSA), Health Savings Accounts (HSA), Health Reimbursement Arrangements (HRA), Commuter Benefits and COBRA Services.

It also helps handle commuter benefits, lifestyle accounts, education benefits, compliance/risk services, and retirement-related offerings.

According to the company, the investigation into the breach revealed that the hacker accessed and may have exfiltrated the following types of data:

• Full name
• Date of birth
• Social Security Number (SSN)
• Phone number
• Email address
• Participation in HRA (Health Reimbursement Arrangements)
• FSA (Flexible Spending Accounts) information
• Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act (COBRA) enrollment information

Navia underlines that the data breach did not expose details about claims or financial information. Nevertheless, the exposed data is enough for threat actors to deploy phishing and social engineering attacks aimed at affected individuals.

The company states that it has reviewed its security posture and data retention policies to identify potential weaknesses that can be improved, and has notified federal law enforcement about the incident.

Customers whose information was exposed will be covered by a free 12-month identity protection and credit monitoring service from Kroll. Letter recipients are also encouraged to consider placing a fraud alert and security freeze on their credit files.

At the time of writing, no ransomware group has claimed the Navia data breach.

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