PM Network - August 2014

“I did a few years of engineering for a multinational chemicals company. When they had to close down the branch where I was, I found myself using my engineering background as a project manager for the local education authority. That led me to get involved in the STEM community—science, technology, engineering and mathematics.

I’d spent several years managing STEM projects for schools when I came across the FIRST LEGO League (FLL) competition.

FLL is an international robotics program for 9- to 16-year-olds. It’s one of the largest STEM competitions in the world, with over 80 countries involved. LEGO and its U.S. partner, FIRST—which stands for “For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology”—look for operational partners to manage the competition locally in countries around the world. FLL had been going on in the United Kingdom since 2001, and in 2012 LEGO approached the Institution of Engineering and Technology (IET) about taking over as operational partner. IET took on FLL as a project and hired me as project manager.

It’s my job to embed this project within the IET to move it forward. That requires managing quite a lot of risk in terms of making sure we have the proper funding, the right support network and executive sponsorship. We have about 450 teams that compete in FLL at regional tournaments across the country. I have to manage teams’ expectations and work with academic and corporate partners to not only host tournaments on our behalf, but also involve their scientists and engineers as mentors and judges.