About
Patricia is a water engineer with a background in both the private and public water sector. She has expertise in the design of flood alleviation schemes and wastewater networks.
She leads on Academic Programme Enhancement and Development for Engineering and is the Academic Student Engagement Lead. She is a strong advocate of student voice and partnership with students and is interested in exploring conflicts between student voice and institutional and staff resilience.
Her main area of research is into the social impact of engineers and engineering – critiquing how the methodologies adopted by engineers can sometimes run counter to the needs of communities they serve and reinforce structures of power that maintain inequality. Civil Engineering in particular is inextricably linked up with societal change, and responsible engineering is about understanding wider environmental and social impacts of design and construction. Patricia teaches creative design modules that give students tools and techniques to find their own brand of creativity, while prompting students to consider how their individual privilege and biases impact on their design decisions.
Patricia is exploring the use of VR in teaching and research to improve spatial competencies, rapid evaluation and decision making strategies.
She is interested in the use of slime mould (Physarum polycephalum) in optimising transport networks, how Japanese Knotweed impacts river flow dynamics, and the use of string-jammed gravel (sometimes called reversible concrete) as a replacement material for concrete.