CIVIL engineers play an important role in the built environment, but their contribution is shrouded in mystery. This is something that infuriates Ruth Hopgood, a civil engineer at Expedition Engineering. “Every engineer should be explaining more to people about what they do,” she says, launching into what she describes as a pet subject.

“We don't just fix washing machines. We build the infrastructure that you rely on on a daily basis.” Hopgood believes that school-leavers are not being given enough encouragement to go into her profession so it is missing out on potential stars, she says.

She should know - Hopgood was named a Future Star at the 2007 Inspire Awards, which recognise women's contribution to the built environment. So, what first attracted her to civil engineeering when she was at school? “I ended up doing [work] experience with an engineering firm []and thought, ‘Yes, this is for me.' It incorporates maths and physics and there are also aspects of design and aesthetics which I really enjoyed.”

She enrolled on a four-year masters degree in civil engineering at Imperial College London and spent her final year in Madrid polishing the Spanish she had learnt at A level. “It was really hard work - but fantastic - to work in a different country and take in all the culture that you can while still [taking] your hardest year at university.”

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At the moment, she is working from 8am to 6pm on a building site on a 12-month secondment to Kier London. While this is not an obligatory part of her training, it's very useful for a would-be chartered civil engineer to get out of the office, she says. “When you draw something on a piece of paper it's often not as straightforward as you think it is to get it built.”

Before she donned a hard-hat, Hopgood enjoyed working on a number of brain-teasing projects that perfectly suited her creative bent. She was part of an Expedition Engineering team working to find an easily-draining surface for the all-weather horseracing track at Kempton Park.

She was also asked to get her head around how extreme conditions affect building materials, when the firm teamed up with an architects' practice to enter a competition to design a new station for the British Antarctic Survey. The final design for a walking building did not win, but it was still a fascinating project to be involved with, she says. “You have to create a whole new set of building standards when you talk about working in the Antarctic.”

Hopgood says that it is difficult not to become emotionally attached to some projects, such as the redevelopment of a 1950s building on Baker Street in London that she worked on for almost two years.

“I heard it had opened up so I went down there ... and took some photographs. The guy on security came out to ask if I was OK because I seemed to be taking a bit too much of an interest.” But then, it's hard not too.

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