As part of the 200 year anniversary celebrations of the Institution of Civil Engineers ICE UK, the Malta Group of Professional Engineering Institutions representing the ICE in Malta, with the support of the ICE University of Malta Student Chapter, is organising a Debate on ‘Gender in Architecture and Engineering’ in collaboration with the Gender Issues Committee of the University of Malta. 

The moderator of the Event, Chairman Gender Issues Committee, University of Malta.

Prof. Marie Therese Camilleri Podesta

Chairperson of the University of Malta Gender Issues Committee, Professor at the University of Malta in the fields of Anatomy and Medicine and Surgery, Recipient of  the National Order of Merit of Malta .

Prof. Camilleri Podesta is the Chairperson of the University of Malta Gender Issues Committee. She was the first female to be appointed full Professor at the University of Malta. and has also held the post of head of the Department of Anatomy as well as Deputy Dean of the Faculty of Medicine and Surgery. She has conducted numerous studies which have contributed to the knowledge on diverticular disease of the colon and bile acid secretion. Her work also includes collaboration with other faculties within the University of Malta and the Universities of Pisa and Nottingham and has She sits on various committees at the university which include the Faculty Admissions Committee, which she chairs, as well as the ACCESS committee. She is regularly appointed by the courts to carry out medico-legal autopsies.

Perit Simone Vella Lenicker

Vice President of the Kamra tal-Periti, Design Director at Architecture Project , Editor of ‘The Architect’

Perit Vella Lenicker is the Vice President of the Kamra tal-Periti, the Malta Chamber of Architects and Civil Engineers. She graduated in Architecture and Civil Engineering from the University of Malta in 1999. She has been at Architecture Project since 2006, and is now a Design Director there, primarily responsible for Property Valuations and Planning Processes. She is currently the Vice President of the Kamra tal-Periti, and has been the Editor of its quarterly journal The Architect for many years. Vella Lenicker is a Member of the Building Regulation Board, the BICC Advisory Board and the BICC Property Market Committee, as well as a Member of the Church Commission for Justice and Peace.

Ing. Charles Cuschieri

Director of Camilleri and Cuschieri Engineers, Malta Group of Professional Engineers Board Member

Ing. Carmel Cuschieri graduated in 1977 with first class honours degree in Engineering from the University of Malta. His first professional appointment was as a production engineer with Van Gils Malta. In 1978 he joined Delta Elektronika of Holland as a design electronics engineer in the production of linear and switched mode power supplies. In 1982 he was appointed as the youngest full time lecturer in linear and digital electronics at the Faculty of Engineering at the University of Malta. He also lectured in power electronics and was also involved in research on electrical inverters used in wind turbines. In parallel to this, he set up with the late Ing. A.G. Camilleri the engineering consultancy firm Camilleri and Cuschieri Consulting engineers. In 1989 he resigned his lecturing post at the university of Malta (but continued to lecture in power electronics for 3 more years on a part time basis) to dedicate himself entirely to engineering consultancy. Camilleri and Cuschieri today employ a complement of 18 full time staff, mostly professionals and is the leading engineering consultancy firm in Malta, having carried out projects both in Malta and overseas. Ing Cuschieri is a fellow of the Institution of Engineering and technology, FIET, is a member of ASHRAE, MASHRAE, member of the Malta Chamber of Engineers and a Eur Ing. He was awarded the Engineering Excellence award for Leadership by the Malta Chamber of Engineers in 2012.

Ing. Elisa Vella

Senior Executive Office of the Registrar at UM,  MSc Psychology of Work

Ing. Vella is an engineer with a Masters Degree in Psychology of Work. She studied at St. Catherine’s High School and St. Aloysius’ College, and she graduated with a B.Eng. (Hons) at the University of Malta in 1997. She worked in the manufacturing industry within the private sector with R&D and Quality Assurance from 1997 to 2007, and since 2008 she has worked in Administration Management at the University of Malta. She was awarded MSc Psychology of Work at the University of Leicester in 2016. Her research interests include flexible working conditions and human-factors engineering.

Perit Antoinette Conti

Senior Manager-Operations at Transport Malta, Oversaw the Kappara Junction Project, MSc in Road Engineering

Perit Conti is a Senior Manager for Operations at Transport Malta. She studied Architecture & Civil Engineering at the University of Malta from 1998 to 2003, after which she obtained the warrant of Perit. After working in the construction industry, she completed an MSc in Road Engineering in 2009. She joined ADT (now Transport Malta) in 2005, where she has given significant contributions to the road construction sector in Malta through the successful completion of a number of EU or locally funded projects, the most recent being the Kappara Junction Flyover Project. Until 2017, she was also lecturing within the MCAST Institute for Engineering and Transport at diploma and degree level.

Dr Neveen Hamza

Director M.Sc. Sustainable Buildings and Environments, Senior Lecturer at the School of Architecture and Planning (University of Newcastle)

Dr Hamza is Senior Lecturer in Built Environment at the University of Newcastle, United Kingdom. She studied her First Degree and M.Sc. in Architecture in Alexandria University, Egypt, and she obtained her PhD from Newcastle University on the performance of Double Skin Facades in hot arid areas. Hamza has published over 80 original research journal articles, book chapters and papers, in her fields of study which include the relationships between architectural design, building performance simulation and energy consumption, human wellbeing and sustainability from a social and technical perspective. She has undertaken a number of consultancies, and is currently serving as the Vice-Chair for the International Building Performance Simulation Association-England and Director of the M.Sc. Sustainable Buildings and Environments.

Ms Jasmine Azzopardi

President of the Institution of Civil Engineers Student Chapter at University of Malta, Student at the University of  Malta reading for a B.Sc. (Hons) Built Environment Studies

Ms Azzopardi is the President of the Institution of Civil Engineers Student Chapter at the University of Malta. She studied at St. Aloysius College in Birkirkara, Malta, and is currently reading for the Bachelor of Science (Honours) in Built Environment Studies at the Faculty for the Built Environment, University of Malta. She worked as a student architect and is interested in innovative architectural design and psychology of design. She took part in Human Matter – A Collective Art Exhibition in 2017, with the installation Abiogenesis.

Opening of the Event, MGPEI Chairman

Dr Ruben Paul Borg

Senior Lecturer, Faculty for the Built Environment, University of Malta, Member of the Gender Issues Committee University of Malta, Malta Representative of the Institution of Civil Engineers and Chairman of the MGPEI

Dr Borg graduated in Architecture and Civil Engineering from the University of Malta and read for a Specialisation Degree in Structural Engineering at the Politecnico di Milano, Italy and a PhD in Materials Engineering at the University of Sheffield UK. He is the Malta Representative of the Institution of Civil Engineers, UK and Chairman of the Malta Group of Professional Engineering Institutions. He served as Chairman of the European Council of Civil Engineers for Knowledge and Technology and is a member of the Board of Directors of the International Initiative for a Sustainable Built Environment. He is a member of the Executive Board of the Building Industry Consultative Council where he chairs the Research and Innovation Committee. He is active in research and practice in structural engineering, materials engineering, quality management and sustainable construction.