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Chai & Chat Engineering

Chai & Chat Engineering

Written by: Dipalee Jukes Era Shah Malika Kapasi
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About this listen

We are Dipalee Jukes, Era Shah and Malika Kapasi and we are all inextricably linked by being female, south asian engineers. We all work in the UK construction industry and up until recently, we felt like complete outliers in our professions. Reason being, we quite literally couldn’t see other people who looked like us at work.

When the three of us met for the first time at London Build 2021, we instantly connected and had a shared passion and purpose to use our platforms to serve other women. Fast forward several months, a podcast was born, combining our love of engineering, female leadership and allyship, the power of role models, our cultural heritage and our genuine love of tea!

The aim of this podcast is to highlight and bring awareness to the current lack of minority ethnic female engineers in the Engineering and Construction industry in the UK. We want this podcast to raise the profile of the amazing women engineers out there in our communities to create more role models young girls and women can aspire to. We believe this starts with changing perceptions of what an engineer looks like.


This podcast will share insights and back stories from different guests, all of whom are women from diverse backgrounds, working in the UK Construction Industry. We will deep dive into their upbringings, their challenges, their ambitions for the future, all told from their perspectives. Our worlds might look the same from the outside, but our journeys to get here are all so very different.

This is the Chai & Chat Engineering podcast.


Music Credit:

Zurna (Instrumental) by Sapajou | https://soundcloud.com/sapajoubeats

Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License

https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/deed.en_US

Music promoted by https://www.chosic.com/free-music/all/

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Chai Chat Engineering Careers Economics Personal Success Science
Episodes
  • #021 Chai & Chat Engineering with Lisa Martello

    #021 Chai & Chat Engineering with Lisa Martello
    May 6 2025

    Lisa Martello is a Director at Resolex which specialises in building social competency in major projects teams. Describing herself as a project manager by trade, Lisa has over 15 years’ experience leading major rail, aviation and construction projects in the UK and Australia with a focus on how we do things, and how we treat people, not just what we achieve in the end.


    Lisa is a passionate advocate for diversity and inclusion in the workplace having previously held positions as a member of the Board of Directors for the National Association of Women in Construction (NAWIC) in Australia, Chair of their Diversity & Inclusion Portfolio, and Professional Mentor with the Asylum Seeker Resource Centre. She is also the Founder and Content Creator of the fast-growing, sarcasm-fuelled social media account, Catching Bees.


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    39 mins
  • #020 Chai & Chat Engineering with Thulasi Karunakaran

    #020 Chai & Chat Engineering with Thulasi Karunakaran
    Apr 22 2025
    Thulasi is a Chartered Systems Engineer and a Fellow with the IET. Shortly after graduating with an Electrical Engineering degree, she started out as a Signalling Designer in the railway sector. From there she moved to telecoms design both in rail and highways where she developed a passion for system integration and systems engineering as a discipline. Thulasi is now Head of Systems Engineering for Rail and part of mobility at Arcadis and has been leading several major projects in this area and instilling a whole system approach.

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    37 mins
  • #019 Chai & Chat Engineering with Parminder Mew

    #019 Chai & Chat Engineering with Parminder Mew
    Mar 25 2025

    Parminder has over three decades of experience in the construction industry, delivering projects in healthcare, education, residential, and charitable and religious sectors.

    As an Asian female in a predominantly male industry, Parminder has built her career on collaboration, problem-solving, and a commitment to quality aligned with Clients financial budgets.


    After earning a scholarship to study Construction Management at University, she gained valuable experience with leading contractors before founding Darcy Construction in 1999. Under her leadership, Darcy has delivered a variety of successful projects and developed a reputation for reliability and attention to detail.


    A notable highlight of her career was helping deliver Southall’s Sikh temple, a significant community landmark – indeed the largest Gurdwara outside of Punjab when it was constructed and then opened by King Charles III. Parminder is passionate about creating spaces that meet client expectations while contributing positively to the communities they serve.


    Construction is not only her passion but her legacy.

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    39 mins
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