"I know it’s cliché but the world is yours for the taking. Another key factor is to lift as you rise because that’s the only way that it will become normal for females to be in entrepreneurial roles."

"The biggest lesson is owning your worth and knowing your value."

"I also faced some personal challenges because when you believe so deeply in an idea it can scare other people, but it’s okay if they don’t get the vision. You can’t be everything to everyone. As a female in particular, the world is not used to trail brazing confident women who are financially secure and are willing to take charge."

"Engineering is hard enough but being one of few women of colour makes it so much harder. I’ve seen females drop out because of discrimination. That’s why I was so motivated to kickstart this organisation because I want to see changes and I want to make sure other women don’t have to go through the same struggles that I did."

"It was a very male dominated space so I was one of few females in my class, but I had the mindset that I wanted to do something about that instead of complaining about it. I wanted to make changes so I created a platform for female engineers to come together and discuss things and, from this, WomEng was born. After WomEng’s success, I later founded the spinout WomHub which is more of a social enterprise and took the company into an entrepreneurship space."

"Entrepreneurship is about seeing a problem and wanting to do something about it. It’s about having a vision and painting the world how you’d want it to look, and then dedicating yourself to making that a reality."

"I realised my idea was good enough when I saw the first girl graduate from the WomEng. By the time I left my job, I had reached 10000 girls in STEM, so I saw that there was a clear market. Organisations were willing to impart money in my idea so this made me realise how necessary it was."

"Resilience because it’s important to have a thick skin and the ability to bounce back."

"Failure is not a bad thing so don’t be afraid of failure. Also, determination is key as you need to have a clear vision, and this means knowing your why and what motivates you."

"There’s no shame is making money because the more you make, the more good you can do."

"I am concerned about the brain drain of African scientists out of South Africa."

"We are using laser technology or laser-based technology for drug delivery."

"I use lasers to optically manipulate cells … my goal is to translate my research from petri dishes to human testing."

"I hold two fundamental beliefs close to my heart,” she explains. “First, I’m a technology explorationist. I believe in pushing technology as far as possible because that’s how society progresses. Second, ignoring the inevitable is the worst decision we can make."

"“Don’t take life too seriously. You don’t need to figure things out right away. Figure things out along the way…“"

"Winning the Google Science Competition was a pivotal moment for me. It not only validated my belief that young people can drive significant change, but also opened doors to a global platform where I could advocate for sustainability. The experience taught me that innovation paired with advocacy can create meaningful impact."

"My advice is simple: start small, but think big. We can’t tackle sustainability challenges overnight, but every action matters."

"I think the barrier to doing incredible things has been lowered by technology, which has started to reduce inequality."

"It’s really hard to wake up every day and fight patriarchy, which is why I am so exhausted. I honestly want to see women make loads of money so we can all just invest in other women and shift the power dynamics in business as well as in our homes and families."

"Engineers design our world and our society, and if we don’t have women at the design table, we exclude 50% of the population."

"“We are thrilled to open WomHub and provide a space where women can grow their businesses and hopefully make more money,” our mission is to empower women to pursue their passions and achieve success on their own terms.”"

"“ For women who are breastfeeding, we’ve got a wellness area where women can do yoga, meditation and prayer. We’ve also got what we call the junior engineer hub. It’s basically a co-play space for kids that when you are working, your kids can co-play in the space and also learn about STEM and tech,”"

"“I think this is so important because none of this means anything unless we can move the capital into the hands of women so that they can grow their businesses. And so, this is why my business partner and I have been so focused on raising the venture capital fund so that we can start to not only create the spaces for a woman, literally and figuratively, but give them the capital that they need to thrive,”"

"Women have been largely excluded from an industry that literally designs and supports the building of cities, countries and the virtual world. When women are excluded, we have a world that was not built for us and we see gender bias persist in everything from infrastructure to virtual safety. The way we combat this is through bringing more women to the design table."

"I’m blessed to have a network of incredible women entrepreneurs and team members who inspire me every day to get up and fight."

"With WomHub, I’m particularly excited about our work supporting female founders, especially given the lack of capital that goes into female-founded businesses as well as a general lack of support."

"I think the barrier to doing incredible things has been lowered by technology, which has started to reduce inequality. Before, you needed an Ivy League education, where now you can learn cool things online from those institutions, tinker with technology and develop cool things, connect to others and have your voice heard, and that excites me for young women in STEM."