HORIBA MIRA Apprentice Wins National Cybersecurity Award
An outstanding talent at a leading Midlands automotive engineering, verification and validation consultancy, has won a national award for her work in the automotive cybersecurity field.
Stephanie Haynes, aged 31, Cybersecurity Analyst at HORIBA MIRA, took home the award for Security Apprentice of the Year at the inaugural Computing Rising Stars Awards 2019 held in London this week.
Celebrating the emerging talent in digital, the Computing Awards bring together the very best in the industry from across the UK. They recognise and identify the sector’s future leaders shining a spotlight on their success and championing the organisations who are helping to foster and develop their talent.
Stephanie was awarded for demonstrating her awareness and views of key industry trends and ability to manage cybersecurity challenges in a clean and efficient manner.
In April 2017, Stephanie started work at HORIBA MIRA following employment as a home shopping picker in her local ASDA supermarket. Since joining, she has successfully graduated her apprenticeship with a distinction and is the first female in the UK to be awarded the Level 4 Cybersecurity Technologist apprenticeship.
She started her journey working in the Vehicle Resilience (VRES) team learning about the problems new vehicle technology presents for automotive security, whilst also building her knowledge in electrical engineering by constructing and developing analysis tools to assess key vulnerabilities in vehicle ultrasonic sensors. Alongside her practical work, Stephanie took part in a variety of training courses from vehicle safety awareness through to communication, confidence and assertiveness workshops run at the MIRA Technology Institute, a global skills centre located on-site at HORIBA MIRA.
Stephanie is now hoping to start a degree in cybersecurity as well as undertaking further professional qualifications and training.
Stephanie said:
“I’m so pleased to have been recognised as a rising star in the industry, especially as I don’t have a background in automotive cybersecurity. Since starting at HORIBA MIRA I’ve been given opportunities that have allowed me to grow both technically and personally and have been able to apply the theoretical knowledge learned during my classroom training to a real-world security environment.”
She added:
“I really believe that if you love what you do, work hard and are enthusiastic about your field of interest, you will succeed no matter what your background.”
Declan Allen, Managing Director at HORIBA MIRA, said:
“We are incredibly proud of all that Stephanie has achieved during her time at HORIBA MIRA. She is part of a talented group of vehicle resilience engineers working to ensure vehicles of the future are safe and secure.
“Automotive cybersecurity is an exciting and fast-paced industry but it’s experiencing a global shortage of skills, so it is critical that we continue to attract and develop new talent. The apprenticeship scheme has proven to be an effective route to enabling young people to enter the profession and we hope that Stephanie’s success will inspire more people to enter the sector, so we can continue to develop a diverse pool of skills that addresses the increasing demands of the industry.”
HORIBA MIRA’s engagement with the education sector is bolstered by its unique partnership with the MIRA Technology Institute (MTI), a purpose-built global skills centre which opened in 2018. The centre is designed for the development of specialist engineering skills and is made possible thanks to a partnership led by North Warwickshire and South Leicestershire College, HORIBA MIRA, Coventry University, Loughborough University and the University of Leicester.
