Curiosity and the right environment to flourish

09 Dec 2024

In each of our publications, we present two of the ten nominees for the female engineer of year 2024, which will be announced at the gala event on January 16th 2025. This time we are presenting Brina Škoda, computer science and informatics engineer and Emina Mešić, production excellence engineer. The former emphasizes curiosity, the latter an appropriate environment that enables flourishing

Brina Škoda

Brina Škoda is a computer science and informatics engineer. She leads a team of product designers at Loftware, a company specialized for product labelling. She ensures that their products are understandable and user-friendly.

She came in contact with the field of customer experience during an exchange in Sweden, where she was focused on the interaction between humans and computing. Because she always wanted to understand people as well as possible, after her studies at the Faculty of Computer Science and Informatics of the University of Ljubljana, she dedicated herself to the study of Gestalt therapy and even made two years of psychotherapeutic practices.

She summarizes a familiar thought from Gestalt therapy »The whole is greater than the sum of the individual parts«, where she emphasizes, that that truly great achievements are made possible by teamwork, since an interdisciplinary team made of different people can create more than each individual alone.

At the same time, Brina Škoda believes in curiosity: »Knowledge builds already known things, while curiosity can create new ones, « she emphasises and add, that because of that, we must follow our curiosity and believe in ourselves. »There is nothing wrong, if you don’t have always all the knowledge that you think you need. Curiosity is enough and can create a whole new world. «

Emina Mešić

Emina Mešić has two important roles at Henkel Maribor: as a production excellence engineer takes care of process optimisation, costs reduction and increase of sustainable production, while as head of commissioning new lines, she is in charge of relocation and commissioning of new production lines.

She finished her studies at the Faculty of Civil Engineering, Traffic Engineering and Architecture of the University of Maribor. In her work, she combines technical expertise and passion for organization, innovation and personal development.

She began her career in the automotive industry in Portugal, where she gets experience in implementing new projects. It was there that she decides to make a postgraduate study in the field of Lean management (Toyota production systems) at the University of Aveiro. The first independent project – development of an adaptable production line - strengthened her confidence in her own abilities. »That was the moment, when I really feel the true meaning of the sayings: Choose the work that you like and never again you will need to work a single day in your life. « After five years of working abroad, the desire for advancement and new challenges brought him back to Slovenia, where she is upgrading her experience in her current role.

Her philosophy is based on three key pillars of success: intelligence quotient (IQ), emotional intelligence (EQ) and spiritual quotient (SQ), because she believes, that constant work on oneself is the most important: »When you accept, who you are, you find out that you can overcome any challenge that comes your way. "

He summarizes his life philosophy with a thought: »We are all born as seeds with inner potential patiently waiting to blossom. Find an environment in which you can flourish and admire the whole process of development. «