A high-flyer aircraft engineer has launched a website for expatriate Bermudians to keep in touch.

Emily Dunne, a scholarship-winning engineering graduate of the prestigious Massachusetts Institute of Technology, who now works for Boeing, set up the nWeave website because she and Island friends who studied overseas found it difficult to coordinate visits home.

Ms Dunne, 23, said her nWeave site allowed friends to join and share information on trips home so they could meet up in Bermuda.

She added that — if the site took off — it could be a money-spinner if a social media giant like Facebook expressed an interest in buying it up.

Ms Dunne said that as well as keeping in touch with friends she wanted to know how to create a website.

“I wanted to know how to build a website — and I definitely learn best hands on.

“I took an introduction to computer science in school, but I've got a lot of friends who work in that area and they helped me.”

Explaining the impetus behind the website, Ms Dunne said: “I had an idea for a site to connect me and my friends because we were always travelling on and off the Island when we were in school.

“It was always difficult to work out when everyone was going to be home.”

She added the site was not a moneymaking venture, but added: “I'd really like to build it and grow it. It's a social network, so it will get more valuable as it grows.

“If it got to that point where people were interested in it, it's not something I would want to develop into a large company, but I haven't really thought about it that far.

“But it would be nice if Facebook wanted to buy it one day.”

Ms Dunne said the site, launched at the end of last year, now has about sixty users, but that she expected that to grow.

She added: “Originally, I had it where people had to search for all their friends individually.

“Now people sign up with Facebook and it will show all their friends who are on nWeave, so they can add them all.

“People like that it's simple. It's not difficult to find out what their friends are doing, although the site also includes privacy settings.

“It really fills a need for Bermudians.”

Ms Dunne's website can be found at n-weave.com.