Women in Engineering

written by Yiran Li

Engineering is a traditional male-dominated field. History of women working in engineering in the US starts from World War II, because men were drafted into the armed forces. Currently, only 14% of engineers are female in the US. The shortage of female engineer caused by lack of confidence in science subjects. The gender stereotype makes women confused about their abilities and avoid choosing engineering related majors. Also, female engineer is that women need to spend more time on their family and children. It is hard to re-enter the engineering work after a period of absence. From my personal experience, I was interested in mechanical engineering when I selected my major, but many people, including my parent and advisor, tried to convince me to give up this idea because "This major is unsuited to girls". Therefore, I think it's quite important to break this gender stereotype in engineering.

To break this stereotype, the most important step is that we need to explore women's interest in engineering and encourage them to be confident of themselves. Lockhead Martin developed a program helping K-12 students' success in STEM in the future. The program is designed to inspire the next generation of innovators, explorers, inventors and pioneers to pursue STEM careers. They have a special branch, Girls Inc., to aid girls who have trouble. The mentors helped girls to be more confident and overcome physiological difficulties. I think it's quite an excellent project because it's the first step to help balance the ratio of women and men in engineering.

Reference: http://www.ieee.org/membership_services/membership/women/index.html

Reference:

https://www.asme.org/career-education/articles/undergraduate-students/engineering-still-needs-more-women

http://www.lockheedmartin.com/us/who-we-are/community/education.html

http://www.girlsinc.org/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Women_in_engineering

Why Engineering?

Written by: Seungyeon Lee

Before I start, I would like you to think about how you got to choose your major. Answers will be various. One, because I love this field. Two, because my parents are expecting me to do so. Three, I don't know, because it seemed awesome.

My father is a mechanical engineer who works at a car company. He worked at Hyundai since I was born. It made it possible for me to visit his company whenever they allows family to come and have a tour around the work place. So I always have looked up to my dad how hard he works and for the achievements he made. Also, it made it for me to realize how important engineering is. So even when I was young, I wanted to become like my dad because I thought engineers can make our lives much better.

As I got older, like other teen girls, I got into cosmetics. I was obsessed with one typical brand, Innisfree(Korean cosmetic brand), so I started to looking up for the information of the way that I can work at Innisfree. Since that day, I dreamed of working at a cosmetic company hoping I could establish my own cosmetic company in the future.

One way to achieve my dream was to study as a chemical engineer. Since I dreamed of becoming of engineer, it made it easier for me to be confident of applying my major as a chemical engineering. Even though engineering majors requires a lot of time and effort of studying, since I have no doubt on changing my major and my future goal, it enables me to focus and be less stressful whenever I have hard time studying as a chemical engineer.

Not only for myself, but also for others, I believe the reason how you chose your major is very important. Of course your parent's opinion can influence your major and your future either. However, how strongly you are positive with your decision is more important. So my advice is don't let others decide your major. Think about what you love and what you are passionate about.

Prompt One: Asking Questions and Breaking Assumptions

Written By: Adam Tarrant
Prompt #1

           Of course, entering any particular field or career, there will undoubtedly be multiple preconceptions about that discipline. Being a freshman pursuing a career in Civil Engineering, I expected to be in contact will a significant amount of aspiring or current engineers, which was true. Growing up in a technology based society, I was persuaded by TV and other media outlets in believing that engineers are all the same typical nerds playing World of Warcraft competitively. Saying that I was painfully incorrect would be an understatement.

 Initially, I always thought engineering was strictly math and science, involving no other components. Wrong again. My Intro to Engineering 100 textbook “Thinking Like an Engineer” defines engineering “as the application of science” and “mathematics and other fields to turn ideas into reality”. Although it supports my earlier preconceptions, it later explains that engineering involves countless other components, such as team work, communication skills and attention to detail. 

I won’t lie, I laughed when I saw “communication skills” because I always had the impression engineers were geeks and struggled to socialize with anyone. In addition to the textbook, I was introduced to real engineers and they were, of course, highly intelligent but in no way, shape or form, did they lack in social or communicational skills. Some people in my engineering class have become close friends of mine, and not one of them play World of Warcraft, not that it’s a bad thing. Certainly, it refuted what I expected to see when walking into class the first day.

Even though some of my preconceptions were off-target, they are rightfully justified because “most students who start off in a technical major know very little about their chosen field” (Thinking Like an Engineer). The textbook was very thorough on providing the facts about what a job as an engineer entails and letting the reader decide if a career in engineering was right for them. 

The contents of the textbook are exactly what a future engineer requires to be successful in the field because it lays out the basis of what an engineer is. It gives the reader a more accurate and broader perspective on the profession. It certainly altered my views on engineers in a good way. Even though I knew the gist of it, meeting real engineers and reading the textbook offered me the key information I needed to better understand what being an engineer demands.