The Computer Science Balance

When I first showed up at Penn Engineering as a Computer Science major, I was under the impression that I would have an edge over other students because I had taken the AP class in high school. None of the people I knew from my hometown had the first idea about what being a computer scientist really entailed or what exactly I was getting up to in my small class of ten back then. I thought this trend would carry over into college, and that I would spend the next four years again having to explain to people that I wasn’t building computers, I was programming them. 

AWE and SWE—One in the same?

When you first arrive on campus as a female engineering student, you start to hear these acronyms. SWE, AWE, APO, BE, MEAM, ESE…the list goes on and on. However, two of them are more similar than the rest. SWE and AWE at first appear to be pretty similar organizations. SWE—the Society of Women Engineers—sounds pretty similar to AWE—Advancing Women in Engineering—so they must be pretty similar, correct? The foundation of each organization, to help women in engineering, is similar but the organizations themselves each have their own unique features. As a member of both the Advancing Women in Engineering Student Advisory Board and the Society of Women Engineers’ Executive Board, I have had the opportunity to see both organizations from an internal and external view. 

Senior Design Project—The Culmination of My Engineering Curriculum

After three years of mostly lecture based classes, senior design allows students to apply the immense amount of knowledge they have gained to a hands-on project of their choice. As a bioengineer, my senior design team was really interested in making a medical device. After teaming up with the Simulation Center at Penn, we decided on a challenging and intellectually stimulating project. To give a little background, the Simulation Center at Penn is one of the best simulation centers in the country and is dedicated to training physicians and students on medical procedures with the goal of improving patient safety and satisfaction, all while increasing physician efficiency. After discussing with our advisor at the Sim Center, we decided to create a reusable ligating loop with delivery system.

Study Abroad

As an engineer, most people think that it is too hard to go abroad. They are told that it is too hard to rearrange their schedules or that their classes will not transfer. That is absolutely not the case. I have always dreamed about going abroad. I had older friends and cousins who went abroad when they were in college and they all raved about their experiences. I knew that I was not going to let the fact that I was an engineer stop me from doing something that I had always wanted to.

Introduce a Girl to Engineering Day

Today is Introduce a Girl to Engineering Day.  Started in 2001 as a joint effort between NSBE, IBM and the National Engineers Week Foundation, Introduce a Girl to Engineering Day is a national effort to show girls how creative and collaborative engineering can be and how engineers are changing the world.  Here at Penn, yesterday we celebrated a little early by having 50 5th grade girls on campus and we spent the day showing them some of the cool things engineers here are working on and studying.  At the end of the day, the kids were bouncing around with excitement (and some sugar as we had made nitrogen ice cream!) and we were exhausted but it got me thinking about the fact that we can't bring everyone here to campus for that kind of action packed day so how can we translate the excitement?  Here are some suggestions to get the girls in your life excited about engineering:

Women in Media

A lot of people puzzled by the disparity between representation of men and women in engineering try to understand the problem better by tracking exactly where girls stop considering technical careers. As children, boys and girls aspire equally to be doctors, astronauts, veterinarians, scientists, marine biologists, and other STEM-centric jobs. But right around the seventh grade, many girls cease to consider these careers or pursue these interests. My personal theory is that we unconsciously emulate the behaviors we see modeled on TV or in movies, and over time, it adds up—and girls aspire to positions in fields that have traditionally been female-dominated, and so are easily stereotyped in television. For women of color, there are even fewer role models in technology shown on TV.

Nanotechnology Master's Program

The University of Pennsylvania’s School of Engineering and Applied Science is currently accepting applications for its Master's program in Nanotechnology. The program has options for Nanotechnology and Energy, Nanotechnology in Health Care, Nanoelectronics and more. For more information, please visit: http://www.masters.nano.upenn.edu/