WOMEN IN ENGINEERING
DIFFERENT PATHS LEAD TO WATSON Faculty members discuss challenges, rewards and mentoring the next generation
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n 2021, women still face obstacles when entering STEM fields. According to research by the Society of Women Engineers, they make up only 13% of U.S. engineers and just 26% of computer scientists.
While there is still work ahead to encourage more
By Chris Kocher
into engineering careers, the percentage of women undergraduate and graduate students at Watson College has risen from 15% in 2010 to 25% in 2020. Likewise, the percentage who are tenured and tenure-track Watson faculty has gone from 13% to 20% in the same period. Women faculty members not only impart knowledge in the classroom, but also serve as role models when Watson graduates join the ranks of industry and academia. We talked to one professor
Above: Graduate students Ming Hu, left, and Soujanya Sathyanarayana Karanth, right, work in Professor Sha Jin’s lab in the Department of Biomedical Engineering.
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WATSON REVIEW
from each department about their personal and professional journeys as well as how to attract more women to engineering and computer science.
