WORLD’S FIRST ENGINEERING NEWS FOR YOUNG BADASS ENGINEERS
MAY 2016 ISSUE NO. 003
Women
EXCLUSIVE
Engineering featuring KARLIE KLOSS
ENGINEERING FOR KIDS GIRLS WHO CODE LADIES LEARNING CODE ROBOMATTER STEMETTES WOMEN WHO CODE
in Tech &
INTERVIEWS!
ISSUE NO.003 WOMEN IN TECH & ENGINEERING
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ISSUE NO.003 WOMEN IN TECH & ENGINEERING
GINEERSNOW TEAM Ems Bagatsing
Sales & Marketing Director Ems@LincolnMartin.com
Robert Bagatsing
Editor-In-Chief editor@GineersNow.com
Engr. Alice Hernandez Senior Editor-At-Large
John Vauden
Engr. Dion Greg Reyes
Hina Sapra
Senior Editor Asia-Pacific Senior Editor South Asia
Therese Matheren Senior Editor North America
Charity Bagatsing Senior Editor North America
Abhishek Tarafder
Junior Editor Creative & Layout
Engr. Cielo Panda
Matrix Media Information Technology
Farrel Pinto
Jaycee Urriquia
Raymond Gerard del Valle
Droid Rahl
Junior Editor Junior Editor Junior Editor
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Loudette Fabian Contributor
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Editor's
Note
Being a woman in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics), I have experienced my fair share of gender prejudice throughout my engineering studies and previous tech career. At first, I thought this was normal, that STEM was a man’s territory, and I was only trespassing. Soon, I came to realize that this was not normal at all, and women all over the world are experiencing the same prejudices that I’ve experienced. This pushes women to either stay away or give up on pursuing fields in STEM. Here at GineersNow, we believe that women are as significant in STEM fields just as men are, and that they too can bring kickass innovations and discoveries that will benefit our technological world. This month’s issue focuses on stories about kickass Women in STEM. Our cover story features the gorgeous Victoria’s Secret Model-turned-Coder, Karlie Kloss. Kloss is a well-known supermodel who has graced the covers of world renowned magazines, but there is one thing not
many people know about her— until now. She is a closet supergeek, and she LOVES to code. While immersing herself in the world of coding, she decided to inspire young women to code. She created Kode With Klossy, a free summer camp for girls 13-18 years old, where they are introduced to software engineering principles and programming languages. Karlie Kloss is a great example of a role-model woman in STEM. Learn more about her runway-to-coding journey and be inspired. We’ve packed this issue with various women-empowering stories, exciting facts, and jaw-dropping revelations that’s sure to feed your reading appetite. This issue also includes exclusive interviews from non-profit organizations, social enterprises, and companies that want to empower children and women to pursue learning STEM. These companies include STEMettes, Engineering For Kids, Girls Who Code, Women Who Code, Ladies Learning Code and Robomatter. Be inspired and we hope you’ll enjoy this month’s issue.
Engr. Czarina Cielo Santos Junior Editor
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CONTENTS PAGE
06 10 18 29 30 34 40 42
TITLE
YES, WOMEN IN ENGINEERING EXIST 10 REASONS WH ENGINEERS MAKE THE BEST GIRLFRIENDS THE FEMALE TECH PIONEERS WOMEN IN SPACE SEEK MORE WOMEN IN SPACE THE UNDERRATED WOMEN PROGRAMMERS BEHIND ENIAC STORIES OF WOMEN IN STEM CHERYL YEMBE’S FASHIONEERING STORY THE WOMEN PIONEERS OF SCIENCE
PAGE
58 60 64 68 72 74 76 84
TITLE
EMPOWERING WOMEN THROUGH ‘KODING’: THE STORY OF SUPERMODEL KARLIE KLOSS ROBOMATTER WOMEN WHO CODE ENGINEERING FOR KIDS STEMETTES GIRLS WHO CODE LADIES LEARNING CODE BADASS WOMEN WITH CAREERS IN MOTORSPORTS
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YES, WOMEN IN ENGINEERING EXIST Unfortunately, not everyone acknowledges that. by Alice Hernandez There are still a lot of people who have a hard time accepting that women exist in the engineering field. A lot of them would be surprised if they knew someone was interested in technology or give a misogynistic point of view about women practicing the field. There are even other people in higher positions who would give these women jobs that undermine their capabilities. But here’s a fact. Women do exist in engineering and a lot of them are more than capable of doing the job. Unlike what most people imagine as a geeky guy with glasses and sweaters, these female engineers come in all shapes and sizes. Most of them are so far from what people normally think of female engineers. They are attractive, charismatic and sociable women who are skillful in the engineering field.
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Statistics show that for every country, there are around 25% of women working in the engineering field. That’s an improvement to the percentage of women to men in the field back in the early 2000s – which is around 15%.
they’ve shown engineers – women and men of different race – with a sign #ilooklikeanengineer. They want to raise awareness that engineers in the Silicon Valley are not just guys who look like Mark Zuckerberg.
Unfortunately, despite the rising number of women, there is still discrimination in the field. So, women in engineering have raised awareness of the gender inequality (and how women are judged based on stereotypes) in the public. A she++ documentary was created to show inspiring stories about how women excel in their fields and how different they are from what society expects them to be. she++ even has a slogan for its cause: #goodgirlsgonegeek.
Other groups that promote engineering to women include the Society of Women Engineers, Women in SET, Robogals and Anita Borg Institute for Women and Technology.
Another group of engineers have raised funds to put up billboards in the past where
So this article’s for all the women in engineering out there, may you prove to everyone that you can do the job and do it perfectly. Maybe in the future people would stop calling you women engineers and just call you as “engineers.” Run the world, ladies! Photo by Victor Koen via New York Times
STATUS OF WOMEN IN ENGINEERING:
IT’S COMPLICATED WE NEED MORE WOMEN IN STEM-RELATED JOBS & DEGREES
WOMEN ARE STILL PERCEIVED AS UNFIT FOR STEM FIELDS
WHY WE SHOULD INVEST IN WOMEN SCIENTISTS ASAP
The percentage of women present in careers in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) is still low.
According to The Science and Engineering indicators for 2014, there are very few women working in the STEM field.
We need to have more women and young girls interested in science, math and engineering.
In a recent report delivered by the U.S. Department of Commerce’s Economics & Statistics Administration (ESA), there are still few women who hold STEM-related undergraduate degrees. Less than 25 percent of STEM-related job force consist of women – who earn 33 percent more than women who have non-STEM jobs. This report also reflects the data released by colleges in different states, which shows that female students only make up around 20 to 30 percent of the student population.
There have been many movements and talks about encouraging women to pursue studies in STEM fields. According to The Science and Engineering indicators for 2014, there are very few women working in the STEM field, which comprises to around 28 percent of employed science and engineering professionals.
We need to have more women and young girls interested in science, math and engineering. Most especially since these fields are underrepresented. The only way to solve this issue is to encourage young girls to study this field, and let them understand the wonders of STEM.
Katia Passerini, dean of the Albert Dorman Honors College at Newark’s NJ Institute of Technology, notes that there is still plenty of room for improvement for colleges offering STEM undergraduate degrees for women. According to her, plenty of women are more likely to enroll themselves in biology in the Honors College. Reports have also shown that there are fewer women who take an interest in engineering (especially in electrical and mechanical engineering). Susan Metz, executive director of Diversity and Inclusion at Stevens Institute of Technology in Hoboken, encourages women to apply in engineering, science, business, technology programs every summer to give them preparation for STEM majors. Metz said, “Women are involved in so many things now that they should have the same opportunities as men to pursue STEM-related majors and, now, they do.” Other women in STEM careers also encourage young women to focus on programming and networking among other women.
There have been a lot of effort focused on encouraging women to study STEM fields, but why is there gender discrepancy in STEM? Studies have shown that the general population still perceives women to be incompatible with science professions. If more women would be exposed to the field of science, this may change the stereotypical perception of the majority. According to a study published by Linda Carli, a senior lecturer in psychology at Wellesley College, people viewed women as having communal characteristics, like being caring and giving. Men on the other hands have traits like competitiveness and courageousness. “Common cultural stereotypes about women, men, and scientists lead people to see women as incompatible with science,” Carli said. “Men are especially prone to this bias, but everyone shares it. This may result in prejudice (a dislike of female scientists compared with men) and discrimination against them.”
We must not forget about women’s equality, especially in the field of science. Despite gender inequality throughout history, women have made great contribution to the STEM fields. Without women in science, we might not have discovered the structure of DNA, or felt the environmental movement that lead to the passage of the Clean Air Act or the Clean Water Act, or found the mechanism of how breast cancer manifests itself in our genes. It is important to encourage young girls to pursue studies in the STEM fields and make them understand their importance in the fields of science. We need our next generation of scientists to be impartial, creative, diverse and open-minded, to be able to face the realities and issues in our changing planet.
With women making names for themselves in different fields, it’s about time that they do the same in pursuing STEM degrees and careers.
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5 MEN-DOMINATED FIELDS THAT WOMEN CAN BREAK THROUGH
Women have long been struggling to be accepted as male equals when it comes to the workforce. Although the case today is way better than that of the decades ago, women still have a lot to prove to be able to stabilize the gender gap in industries. Jobs that used to be fit for men are now being embraced by women. Fields of interest are now more accepting to employ women because of the demand. Here are five man-dominated fields that women can join to their liking.
Finance There is already a growing workforce for women in the finance industry but there seems to be a problem: adequate compensation. Studies show that about 47 per cent of these women feel dissatisfied with the way the industry operates. But that still doesn’t hide the fact the job vacancies available for women in this sector. With the necessary adjustments, women will be more lured to engage in this industry. Photo by The Globe and Mail
Construction Because construction work requires physical strength, women are not traditionally fit for the job. But a representative from the construction industry says that they are looking for females to fill construction jobs. Although the idea is quite far-fetched, women in construction roles are actually fit to sustain operations and not necessarily for hard labor. Opportunities for women in this industry will mean a change in that small demographic. Photo by Bigger Bras
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Technology Emerging technologies also mean emerging number women in that field. It’s almost everyday that the world gives us a new product that will help ease our life, and no wonder that women are being welcomed. Opportunities in technology for women are increasing to change the 25 per cent female workforce in computing. Photo by Bloomberg
Engineering Organizations like the IEEE Women in Engineering (WIE) and The Society of Women Engineers (SWE) promote women with support, education and opportunities in the engineering industry. Female engineers are now everywhere but still the male counterparts are still so dominant. With the right opportunities and changes, the gender gap in engineering will be bridged. Photo by IEEE
Mining Studies show that mining has the lower number of women on company boards in contrast to other industries in the world. But with an organization like International Women in Mining (IWiM), women are encouraged and supported in this man’s field. Photo by World of Matter
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10 Why Reasons
Engineers
Make The
Best
Girl friends
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by Cielo Panda The Female Engineer— your more than average girlfriend. As she works her way through the engineering world, she learns a lot of things that make her different from other girls, a new persona to complement her own, she learns to be unique, confident, and sexy— the engineering way. They can be the best and most exciting partners you could ever have, and here’s why.
They’re more Logical rather than Emotional Female engineers are trained problem solvers. They’d rather analyze the facts and find the root cause rather than base their judgment on pure feelings.
They can handle pressure Oh yes they can. They’ve pulled a whole bunch of all-nighters to solve some equation that was never solved before, or designing a bridge that could withstand Godzilla’s tail smash, and still come up with legit answers.
They’ve mastered the concept of stress and strain If ever you have a female engineer as a friend or girlfriend, you’ll notice this. When it comes to stress, they know how to cool down especially when it comes to their breaking point. They also know when you’ve come to yours. They are well balanced and know when to cope, but beware, if you push them further than they can handle… they just might apply some nuclear physics to your relationship.
They can fix their things around the house If they wanted to follow some furniture design on Pinterest, as long as they can manage, they won’t ask you for any help. They are much capable of doing their own shit.
They know how to be one of the guys After going to school with all the testosterone, of course they’ve learned to adapt. No awkwardness, just playing it cool.
They enjoy playing video games A lot of men find females who play video games or watch nerdy movies with them sexy. Well, most female engineers enjoy playing video games for the thrill of being challenged and enjoy learning the art of strategy.
They understand heat transfer Trained well in the Science of Thermodynamics, they understand this concept pretty well, if you know what I mean. From sharing a jacket under the romantic moonlight, to—ahem!
They are good with their hands From tinkering the ham radio to creating a BB-8 model from Star Wars. If they can do that, what’s stopping you from imagining what else they can do with those dexterous hands? Do I need to say more? This article may be a bit biased. Some might agree, and some may not. There are some mentioned traits that don’t apply to some, but is a definite match for others. But one things for sure, dating an engineer will surely electrify and rock your world.
They can teach you all the buttons on the calculator. Let’s face it, many people don’t know the use of EVERY button on the calculator— except engineers. If you have the hots for a female engineer, having her teach you every button can be a cute conversation starter.
They are self-sufficient ‘Coz they can handle their own expenses, thank you.
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A WOMAN COULD HAVE TAKEN THE FIRST STEP ON THE MOON by Dion Greg Reyes
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Jerrie Cobb was one of the best candidates to be the first person sent to the outer space, further, to the moon. But somehow NASA did not allow it. Cover Photo by Wikipedia Commons Cobb Photos by Getty Images
The date July 20, 1969 marked an important history for mankind as it was the day that man first landed on the moon, through Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin and Michael Collins. It was a response to the challenge set by President Kennedy to put a man on the moon, about eight years after Yuri Gagarin, the first human in space, orbited the Earth in April 12, 1961. How about we tweak a little detail in that remarkable event? Say, a woman planted the first step on the moon instead of a man? The idea was not actually farfetched as sending women in space was also a consideration, but somehow NASA did not push through the plan. The Mercury 7 team that made the first manned venture into space – composed of Alan Shepard, Gus Grissom, John Glenn, Scott Carpenter, Wally Schirra, Gordon Cooper and Deke Slayton – had some female ‘competition’ that passed the same physical and psychological tests at the Lovelace Clinic. The women candidates were even found by the clinic’s founder Randy Lovelace to be more ideal to be sent in space considering their weight, which will require less fuel to transport them into space, and their being less prone to heart attacks than men. Lovelace also said that the women were better-suited for the claustrophobic isolation of space. Nineteen women enrolled in a Woman in Space Program, which tested the women’s qualifications to become astronauts. All went through the tests only to leave 13, which was known as the Mercury 13 composed of Jerrie Cobb, Bernice Steadman, Janey Hart, Jerri Truhill, Rhea Woltman, Sarah Rutley, Jan and Marion Dietrich, Myrtle Cagle, Irene Leverton, Gene Nora Jessen, Jean Hixson, and Wally Funk, who passed the tests ‘with no medical reservations.’ That was a higher rate of graduation compared to men who only had 7.
The performances of the women were even comparable to that of the men – top four women scored as highly as any of the men. One specific test, called the sensory deprivation tests, produced soaring results that favored the women. The test was to be immersed in a lightless tank of cold water with an absolute of 6 hours of tolerance before the onset of hallucinations. But Jerrie Cobb from the Mercury 13 spent 9 hours and 40 minutes and could have gone further if she wasn’t stopped by the staff. Two others, Rhea Hurrle and Wally Funk, spent more than 10 hours until terminated by the staff. That was an extraordinary feat considering John Glenn of the Mercury 7 only lasted 3 hours. Mercury 13 could have made it if it weren’t for the speculations from some NASA officials that menstruation could hinder their performance in space. Some others wanted pilots who had already experience flying experimental military aircraft, which was completely foreign to the women being barred from the Air Force. Ultimately, it was these regulations by NASA that Mercury 13 in the Woman in Space Program closed in August of 1961. NASA could have fought for these women to at least join the first moon landing or have the title for the first women to venture in space. But unresolved prejudices against women in the USA during the early 1960s were prevalent; until Russia snatched the title of putting the first woman in space in June 16, 1963 through Valentina Tereshkova on Vostok 6. What NASA could have achieved way ahead of the Russians only happened 20 years after Russia did it, which was in June 18, 1983. It was mission specialist Dr. Sally Ride who was NASA’s first female in space who did it when it could have been one from the Mercury 13.
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CAREER ADVICE FOR YOUNG GIRLS FROM A NASA ENGINEER Don’t be afraid to ask questions. If you’re interested in something, go ahead and ask a teacher, ask a mentor. Read. Research. As soon as Rebecca Junell graduated from Kettering University, she wanted to work with NASA. That she did! She currently works as a mechanical/test engineer in John C. Stennis Space Center in Mississippi, where there are 3 women working with 25 men. It has always been her dream to work with NASA ever since she was young. She often asked her father questions that both of them worked to find answers on. This led her to pursue her interest in science. Ever since she was a child, she always loved solving problems and answering questions. Junell said, “NASA is somewhere I plan to stay for a while. Here I have the opportunity to use my degree, to be useful, to really have a good career and keep growing. This is a position where I’ve been able to draw on a majority of the concepts
I’ve learned at Kettering. There is always an opportunity to stretch into something new.” As one of the few women who work in her field, Junell encourages young girls to pursue their interests in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM). She advises them to often talk to girls and encourage them about how any STEM topic can be related to any everyday concept. In her own words? She said, “Don’t be afraid to ask questions. If you’re interested in something, go ahead and ask a teacher, ask a mentor. Read. Research.” In her pursuit in her career, she has had many opportunities such as testing rocket engines before they launch, analyze and review instruments and have engines ready to be reused for NASA’s next grand adventure.
Photo by Kettering
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Young Women Design Africa’s First Private Satellite Africa’s first private satellite has been designed by young women from the Meta Economic Development Organization (MEDO) space programme in the Western Cape.
all future jobs are STEM-related, with almost double the pay of non-STEM-related careers. So what we are trying to do is to give these young women the best chance out there,”
MEDO is a non-profit organization which is registered in South Africa with a sister company MEDO London which is in the United Kingdom. The space programme was launched by the organization in June last year, and they aim to encourage young women to enter Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) related fields.
The MEDO space programme was developed since the organization noticed that corporations they work with lack skilled STEM employees, particularly women employees.
According to co-founder of MEDO Space Judi Sandrock, “It is predicted that 80% of
Photo from Memburn
The graduates of the programme built a prototype satellite of their own design. They started with idea sharing. Over 20 ideas were at the table, and after discussions, debate and voting, two ideas were selected. Background Photo by SSTL
Photo from Nunnovation
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a woman engineer by Dion Greg Reyes
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The greatest feats may be engineered by men but it is not yet late.
Be the engineer who challenges man’s power. Intimidate them.
We live in an age that produced their labor to prove that women can.
You cannot rewrite history anymore but you can change what’s next.
Do not think that you are less of an engineer ‘cause you’re a woman.
All you need to do is push limits that you have never pushed before.
Be the engineer that the world wants to notice. Think. Design. Produce.
What means to humans the most is what you can do despite your gender.
Do not be afraid to jump out of your comforts: think outside the box.
Prove to the world that women are capable of the things men can do.
Never look at your kind as the inferior because that’s absurd.
Break free from the chains that hold you from doing things. Go out there. Work hard.
Perhaps you can do even better with your own gift: intuition.
Take inspiration from women who waved your flag to fix prejudice.
You are a woman and you are an engineer. Take pride you are both.
Women have such gift that men do not have. Use it to your advantage.
They broke the ceilings and bannered women’s talent in math and science.
Photo from Cross Rail
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DO NOT
MESS WITH A BADASS by Alice Hernandez
It is widely viewed that women need to work twice (or thrice) as hard as men to achieve what they have. In engineering, women must compete with men in a male-dominated industry to the point where they are bound to have more balls than most of them. They have been discriminated, harassed and looked down on yet they manage to do the work just as good as the opposite sex can. Sometimes, even better. So this is a warning to everyone: Don’t mess with an engineer-chick. Engineer-chicks pay the bills, cook and clean the house if they want to, but they definitely know how to recycle copper from used printed circuit boards. They raise a family, take their kids to school, then mass-produce food products such as the box of milk you drink from every morning. If you piss her off, she always has the option to make your family and friends’ milk taste nasty. Engineer-chicks suffer from raging hormones when they have to surf through the crimson waves once a month but it doesn’t stop them from finding the right steel products to use in building skyscrapers. However, you will receive a lot of snide remarks if you fail to do your job. Giving them jewelry won’t be an easy task either. Make sure you don’t lie about the kar-
ENGINEER CHICK
at when you give them the diamond ring. They know the difference between a real one from the fake one. If she accidentally punches you in the face with a real diamond ring, it would leave an appalling mark on your face. But hey, at least we’re very sure it’s a real one. If you decide to mess with an engineer-chick, I advise you to be wary of your things. She can tweak them until your things can work against your favor. An engineer-chick can build things but they can easily break them as well. So let me warn you again, don’t mess with one. However, if you treat her with utmost respect, life gets easier with an engineer-chick. Not only can she bring food to the table, she can put lots of money in the bank. She can easily detect real gold and a fools gold. Not only does she know the difference between a high quality gadget to a cheap one, she knows the value of hard work and perseverance. Again, it is a truth universally known that an engineer-chick is a fearsome thing to behold. She is one badass woman so hold on to her. Never let her go. Do not break her heart, or else, she’ll break you. Photo from Getty
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The Female Tech Pioneers by Farrel Pinto
So we just celebrated the International Women’s Day. It was definitely more of that girl power feels and yes, as Queen B says, they can run the world. But do you really know what women can do? Back then, there were always women behind men’s backs. Women come hand in hand with progress and there were surely a lot of women participation in history, if you just know. Even in the earliest technology and in early days of computer, women shared the limelight. As Charles Babbage was designing the programmable engine, Ada
Ada Lovelace. Illustration from EE Journal
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Lovelace provided the algorithms to Babbage’s Analytical Engine that enabled it to perform tasks. With her efforts, Lovelace figured out a science of music. Such advances needed people that are a bit visionary. During the World War II, many women were involved in munitions factories as radio operators, in farms and became lab technicians. The story of Grace Murray Hopper was also notable during post-war times where she worked on IBM’s Mark I computer at Harvard. She became an admiral in US Navy developing a compiler that translates English into a machine code, thus, the becoming of the Cobol programming language. A group of women also made history working in the University of Pennsylvania, as they developed the world’s first programmable general purpose electronic computer, the Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer (ENIAC). Even from Hollywood, famous actress Hedy Lamarr
lead and co-invented the Radio Transmitter used in military communications. She was one known unsung tech pioneer that achieved technological milestones in the 1930s to 40s. In 1962, as businesswoman, Dame Stephanie Shirley, who arrived in the UK as a refugee fleeing the Nazis, established Freelance Programmers, consisting women programmers. They later founded the FI Group giving women responsibilities and had later on change the policy of equal opportunity
Grace Murray Hopper. Illustration from Inktober
legislation. Now, gender bias can still be seen in the computer programming field which came from cultural differences and as such, institutions must instill
Hedy Lamarr. Illustration by Hoe Yen Tam
such equality. There has really no proof that women can’t be in technology and it can be even traced back in history. Many society groups today are promoting partnerships to in-
spire women to work on computer jobs, web development and take interest in digital technology. Schools must play a vital role to inspire girls as education is the foundation of developing technology. Recently, celebrity role models such as Karlie Kloss formed partnership with New York’s Flatiron School Pre-college Academy to encourage young women to apply for scholarships in software engineering. Organizations like the Digital Cookie platform now allows girls to create web pages and code via apps. They partner with tech companies like Dell and Visa to build a pipeline of female technology employees. It’s really time to bring back the glorious days of women. They can make developments. They will deliver success and make technological innovations, because progress, per se, should not be mutually exclusive. So yes, for women empowerment. Women can drive, too, the technological advancements of the future. Karlie Kloss. Illustration from Behance
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THE WOMEN IN THE CAR DESIGNING
INDUSTRY
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The first thing that comes into mind when we speak about women and designing is probably fashion. Rarely would we think that women and designing can also be about cars. Yup, lots of women actually design automobiles, and perhaps one of these cars that they design is your ride right now.
But undeniably, women are out there in factories and laboratories designing cars and systems, other than just being purchasers. From the initial concept to the production, and even to the complexities of the driver interface and the exterior design, women are already involved in this industry.
It is almost a given that the automobile industry is a man’s game. But statistics tells us otherwise as according to Auto Alliance, women play the leading role in 85% of auto purchases. It means to say that women are very into cars, who even overpower men in numbers. But it’s also possible that the numbers mean that men just cannot afford cars on their own. Ha!
Every car manufacturer in the world already has women in their team in various positions, specifically in designing cars. Here are few of those geniuses who are breaking ceilings when it comes to automobile design.
Diane Allen
Senior Design Manager Nissan Design America. Photo by NDA
Nora Arellano
Toyota Principal Design Engineer. Photo by Toyota Motor Corporation
Chigusa Yasui
Mitsubishi Vice Chief Manager of Color Design.
Susan Lampinen
Photo by Mitsubishi Group
Ford Group Chief Designer of Color and Materials. Photo by Ford Motor Company
Helen Emsely
General Motors Executive Director for Global GMC and User Experience.
Tisha Johnson
Michelle Christensen
Honda Principle Exterior Designer for Acura.
Photo by General Motors
Senior Design Director for Volvo’s North American Design Team at Volvo Monitoring & Concept Center.
Photo by Honda Motor Company
Photo by The Volvo Group
Sharon Gauci
General Motors Global Director. Photo by General Motors
Claudia Braun
Daimler AG Senior Manageer Color and Trim. Photo by Daimler AG
Annette Baumeister
MINI Head of Color and Trim Design and Design Quality. Photo by The BMW Group
Nicole Fonseca
Nissan Design America Senior Color and Materials Designer. Photo by NDA
Christine Lindberg
Volvo Director of Interaction Design. Photo by The Volvo Group
Rossella Guasco
FCA Head of the Color and Materials Style Center. Photo by Fiat Chrysler Automobiles
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FACTS YOU PROBABLY D I D N ’ T K N OW A B O U T
KALPANA CHAWLA 22
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“The path from dreams to success does exist. May you have“The the vision to dreams find it,tothe courage get on to it, and path from success does to exist. you have the to vision to find the courage on tojourney. it, and ” theMay perseverance follow it. it, Wishing youtoaget great the perseverance to follow it. Wishing you a great journey.”
The first Indian-origin woman to go to space—Kalpana Chawla, could have been 55 years old if she was still alive. February 1, 2003 marks the date of her tragic death, when Space Shuttle Columbia, carrying her and six other crew members, crashed just minutes after reentering the Earth’s atmosphere. 13 years has passed after the tragic incident. Here are some facts that you might not have known about this aerospace engineer.
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Kalpana Chawla was Born in Karnal, Haryana on March 17, 1962. She was the youngest of four sibling. But officially, her birthdate was officially changed to July 1, 1961 for easy admission procedures. NASA sponsors two students annually from Karnal’s Tagore Bal Niketan school—where Kalpana studied until 10th grade—to attend a space program at the International Space School Foundation in Houston. The school also awards a number of scholarships in her name. She graduated with an engineering degree in aeronautical engineering from Chandigarh’s Punjab Engineering College (PEC) in 1984. She was one of the only 4 female engineering students of the college.
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Things that were named after Kalpana Chawla
She learned Karate when she was at PEC. According to her husband, she enjoyed learning anything that caught her interest like scuba diving and Bharatnatyam. Kalpana earned herself a Private Pilot License and flew her private plane in the Rocky Mountains whenever she had the time. She was also a Certified Flight instructor for gliders and airplanes. She married Jean-Pierre Harrison in 1982. Harisson owns a publishing house in California, and has authored a book about Kalapana’s life entitled: “The Edge of Time: The Authoritative Biography of Kalpana Chawla. It was released in 2011. She got rejected in her first application at NASA in 1993. The following year, she reapplied and was selected for the 1995 batch.
An asteroid, the 51826 Kalpanachawla, which circles the Sun between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter. A NASA Supercomputer.
Photo by Explore Scientific
Photo by NASA
A planetarium in Kurukshetra, near Karnal. Photo by Kurukshetra
India’s first weather satellite, the Kalpana 1. Photo by ISAC
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NEVER UNDERESTIMATE
THE POWER OF A GAMER GIRL.
YOU DO NOT KNOW WHAT WE CAN DO. 24
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THE RISE OF THE GAMER GIRL There is no question that playing video games has become more popular through the decades—and it’s popularity is still rising! From Atari, Family Computer, Xbox, Play Station, to android games. Choices of Game-wares are growing, and versions of games are rising. The gaming world that was once dominated by men is now being open to females. When someone talks of a typical gamer, the stereotype that comes into mind is usually a geeky teenage boy, who sits in his room
with his face almost glued to the gaming screen, and only stops playing when he needs to pee. But, recently, statistics have shown that over half of gamers are female, and the number is still rising. With these statistics, developers are focusing more on creating games that would suit the tastes of women. Some would say that women are more interested in playing mobile games, but recently a great percentage (42%) of women plays and owns a console. Photo by Gamers Decide
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THE FIRST EVER PICTURE UPLOADED ON THE INTERNET With everything that’s going on in the internet these days, who would’ve bothered to know anything about its history? Yeah, history may be boring, but hey! Learning something new isn’t a boring thing either. So give your curiosity a chance and read this interesting piece of history that paved way for the possibility for your selfies to be shared on the internet. Do you know who uploaded the very first picture on the World Wide Web? Though clicking and uploading pictures is done ‘just for fun’ these days, this simple act created history for the band that had clicked and shared its photograph on the internet years ago. It was uploaded by Les Horribles Cernettes, which was an all-female parody pop group back then. The picture was self-labelled “the one and only High Energy Rock Band” on July 18, 1992. The all-girl comedy band comprised of Michele Muller, Colette Marx-Nielsen, Angela Higney, and Lynn Veronneau who all were the secretaries and girlfriends of scientists at the famous particle physics lab in Geneva, Switzerland.
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The uploaded photograph was the tweaked version of the original photograph that was clicked for publicity purposes. It was clicked by the band’s Svengali, Silvano de Gennaro, who also wrote songs and played in the group’s live manifestation. The picture was edited on a version one of Photoshop on a color mac and was saved as a .gif before being uploaded by Tim Berners-Lee, one of the inventors of the Internet. At the time when this picture was clicked, Tim Berners-Lee was working at CERN and had a liking for Les Horribles Cernettes’ mocking odes to science. Twenty years ago, the Internet was still an infant and had just started to grow. Even, the concept of file sharing didn’t exist. It’s these little things that start great waves in history. Who would’ve thought that the simple act of uploading a photo on the internet would give way to the photo-sharing-frenzy we all now enjoy on popular social media websites? Photo by Techspot
The first photo on the Internet is a photograph of an all-female parody pop group with members Michele Muller, Colette Marx-Nielse, Angela Higney, and Lynn Veronneau.
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Rocket Women: The Unsung Heroes of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory by Dion Greg Reyes At the time when curiosities about the outer space surfaced, there were not much of computers to do the task of calculating necessary data in propelling men outside the Earth. The lack of digital devices urged NASA to employ humans, mostly women, to do the job. In the early years of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) were women regarded as its computers. They were tasked to do the hefty job of performing calculations needed for the male engineering staff to design rocket engines, calculate trajectories, and related tasks. These women were the key people in JPL’s first important projects like missiles and satellites, including United States’ first, the Explorer 1. The laboratory soon became part of NASA and so were the women, which were instrumental to the early spaceflight projects of the space station, including the Ranger series of lunar missions and the Mariner missions to Venus and Mars. With the advent of electronic computers, women at the laboratory were challenged to compete only with their slide rules, logarithmic tables, and simple calculators. This shift enabled them from doing calculations to writing codes – they have become computer programmers from being computers. Eventually, as women are more accommodated to industries, they have become engineers and managers at the lab. These stories of the women almost unappreciated at the time they were at the peak are outlined in the book Rise of the Rocket Girls written by Nathalia Holt. She narrated the personal experiences of these women from the inception of JPL almost up to the present day. The book features the essential contributions of women in the development of spaceflight that were not acknowledged in the past. More women in the modern age have become part of NASA’s laboratories especially JPL but history books don’t tell us about their involvements – and that includes the stories of the Rocket Women, the unsung heroes of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Photos by NASA
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Women In Space Seek More Women In Space by Farrel Pinto As we live in an age where media is highly influential, having positive models will allow a game-changer phase to let the young people see that pursuing engineering and technology fields is attainable by anyone.
Vinita Marwaha Madill As a consultant in space engineering and STEM outreach and founder of Rocket Women, Vinita focused on women and space. She aims to encourage more women to enter the field.
Natalie Panek This strong sentiment is what Natalie Panek, a mission systems engineer in robotics and automation at Canada’s MDA Corp., firmly believes. A wider perspective is necessary, which looks at the statistics regarding women advancing in their careers into leadership, director-level, and board-level positions according to her. As a child, watching TV shows like Star Trek and Stargate SG-1 inspired her to a life’s calling- Space. She just not designs rovers but also aims to inspire women to pursue their dreams and see their reflections in the industry. She also pointed out resolving problem on retaining women in STEM fields throughout their careers. Women must not be hindered to rise up and advance in their careers, she implied. Natalie Panek is a rocket scientist and an explorer, as she calls herself, who dreams to become an astronaut. Now, she works with her team to build chassis and locomotion system for the European Space Agency’s 2018 ExoMars Rover. She was recently named as Canada’s Top 100 Most Powerful Women by the Woman’s Executive Network. She is a vocal advocate for woman in technology according to The Financial Post and named under Forbes 30 under 30 in 2015. Photo by Miupr
Vinita Marwaha Madill works as engineering manager leading the Intelligent Transportation Systems Team in Canada. She also stints as an International Space Station operations engineer at the German Aerospace Center.
Dr. Lucianne Walkowicz Dr. Lucianne Walkowicz, an astronomer at the Adler Planetarium in Chicago, also sees that diversity in her industry is imperative. Thus, conducting more research is needed to back this up. She also argued on a report on recruiting women into technical positions by the Anita Borg Institute that there are consistent blind spots in recruiting and hiring practices. There are hiring processes that are implicitly biased lacking organizational infrastructure to support diversity efforts. It recommends to take up steps like blind resume screening process, showing technical women during the interview process and that every technical position has a viable female candidate. She was inspired to pursue her field upon her interest in chemistry and physics in high school. Wanting a career consisting both, she participated a research program at the New York Academy of Sciences. Someone suggested astronomy and brought her to work with a professor in New York University on chemistry of planetary atmospheres. From there, she immediately was fascinated in the field.
She works on a diversity of designing smart roads and spacesuits, proposing parabolic flights and the likes. Vinita found her fascination in space back in his childhood days in London where she learned about Helen Sharman, a chemist and the first British astronaut, who flew to Mir. At the age of 6, she was fond of the space as her parents took her planetarium and space centers. She suggests that to encourage more women, they should think about careers in space, science and other equivalent fields that would focus impact of technology to mankind. From here, we see that women as equals can also advance in science and technology. Nothing should hinder them as they could positively influence the young people to pursue their dreams and express themselves in their chosen paths. These young professionals indeed are gems of the womankind. Photo by King’s College
Now, as an astronomer, she works both on research and public education. Lucianne currently works on the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope project which she says the flagship observatory for the next decade. Photo by Miupr ISSUE NO.003 WOMEN IN TECH & ENGINEERING
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Photo by Wikipedia Commons
THE UNDERRATED WOMEN PROGRAMMERS BEHIND ENIAC by Dion Greg Reyes
Modern computers would not be what it is right now if it wasn’t for the Electronic Numerical Integrator And Computer (ENIAC). It started from a project tasked to the Army during the World War II to calculate trajectories of ballistic missiles by hand. With only differential calculus equations, the Army had to figure out how to use target weapons. But each equation took 30 hours to complete – the Army needed thousands of them. That was where the Army employed more than 100 women calculators. The Army had to find women because men were occupied with duties. But this system did not come out as fast as they think it would be, so they had to think of a better solution. Lo and behold, the concept of ENIAC was born. It was worked on and programmed by six women in the 1940s who had no working knowledge about programming at all. These six women are Francis “Betty” Snyder Holberton, Betty “Jean” Jennings Bartik, Kathleen McNulty Mauchly Antonelli, Marlyn Wescoff Meltzer, Ruth Lichterman Teitelbaum, and Frances Bilas Spence. They developed the first all-electronic digital computer but sadly to no recognition.
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Computer textbooks tell that it was engineers John Presper Eckert and John W. Mauchly who invented the ENIAC. True enough, they designed it, but they were not able to make it work. The six women programmers, who were randomly chosen out of the 100 Army workers or so, worked their way to figure out the wires, tubes, cables and switches to make a computer.
headlines as a great milestone in modern computing; but with no mention to the women programmers who made it work. Although some of the women had appearance in photographs at the time, the people assumed they were just models. Of course it was a heartbreaker for the six women who contributed to the success of the ENIAC.
They were only given logistical diagrams of ENIAC’s 40 panels made by the engineers and started from there. They also had the firing table equations they knew so well. They had to perform those without programming languages or compilers up their sleeves.
The government ran a post-war campaign for women to leave their jobs so returning soldiers could resume with their old jobs. But no returning soldier figured out how to program the ENIAC so the Army didn’t want to let the six go. The women stayed.
The process is as complicated as we think it is: the women had to break down a mathematical problem into very small steps that the ENIAC could perform by hand-wiring the entire machine. It’s a wonder how only six women were able to work through that. But completing the ENIAC didn’t make it through the end of World War II. Only six months later, on February 14, 1946, was the debut of this amazing computer through a public relations extravaganza. Being the feat that it is, ENIAC hit the newspaper
The six women are rightfully credited as the first professional programmers, the first teachers of modern programming, and the inventors of tools that paved the way for modern software. They produced the 80-foot long, 8-foot tall, black metal behemoth, which contained hundreds of wires, 18,000 vacuum tubes, 40 8-foot cables, and 3000 switches.
Photos by US Army
It was just that the rampant discrimination with women in the past discrediting woman’s achievements is our modern-day cry.
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WOMEN’S CODE RATES BETTER THAN MEN Researchers found out that women code better than men, but still face gender bias in job acceptance today. Photos by Computer History
Researchers from the United States, that conducted a largescale study of gender bias, found out that women have better written codes than male programmers. However, they get rejected in job employment once gender is revealed especially in online jobs. Other findings also suggest that female programmers may be better in doing what their male counterparts do but lack the attitudes within the software community to be accepted. They would be recognized unless they have known contributions or associated with collaborators or either hide their gender. The study of the gender bias in the world of an open source programming from California Polytechnic State University and North Carolina State University analyzed behaviors on the massive code repository,
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GitHub. The community consists 10 million users with 1.4 million apparently revealed genders in profiles. Results show that pull requests from a female programmer whose gender is not identifiable has 71.8 percent acceptance. But once gender is revealed, acceptance rate drops at 62.5 percent. They said that it is a serious trend to examine further in understanding interaction between genders. The results are troubling although they suggest a larger scale study for these trends. In 2014, a breaking news from GitHub was reported when Julie Ann Horvath, a high profile female programmer, quit after experiencing harassments and claiming it to be a toxic workplace for women.
UNDERREPRESENTATION OF WOMEN IN ENGINEERING AND COMPUTING FIELDS Up to this day, researchers find it very challenging to understand the complexities that explain gender inequality. Up to this day, researchers find it very challenging to understand the complexities that explain gender inequality. In Frontiers Media, an academic publisher of peer-reviewed open access scientific journals, a research topic in Frontiers in Psychology wants to address the “under-representation of women in engineering and computing as a complex, but solvable problem,” as stated on the website. Their research topic wants to share with the world about understanding this situation and focusing on what can enable change. “This Topic will promote fresh
perspectives, innovative methodologies, and mixed method approaches important to accelerating the pace of change.” The post stated. Research has been attempting to explain the gender gap for more than 40 years, yet engineering and computing professions continue to be overpowered by men. In the USA, women comprised 12% of the engineers and 25% of computer professionals in 2015. On the other hand, women comprise 47% of the total labor force, and 52% of managers and professionals.
COMPUTER SCIENCE NEEDS MORE WOMEN Opportunities for computer science in the next years are high and it will need more people, especially women. In an effort to encourage women be involved in computer science, The Centre for American Progress and Google co-hosted an event that also discussed making computer science a part of core curriculum in elementary school. It is backed by President Barack Obama with a $100 million budget inclusion for school districts and $4 billion for states to expand K-12 computer science classes. The program he called Computer Science For All, which is in essence in the title in itself: - it will give students an opportunity in America to start early in learning the skills to get ahead in the new economy. Google officials said that by 2020, there will be 1.4 million new computer science-related jobs in the U.S. If the trend of high school students entering computer science will keep steady, there won’t be enough for the future demand; as computer science graduates right now fill only the 32 percent of that number. Women are very much invited to join computer science to cut the stigma of women being in computer science and technology.
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STORIES OF WOMEN IN STEM
Kristin Fraser Mechanical Engineer
turned Holistic Nutritionist There is always a little chance of us taking a “not-so-apt” career decision. Once taken, we might comfortably continue pursuing it until one fine day there’s some situation popping up to make us realize, “Hey! This is not what you are meant for.” The story is same with Kristin Fraser who holds a Bachelor of Science Degree in Mechanical Engineering but is now a Holistic Nutritionist in Red Deer, Alberta. Kristin was working as a mechanical engineer in Red Deer and depression struck her so hard that she became weak and had to take a leave of absence from work. At that time, her boyfriend suggested her to see a nutritionist who recommended her to “cleanse” up everything. The recommendation looked weird to Fraser at first but later the entire idea changed her life. A simple step to alter her diet, lifestyle and taking yoga classes led to a massive improvement in her. She, in fact, started being so happy that she opted to learn more about nutrition. And so, she enrolled herself in a program in Natural Nutrition at the Canadian School of Natural Nutrition in 2009. In 2013, she completed her six-month Natural Foods Chef Training program in New York City. A member of CAHN-Pro (Canadian Association for Holistic Nutrition Professionals), Kristin has completed her certification in Spiritual Living Foods Instructor in Patagonia, Arizona
at the Tree of Life Rejuvenation Center under the instructions of the well-known Dr. Gabriel Cousens, the author of “Conscious Eating” and “There is a Cure for Diabetes”. A corporate wellness speaker and consultant on natural health, Frazer conducts 8 week “Get Your Glow” challenges in collaboration with corporations and yoga studios, offers one on one coaching, cooking classes, and retreats. She has also launched her own nutritional consulting, corporate wellness and healthy cooking business, Inner Glow Nutrition, where she delivers and shares everything she has learned from personal experience. Frazer highly believes and emphasizes that it’s possible to eat your way to better health. She highly advocates a diet low in sugar, processed fats, caffeine and alcohol, and high in natural “living foods,” including raw, leafy greens whether someone is suffering from diabetes, hypertension or depression. She writes a bi-weekly column, “Something to Chew On”, which has also been dubbed as the “Sex and the City of Nutrition”. The column offers an informative and down to earth approach on health topics that are not always thought about. Kristin highly believes in healthy living. We hope she goes a long way in making people believe that food is the basis of a healthy life! Photo by Romy Young Photography
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Farah Shamout
Computer Engineering Student Determined to Find the Cure for Cancer Motivated by the death of her significant others due to cancer, Farah Shamout, a computer engineering student at New York University Abu Dhabi, seeks to find the cure for cancer through her own ways. She contributes to the research in treating cancer by applying her engineering skills into the field of biomedical engineering.
create non-invasive methods in treating cancer and heart diseases.
Ms Shamout spent four months of work with a lecturer at the Imperial College London to research ways in delivering medicine to diseased cells using ultrasound. It was published in the Journal of Ultrasound in Medicine and Biology with an aim to
Two of Shamout’s uncles and her grandmother suffered from cancer that led to their deaths two years ago. It is where this engineer was inspired to find the long overdue cure for cancer.
“There is a lot of research being put into this area and I just wanted to contribute to it, regardless of whether the results of my research will be employed in two, five or even 20 years,” the 21-year-old engineer said.
Photo by The Tab
Vandana Kabilan
Indian Stereotype Breaker, Wife and Mother Many times in our lives we ask ourselves about our identity. We ask what we want to do or what direction are we treading in this walk of life. Sometimes we are filled with hopes and velvety dreams sometimes we are at crisis. However, life may give us signs and callings. Vandana Kabilan is an Indian woman who ardently strove to build her identity and purpose. Back in her early years, she aspired to be an engineer. However, that time, women as engineers are not a popular feat by its societal standards. Her father got a lot of discouragements in enrolling her in engineering. She really wanted to be a computer scientist from the moment she first saw a picture of a computer in a magazine in the late 80’s. Fortunately, she managed to get a slot in electrical engineering. She used it as a steppingstone for her career and focused on taking computer electives and courses from computer science. Vandana faced a lot of struggles even from her professors at the university. She was being discouraged that she was just wasting an engineering seat. She faced gender discrimination in her first interviews. “Sorry, we can’t hire you, since we do not intend to hire a bodyguard for you.” Such remarks made her question who she was and what she could do. She maybe a qualified electrical engineer with a predilection for computers, but not good for anything, she thought. Just then, an opportunity found her as she was offered an apprenticeship in a software development consultancy firm. There, she spent a few months learning and working finally with computers. From there, marked the beginning of her
computer programming career. Upon following Indian traditions, Vandana got married and took a hiatus from work. She and her husband moved to Sweden, as her husband had a job there. For a period of time, the only identity she knew was as Mrs. so and so. She felt frustrated as she did not dream to be only just that. Being a foreigner who did not know how to speak Swedish did not make the situation easier. Thriving a career as a software professional was a struggle. But she overcome the said trials. She pushed herself to learn the language by taking Swedish courses and ended up writing to a renowned professor at the Royal Institute of Technology. She requested to be a doctoral student which the kind professor granted. She started her new five-year venture in the field of research where she met her colleagues and became an adviser to students taking up master’s degree in different courses. Now, she works as a solution architect and loves every moment of her life as she finally established her own identity through achieving heights and overcoming challenges. Looking back, she has become many things, a good wife, a good mother, and an established professional who learned to ride along the ups and downs of life. We can be who we want to be, just learn to grow and be motivated, as life offers a multitude of diversity and opportunity. She did not end there, as she achieved more in acquiring a position at Accenture, a global professional services company. Although she had linguistic differences from the majority her competent research background enabled her to solve problems and challenges that crossed her path.
Aisa Mijeno Invents Lamp That Runs on Saltwater “To light up the rest of the Philippines sustainably” was Filipina engineer Aisa Mijeno’s vision and so she and her brother invented the Sustainable Alterative Lighting (SALt) lamp. The SALt lamp is an alternative light source that runs on saltwater, which makes it environment friendly and is suitable for people who live in areas near the sea.
as the galvanic cell, but instead of using electrolytes, the SALt lamp uses saline solution, which is hamless and non-toxic.
This device also functions well in remote areas. All you need is two table spoons of salt and one glass of water, and this lamp can run for eight hours. You can even charge your smartphones with the lamp.
According to Mijeno, her experience working with an environmental organization has inspired her and made her see the need for an alternative source of light especially in the rural areas of the Philippines.
“It is made of tediously experimented and improved chemical compounds, catalysts, and metal alloys that when submerged in electrolytes will generate electricity,” Mijeno said in an interview.
“I used to be part of Greenpeace Philippines and did personal immersions/volunteers across rural communities, and there I learned so many things. Most of these people are so poor and underprivileged that they endure long hours of walking just to get kerosene for their lamps,” Mijeno said.
Because of this ground-breaking invention, this SALt lamp has received numerous awards in the Philippines, Singapore, Japan and South Korea. This invention also won several competitions in the Philippines and abroad. Safe Alternative to Kerosene Lamps The science behind the SALt lamp is dependent on the chemical conversion of energy. It uses the almost the same principle
Other people make use of kerosene lamps which can cause fires, and other accidents, whereas the SALt lamp doesn’t have and components and compounds that could cause a fire. It also doesn’t emit toxic gases.
“Our main focus is on the island communities that do not have access to electricity and have no financial capacity for acquiring alternative source of electricity,” For every SALt lamp that is bought, they give one lamp to a selected family. Photo by Trending News Portal
Photo from Twitter
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Alexandra Voltini Creates the UBER for Journalists and Freelancers
Amelia Gandara Ballet Dancer turned Chemical Engineer Amelia Gandara started her professional life as a ballet dancer, and while studying chemical engineering at the University of Louisville (KY), she worked as a co-op student at two ironically two different industries—an oil refinery and an alternative energy research center. Today, she works as a community developer for General Electric (GE) FirstBuild program in Louisville, this is the company’s in-house accelerator for developing new appliances. She is in a team that stimulates feedback from consumers instead of letting the products be kept in storage until launch. And if you’re curious—Yes, GE funds their projects on websites like Indiegogo. According to Amelia: “Often when you’re working on a new consumer product, you’re working in an R&D department with engineers behind closed doors. The old way was to be first to get the patent, but the new standard is really speed to market.”
FirstBuild’s first product was called Paragon, an induction cooktop with a sensor and optional smartphone app. It was funded and tested on Indiegogo, and raised more than $300,000 for Paragon using the site. Amelia credits the dedication and work ethic she developed while she was studying ballet for helping her get through the tough life of engineering school. With the confidence she gained from years of performing and applying it in her line of work, she has become the successful woman that she is now Amelia co-host a monthly hardware meet-up at work, where students, entrepreneurs and local business people can practice making pitches and learn about jobs. Though Amelia stands out now as a business model, she still manages to keep in touch with the ballet world. Photo by Will Cravens Photography
BLAMEET.COM, the new concept of community platform where citizens freely publish opinions through compliments and criticisms, has initiated a system (only by invitation during the initial launch phase) whereby journalists/freelancers can earn money based on a new economic model. Alexandra Voltini, 19 years old, founder of the site: “This is a win-win approach. On the one hand, the site increases its readership and on the other, contributors earn income, anywhere from extra cash to serious revenue. To note, this “Uberization” for journalists and freelancers is not in competition with any profession, rather it’s a helpful service to many. So, no dangers of protesters on the horizon... LOL!” ID of the concept: BLAMEET presents itself as a “Journal of public interest, written by citizens for citizens,” with the goal of becoming an evolving ecosystem of free thinking and opinion-sharing to improve lives and serve communities of interests. BLAMEET is a diverse forum for opinions as well as a rich provider of captivating and entertaining content (fun, practical, cultural, educational, editorial, etc). BLAMEET combines the “convenience” of Facebook, the “brevity” of Twitter and the “connectivity” of LinkedIn to publish opinions, comments, moods, invectives, convictions, complements and criticisms to improve the lives of our citizens. Business model: the site’s business model has the rare particularity of not only being based on advertising but also on paid services by companies, institutions and the media.
Subjects: three levels of functionality... Editorials, opinions, debates, open forums, hats off, entertainment, evaluations, etc. by way of Blames and Compliments (presented in the form of posts) Self-promotion for freelance writers and journalists, with an author Profile and personal Journal (possible subscription to Journals) Real improvement of everyday with CAP, Community Action Plans (generated from Blames published on the site) Audience: all ages, from children to seniors, whatever their interests: sports, politics, fun, brands, sex, technology, people, health, music, art, fashion, news, religion, etc. Access: everyone; registration is free. Official launch date: in France and the US (but the UK site is already operational), February 2016 (soon to follow in other “free-thinking” countries) Origin: “Blameet” results from the merger of “to blame” (-) and “to meet” (+) Features: Interactivity between countries: ability to write notes in other countries (the flag of the country of origin appears next to the author name in this case) Sophisticated management of keywords, filter system and search tool allow “à la carte” selection of posts, according to tastes and moods Promotional posters are available from the website (bottom left), but only if the screen is large enough to present the 3 columns (if not, just 2 columns) Photo from Facebook
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Cassandra Cole “I choose crazy, I have been, and I still will.” Cassandra Cole, a third year Mechanical Engineering student tells her audience as she inspired them with her enthralling journey as a female mechanical engineer. There were a lot of lessons to be learned from her short yet meaningful talk, but if they were to be summarized, it would be into three main lessons: Take risks, face your fears, and Keep moving forward. Cassandra talked about how surprised her family, friends and professors were when they found out that she wanted to take Mechanical Engineering as her college course. After all, she was the typical feminine embodiment. She took dance classes, she was a model, and she collected shoes! Mechanical Engineering might be the last thing she might want to take up in the university but, she had a passion for Math, Sciences, and Workshop. So regardless of the stereotypes thrown at her, she decided to take the risk and follow her passion. After some time in the university, Cassandra suddenly acquired a serious disease. She had to stay in the hospital, and her parents were told to prepare for the worst. While being treated, a friend of hers visited her and shared an idea that would help her live her life to the fullest— make a bucket list. With the help of family, friends and amazing doctors, she was soon completely treated and was able to be discharged from the hospital. Cassandra left the hospital with her bucket list and new found life waiting for her.
Mechanical Engineering Student and Formula Nergis Mavalvala Racing Team Member C o n t r i b u t e s t o Gravitational Wave Discovery Cassandra’s near death experience gave her a sense of realization that life was short and that she should take risks and live life to the fullest. She took her bucket list and crossed out some of the goals listed. She went skydiving, co-drive with a famous rally driver, be a flag girl for her favorite racing team, and travel to different countries.
She then continued her schooling and joined the formula team in their university. She took the risk, challenged herself to learn a new skill and volunteered to design their team’s race car chassis. As they finished the design, Cassandra felt a sense of achievement, yet she felt that something was missing. She missed her feminine side, and so she went back to taking dance classes and continued her modelling. She then decided to take a sexy photo shoot together with their team’s race car. Their university didn’t agree to this action, and they didn’t take this action lightly either. Their team was suspended, and Cassandra felt crushed. She stopped schooling and got depressed. This was her rock bottom. It was a while, but Cassandra soon realized that she had to take the risk and face her fears. All she had to do was take the first step. She took a deep breath and continued going to school. Even though everyone would look at her differently, she faced her fears, learned from her mistakes, accepted her punishment and worked her way back into the world
where she was once before— except now she was stronger.
She would not have achieved this if she didn’t have a solid support system. Her family, friends and university professors pushed her to take one day at a time and keep moving forward. She took their pieces of advice and continued to take risks, face her fears, keep moving forward, and always to choose crazy! Most of us, if not all, have gone through different experiences in life similar to Cassandra’s. A lot of them will vary but, it is safe to say that the lessons learned from her story can apply to almost everyone. Let’s not forget to life to the fullest and take necessary risks to help us grow as a person— physically, emotionally, and even spiritually. Also, whenever we have doubts and make mistakes, let’s be brave enough to take one step forward and face our fears. Always remember, when life throws rocks at you, keep moving forward. It doesn’t matter how long it takes. Just keep moving forward and with that being said, here is an excerpt from Cassandra’s speech that will leave you inspired: “Will you cruise through life missing those opportunities… missing those chances? Or will you take those risks, take those chances, will you scrape your knees on the ground, and take those risks to take you… take yourself where you wanna be?” Screengrab from YouTube
Among the almost 1,000 scientists working for what Albert Einstein had told us about gravitational waves a century ago, Pakistani quantum astrophysicist Nergis Mavalvala is quite a woman worth emulating. Dr. Mavalvala is an expat MIT professor and a member of the US-based LIGO Scientific Collaboration. She is one of the brains at the Laser Interferometric Gravitational Wave Observatory. What’s so special about her? After the feat had surfaced the social media, her efforts were very much credited at her home country Pakistan. Hundreds of comments on Facebook posts had attributed her success to her Pakistani roots, the Parsi community she belongs to and her schooling at Karachi’s Convent of Jesus and Mary. The Pakistani community is indeed proud of her achievements despite not being able to go back home for almost 30 years. But Dr. Mavalvala wants her countrymen to be inspired by her story of perseverance. She encourages people that anybody should be able to succeed regardless of gender, religion, and sexual preference. Photo by Cambridge
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Jordan Hartzell Organizes Conference with an Aim to Fix Gender Imbalance in Physics
Radha Lohar
Tweets to Save Co-Passenger From Traffickers
Nina Freeman A conference held in Bucknell University, organized by 16-year-old, wants to bring awareness to the gender imbalance in STEM. Seven accomplished women speakers were invited to the event with an aim to fix the slices of the pie with the involvement of women in STEM especially in physics. According to the National Girls project, only about 19% of bachelor degrees in physics were attained by females and about 7% of mechanical engineers are women. “The gender imbalance in physics has gone on for a long time,” Hartzell said. “It needs to be corrected. I wanted to create awareness of an issue while showing that physics is amazing for everyone.” The event on April 2 was attended by 80 people, mostly high school students, with an almost 1:1 male and female ratio. Hartzell was featured in the Huffington Post for her insights on the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory, following the validation of Albert Einstein’s theory about gravity’s travel across spacetime. Photo by Daily Item
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Creates Games A bou t H e r Se x Life Meet Nina Freeman, a 25-year old Game Designer who designs games based on her hot relationship adventures, exhilarating experiences and sex life.
For around five years, Nina has been working with teams of programmers and graphic artists to be able to create exceptionally personal games about relationships and sex. She came into the limelight with a game called “How Do You Do It”. The game is all about a little girl who plays with her Barbie dolls while her mom is out, trying to find out how do grown-ups “do it”, the player will be controlling this event of course. Nina also created a game called “Ladylike”, where you try to control a conversation between a teenage girl and her mom, during a drive to a mall. Anything you say about boyfriends, school, sex and clothes, the mom would always disapprove—clearly a different game to play, even in real life. According to Nina, these games were all based on her true to life stories. How To Do It and Ladylike were games that had been inspired by her childhood experiences. For her, gaming is like poetry. “When I started making games, my main inspirations were poets. Elizabeth Bishop’s poem “In the Waiting Room” was my main inspiration for making Ladylike and How Do You Do It?, which are games about my childhood. Once I started making games, though, I discovered other game designers who were also interested in these vignette-style games. Games like Dys4ia and
Gone Home are two of these games that really inspired me to make more vignette games about very human, honest characters.” Nina said, when asked on an interview who she was inspired by when she says gaming is like poetry. In November 2015, Nina released a new game named “Cibele”. It’s an intimately personal, multilayered narrative game that has caught the intrigue of many. It is a game based on a true story about love, sex, and the internet. The player will be playing a role of a 19-year old girl who became close to a young man whom she met through an online game. The two becomes closer and their relationship heats up with each phone call and private chat. This game, of course, was based on one of Nina’s experiences. It all started when she was 16. She met an older guy named Blake through Final Fantasy—a popular online game—gaming community. After numerous phone calls, flirty chats, and sexy selfies, Blake flew across the country to turn their online fantasy into a reality in Nina’s New York dorm room. Nina is very passionate about incorporating her personal experiences into her game design. She wants to be able to create and add a more feminine touch to her video games. By sharing stories about her sex life, she hopes to be able to define her sexuality, career and inspire other women to be able to be the hero of their own life stories. Photo by The Guardian
A 19-year old girl was rescued from the traffickers after her co-passenger tweeted and informed the Ministry of Railways. The rescue operations were played out real time on the social networking site and help arrived within just a few hours. The story goes like this: Radha Lohar was on the train to Hyderabad when she managed to hand over a letter to one of the fellow passengers. The letter revealed that she was being taken over forcibly to Delhi. The co-passenger who got the letter handed over the letter to a relative Divyansh Khuntera. Divyansh tweeted the photo of the letter to the Indian Railways. As soon as the Tweet reached the Railway officials, they alerted the Railway Protection Force Personnel. They board the train at the Ramagundam Station and rescued Lohar. Lohar had been working with a job placement agency and was being forcibly taken to Delhi. Later she was helped by a local NGO to get back home. This type of instant redressal has helped many railway passengers previously. Railway Ministry joined Twitter in July 2014. It has deployed a team to monitor the social networking site and to respond immediately to passenger complains.
Jackie Birdsall
Automotive Engineer at Toyota North America This story will definitely put any sexist to shame. With so many women breaking barriers for other women, Jackie Birdsall can definitely inspire young girls into pursuing an awesome career in engineering. With her love for the Fast and Furious movie and modifying cars as a way of having fun with her friends when she was young, this intelligent 32-year old automotive engineer’s got one of the best jobs in the world. She’s a senior engineer at the Toyota North America in charge of the hydrogen fuel tanks in her area. What does she do? Well, there are days when she has to shoot a gun at these hydrogen tanks in the wilderness - oh well, just to check if they explode. Kaboom!
automotive histories and biographies. I dragged The Reckoning, David Halberstam’s 752page overview of the American and Japanese auto industries, around in my backpack. I love the sound of cars. I love driving cars. I love drawing cars. I love the smell of tires—the best smell in the world. I’d sleep in a tire rack if you let me.” said Birdsall. How did she end up studying automotive engineering then? Well, when her teacher told her father that her knowledge in math is clearly undeniable, she submitted her designs to General Motors Design School and got a response like this: “Have you ever thought of becoming an engineer?”
Growing up, she had the habit of tearing one thing apart and putting it back together. Clearly, she’s got an engineer’s gene within her. This led her to a career all engineers dream off (even though she was clueless about the field when she was younger).
She then enrolled in Kettering University and the rest is history.
“My friends who worked on cars really worked on cars. I was so far behind them. I worked on friends’ ATVs and changed oil every time I could. I bought an ’87 Camry and started tinkering around with that. And I read
Oh, to be young, adventurous and remarkably intelligent. She’s definitely making a mark in the world of automotive engineering and inspiring other women to follow their dreams.
So what’s next for this young rockstar-like engineer? Well, she’s moving to Japan. She’ll be working on the next iteration of the fuel cell.
Photo by Toyota
Esther Wanjiku
Hones Skills at Kenya’s New Rail Project Esther Wanjiku knows the importance of hard work, since she grew up in a low-income suburb in Nairobi. Through diligence and patience, the 28-year-old was able to land a job as an engineer at the China Road and Bridge Corporation (CRBC) for its project to build a standard gauge railway (SGR) line in Kenya. According to the civil engineering graduate, working at the modern railway project has been fulfilling professionally and psychologically. For her, challenges didn’t hinder her dream of becoming a successful civil engineer and im-
proving her family’s living standards. Her one-and-a-half years’ working experience with this Chinese company did not only provide her with a steady income, but it also honed her professional skills as a civil engineer. The SGR line being built in Kenya by the CRBC will run from Mombassa on the eastern coast to the western border town of Malaba. This will replace the narrow-gauge track built over a century ago during the British colonial rule. Photo by Xinhua Net
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Cheryl Yembe’s Fashioneering Story 40
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Cheryl Yembe, a fashion lover, business woman and a fresh graduate of Construction Engineering from University of Houston proved that being in a tough degree should not set the limits of pursuing one’s passion. As owner of the fashion blog nowuseech-er. blogspot.com, Yembe is still doing a follow through of her fashion retail business while waiting for a work in line with her engineering degree.
According to the young entrepreneur, she is continously inspired by so many people ranging from celebrities like Victoria Beckham and Katy Perry, to regular people. Although most of the time, she chooses what to buy or wear by trial and error until she achieves a combination that suits her taste. When it comes to designers, Yembe said that she does not really follow designer works or have a
favorite. When it comes to purchasing, she rathers pay attention to colors and textures rather than who made the piece of clothing. Yembe may not have a favorite designer, but she sure does have a favorite piece of clothing--a pair of jeans. And it’s true when she reasoned out that a pair could be worn with any other set of clothes. Photos by Style Vitae
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The Women Pioneers of Science Perhaps during the first few years that you have learned science, you noticed that almost everything was discovered and invented by the male species. While this may have left you an impression that science is a man’s world, it is definitely not exclusive to one gender alone. Women have had discoveries and inventions that were underrated just because they are women. Women being outnumbered by men in science limited the contributions of women in science
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history. But the following breakthroughs are important revelations that women can definitely do science, and most likely could have done more if it weren’t for the prejudices during their time. This list only includes eight of the many women pioneers in science. Ada Lovelace, Margaret Knight, Rosalyn Yalow, Shirley Ann Jackson, Temple Grandin, and Frances Arnold are worthy in this list but these eight women are chosen in relative fame in the technical community.
Emilie du Chatelet (1706-1749)
Born Gabrielle Émilie Le Tonnelier de Breteuil, she is the first one to employ innovative techniques to measure kinetic effects of motion and published papers in philosophy and science. Emilie du Châtelet demonstrated and publicized an experiment by Dutch scientist Willem Gravesande by dropping balls from different heights into a sheet of soft clay. This proved that the impact displacement is proportional to the square of the velocity, which further supported Gottfried Liebnitz’s similar proposition and defying Isaac Newton’s suggestion. Photo by Emilie (Play)
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Marie Curie (1867-1934)
You have probably heard of this woman before in your chemistry class but forgot what she has done: together with her husband Pierre Curie, she isolated radioactive elements including radium. She also focused on uranium as a radiation source, which induced electric conductivity in the surrounding air. She earned two Nobel Prizes in science, the first person in history, in 1903 for Physics and in 1911 for Chemistry. She is credited for the Element 96 in the Period Table of Elements in honor of her scientific contributions, which is Curium. Her cumulative work with radiation, however, caused her health to deteriorate and soon died from aplastic anemia caused by bone marrow damage. Photo by Wikipedia Commons
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Lise Meitner (1878-1968)
Lise Meitner is arguably regarded as the most significant woman scientist in the 20th century. Other than the the Element 109, Meitnerium, which is the heaviest element known in the universe, she and Otto Hahn collaborated in studying radioactivity which soon paved for the element Protactinium. She also discovered the radiationless transition known as the Auger effect, but credited to Petter Victor Auger who advanced the effect two years later after Meitner discovered it. She is also responsible for the advent of nuclear fission which physical explanation was published along with her nephew Otto Frisch which is her nephew. But Hahn was merited for Meitner’s research by getting the Nobel Prize for Chemistry in 1944. It was later partially corrected in 1966 when Hahn, Meitner, and Strassman were awarded with the Enrico Fermi Award. Photo by Perce Pogelatto
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Emmy Noether (1882-1935)
This is who the Noether’s Theorem came from. Being the master of abstract algebra in mathematics, Emmy Noether developed the general theory on commutative rings and discovering the connection between symmetry and conservation in physics. She joined the Mathematical Institute in Gottingen in 1915 and started working with prominent mathematicians Felix Klein and David Hilbert on Einstein’s general relativity theory. Three years later she proved two theorems that are basic to elementary particle physics, one of which is the theorem coined to her name. Emmy Noether come from a prominent family of scientists. Photo by Getty Images
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Grace Hopper (1906-1992)
The Common Business Oriented Language or COBOL wouldn’t be what it is now if it weren’t for the computer programming genius Grace Hopper who helped in the development of a compiler. She was a Navy reserve officer who worked with the Mark II and Mark III computers as a researcher in Harvard. Hopper also popularized the term ‘computer bug,’ after a moth was found to have shorted out the Mark II. She jumped into the private industry with the Eckert-Mauchly Computer Corporation and Remington Rand where the development of the first compiler for computer languages started. It was a precursor for COBOL which is a widely adapted language around the world. Photo by Shorpy
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Hedy Lamarr (1914-2000)
You may recognize Hedy Lamarr as a sexy film actress during MGM’s ‘Golden Age,’ but she’s more than just a beautiful face. This Austrian-American actress is also a scientist who worked on an early technique for spread spectrum communications, which is significant in modern wireless communications. It was during her career’s peak that she earned recognition in science by receiving a patent for an idea of a radio signalling device, which was known as the Secret Communications System. It was a means of changing radio frequencies to keep enemies from decoding messages that was meant to be used in military communications against the Nazis. Photo by Forbes
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Rosalind Elsie Franklin (1920-1958)
It was Rosalind Elsie Franklin who provided the world with the basic structure of the DNA. Through her Cambridge University doctorate, she learned crystallography and x-ray diffraction, the key techniques that she applied to DNA fibers. She and her student Raymond Gosling paved the way for the DNA structure by taking pictures of it and discovered that there were two forms of it: a dry “A” form and a wet “B” form. The critical evidence in identifying the structure of DNA which is the Photograph 51 came from one of the their x-ray diffraction pictures of the “B” form. Photo by UC Press
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Mildred Dresselhaus (1930-present)
Mildred S. Dresselhaus is a living legend with incredible studies in the discovery of buckyballs and carbon nano-tubes. Apart from that, she deciphered the electronic structure of graphite, the lowest-energy solid-state form of carbon. She is a professor in MIT and its Lincoln Laboratory for more than 50 years now. She has made extensive research contributions and fundamental discoveries in condensed matter physics. Photo by Alchetron
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CODE: DEBUGGING THE GENDER GAP Who would’ve thought computer code could be used as a catalyst to bring out ones creativity? This is exactly how a new documentary is hoping to inspire girls to enter the world of computer science.
girls a different perspective and showing them you can do so much more than just write an app, or [work on] banking software, which is what people typically associate with programming,” She added.
Danielle Feinberg, director of photography at Pixar, will be the star of this documentary entitled, CODE: Debugging the Gender Gap, a look at the lopsided nature of the tech industry and increasing need for computer science graduates, particularly women. “The combination of art and tech is my favorite thing in the world,” Feinberg says.
“The reality is, you can make movies, you can make anything really.”
“This film is all about giving young
Photos by Financial Review
Women engineers and coders from different companies like Yelp, Facebook, Google, Twitter, Pinterest, Strava, Pandora, GitHub and Pivotal will be opening up in the documentary, they will be voicing out their frustration over stereotypes, and sharing their feelings with regards to the topic.
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Glasgow Students Travelling to Africa to Inspire Girls into Engineering Robogals Encourages Female Youth To Pursue STEM Profession Glasgow University, fourth year biomedical engineering student Ellen Simmons set up a group named FemEng to inspire and encourage girls into STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) subjects. Together with a team of Rwandan counterparts, the group will be travelling to Rwanda, Africa to inspire young girls to pursue courses in the engineering field.
According to Simmons: “It is usually when pupils get to about 16 that they are encouraged away from STEM subjects, both at home and by teachers in school. “Higher Physics, for example, is predominantly male and that will stop a lot of girls from studying the subject. “But in Rwanda the situation is further complicated by the fact girls are expected to stay at home and take on caring duties. Perhaps not in the cities but certainly in more rural areas. “Travelling to university or living away from home is prohibitive and also there can be a lack of access to sanitary products, which means girls are missing school one week in four. “It’s very hard for them to keep up.” FemEng Rwanda has receved backing from companies like Western Ferries, Dyson and CH2M. The University College Dublin also loaned them a 3D printer. Their team hopes to raise £4000 for the trip, which will help them support their Rwandan peers to be able to stay on at the university while the project is ongoing. Photo by Herald Scotland
“If you ask someone to picture an engineer, many people will picture a big dude in a hard hat and overalls”. This is how May Hane, Vice President of Robogals Newcastle from Newcastle University responded when asked about gender distribution in engineering. And sadly it has always been the case for a long time now. In the ancient civilization, they were the builders, the hunters and providers while the women are associated with domestication, child bearing and activities that involve taking care of other people. So we cannot entirely blame if someone is thinking the same stereotypes, because it started with our ancestors. However, times are changing and a lot of females are evolving into having professions that were originally just for men. And it is about right that everybody else open their minds into accepting women in the science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) fields--a mindset that is aligned with Robogals Newcastle’s goals. Robogals is a worldwide organization that is dedicated into increasing the number of women who pursue studies related to STEM. They believe that every female child deserves the opportunity to strengthen her STEM side by engaging themselves into activities or toys that could hone their thinking skills. They should not be limited into cooking toys, doll houses and other things associated with typical female activities. And as part of their vision, the group conducted a robotics workshop at Toronto Library which they believed inspired the girls into going into engineering. Photo by Georgia Tech
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Engineering Schools Must Improve Representation of Women and Minorities Diversity has always been an issue in engineering colleges, especially in the United States. In UCLA, most of the engineering students enrolled are men, around 25 percent of the engineering population are women. As for the minority groups, they make up around 10 percent or less. This is the case for almost all engineering schools in the United States. Jayatha Murthy, the dean of the Henry Samueli School of Engineering and Applied Science, game her thoughts to address the matter. She stated that she plans to improve the representation of these groups in the engineering school by developing mentorship programs and support resources. This initiative though, is easier said than done. What’s most important is that the attitude of people in engineering schools need to change. Studies show that gender and racial aggression have shaped the experiences of different minority groups in engineering courses. The engineering ethics classes need to be reviewed to deal with this kind of problems in a professional manner. There is no permanent solution to improve diversity. But if we work together, diversity will improve.
Engineering Students Hosted ‘Introduce A Girl To Engineering’ Program Calculus Subject Kicks Women Off in Engineering Ask Cal Poly Pomona’s Women in Engineering Program (CPP WE). Last February 22, they hosted an event called Introduce A Girl To Engineering. It became such a huge hit that they’re hosting the event again on February 29 for a new batch of middle school girls. This event allows these girls to have a first-hand experience of being part of the engineering field. “It is to get them interested in STEM field and to teach them that engineering isn’t the picture that every female sees. It is to open their eyes to engineering and a better understanding what engineering is about” said the event’s coordinator, Nicole Gutzke. 100 girls from Washington Middle School, South Pointe Middle School and other schools from the Downey Unified School District signed up for the event. Activities included creating simple homopolar motors, cantilevers out of spaghetti and pneumatic cranes. Each activity was held 25-30 minutes. These activities will allow the girls to have an experience in different fields of engineering such as manufacturing, chemical, industrial and civil. Photo by Andres Torres via The Poly Post
How confusing really is the subject Calculus? Confusing enough to kick women off significantly in engineering.
WE NEED WOMEN IN STEM AND WE NEED THEM TO STAY.
Jessica Ellis of Colorado State University found in a study that 1 in 6 women drop plans to continue with a sequence of calculus courses required for engineering careers. This is in contrast with men who have a dropout rate of 1 in 8. It is identified through survey responses that it isn’t the lack of ability to proceed that women are discouraged to pursue a career in engineering, but the lack of confidence instead. Ellis highlighted one survey question that spelled the difference between the gender: “I do not believe I understand the ideas of Calculus I well enough to take Calculus II,” wherein 32 to 35 per cent of women said yes while only 14 to 20 per cent of men agreed. The researcher also discovered from a group who disclosed grade information that 48% of those women who switch from engineering have an A or B grade, while 42% of the men have the same grade and yet choose to switch. This proves that women have a confidence issue upon taking the Calculus subject.
Illustration from IU News Info
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WHY WOMEN AREN’T BECOMING ENGINEERS OR SCIENTISTS Even though women do better that men in high school math and science classes, and get the same ratings in college-level science courses, they still remain underrepresented in Science, technology, engineering and technology fields. This is the same as will in computer sciences. But the big question is why? According to a new study which is published in the Psychology of Women Quarterly, researchers tried for figure out if stereotypes about women prevents them from working in STEM fields. According to the research, there is
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“some evidence [that] suggests people perceive scientists to be more like men than women,” Aslo, according to the study, “Women may be at a disadvantage in science because people hold different stereotypes about women than they do about men and successful scientists, particularly in scientific fields where women are less prevalent,” So what is the solution? The best way to solve this problem is to be aware that a bias does exist, and to encourage women instead of feeding the stereotypes.
WE NEED TO CHANGE THE WAY WE THINK ABOUT WOMEN IN TECHNOLOGY All it takes for women to bounce back in technology is our change of perspectives. Photo by Women in Tech Africa
Despite given the freedom to choose whatever career women like to venture into, there is something that stops them to enter STEM. A fact that women only hold around one in four of all STEM jobs prove that something is wrong – mostly with the way we think about women in technology. There is already so much progress about women getting jobs in the private sector but gender inequality is still visible and gaps are worsening. Only 18% of computer science degrees in the US are earned by women, a drastic slide from a high of 37% in 1984. So what has been wrong? Mostly, cultural barriers that scream sexism is a key issue when in the workforce. They become the minority in startups and boardrooms from New York City to Silicon Valley. There
are biases that limit women’s leadership, thinking that they to conform to certain image before they can get a step higher in the ladder. Issues regarding race and socio-economic circumstances are also huge factors that impede human to be in STEM. To increase the diversity, we have to think that women in tech can also be leader even when they are not developers or engineers. It closes a lot of doors to them when we think that way. It will take a lot of overhauling mindsets to transform our culture to ensure that women are given equal opportunities not only in technology, but in other fields. And it has to start with you.
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EMPOWERING WOMEN THROUGH ‘KODING’:
THE STORY OF SUPERMODEL
K
ARLIE LOSS
BY ALICE HERNANDEZ
Karlie Kloss for H&M Lookbook (Summer 2014) Photo Shoot. Photo from Celebs Venue.
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She’s got style; she’s got grace; and, more importantly, she’s got brains. She’s a supermodel on a mission to inspire young girls to run the world through coding. Her name is Karlie Elizabeth Kloss. The 23-year old former Victoria’s Secret Angel has walked the runways of the fashion world’s stellar powerhouses, including Versace, Louis Vuitton and Balmain; has graced the cover of world renowned fashion magazines; and is a member of Taylor Swift’s #girlsquad. She became a muse to famous fashion designer John Galliano, and has starred in various global ad campaigns. You would think she’s just a typical snobby model chased after by the paparazzi while on a night out with her famous friends and colleagues, but that’s where you’re wrong. Born in Chicago, Illinois, Kloss rose to fame when she was “discovered at a local benefit show”. Endowed with talents, Karlie immediately captured
the attention of the fashion world’s powers that be, and was even named by Vogue Paris as one of the top 30 models of the 2000s. But despite Kloss’ meteoric rise to stardom, she was not content with just fame, beauty and a tremendous popularity on social media. In 2015, Kloss gave up her Angel wings to pursue her love for coding. Normally, models quit school to pursue modeling, but Karlie went against convention. While it is no longer a novelty to hear of famous people being notably smart, it’s not every day one encounters the story of a model feeling excited about her first day in NYU - exhilarated with the prospect that she could expand her brand through computer science and software engineering. Kloss is that kind of girl, and she loves sharing her experience to all her followers millions of them - on her social media accounts.
CODING IS COOL Amanda Southward and Leilani Jones were two of the 21 girls chosen to study coding under the scholarship. They decided to take the step forward, not discouraged by the stereotypes associated to anyone who studies programming. Stereotypes include being nerds, geeks and basically someone who wants to commit “social suicide”. But as soon as they started the twoweek course, they considered the experience as one of the most wonderful they’ve ever had. The atmosphere inside the classrooms and workshops made them realize the importance of programming in today’s society.
PHOTOS
Kloss for L'Oreal Paris (Left); Kloss for FLARE (Right)
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Photo by Karlie Kloss Org
How it all began It was love at first sight. In 2015, Kloss took a crash course in coding, and immediately found herself in love with it. She further gravitated towards coding, that she could talk about it like it was one of her obsessions. On her website, kodewithklossy.com, Kloss shared how it was like starting with coding: “Before my first coding class, the idea that I could build something with code seemed practically impossible. Within a couple of classes, I was working with my classmates to program a small drone. I realized that code is about creativity — just like art and fashion — and that women who have these skills have the power to shape our future. Decided on pursuing further studies on the field, on September 2015, she
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enrolled herself in NYU’s Gallatin School of Individualized Study. Kloss spoke about her love for coding on the sidelines of a British Vogue fashion shoot in December 2015: “Call me a nerd, but I love coding, the language of computers. Understanding coding is a superpower. I met some tech entrepreneurs and they are billionaires through learning this stuff. I’m so competitive with myself, and I am fascinated by the language of technology, so I decided to be part of the conversation... I think it’s sexy to learn this stuff; it enables and it empowers both sexes. About two years ago I started to think about what happens to me next. I’m a 23-year-old model and I want to think less about my looks and more about my future, and that involves my brain. I want to run companies, have a business future.”
A Role Model for Young Women Kloss uses her extensive following on social media to let the public know of the importance of coding in today’s society. Kloss inspires young girls to code, and she wants other women to follow her footsteps. Speaking to The Guardian, she said: “I think it’s crucial that young women learn to code as early as possible to ensure that we as young women have a voice and a stake in what the world looks like.” In an interview with FLARE magazine, she further explained her insight about the need for young girls to embrace their inner geeks: “There’s a big misconception that coding is strictly mathematical; it’s actually incredibly creative… Code runs everything around us, and young women are so important to defining the future.” In line with her aspiration to introduce coding to a greater number of women, she launched her latest project, Kode With Klossy In an interaction with Mashable, she explains in greater detail: “Since taking my first coding class two years ago, I’ve learned how creative and versatile coding is…. I decided to launch Kode With Klossy to help expand access to computer science courses and teach young women how to harness and apply the power of code to their personal passions.” Last year, in collaboration with Flatiron School, an educational institution focused on web and mobile development, Kloss awarded scholarship grants to 21 young girls between 13 and 18. For two weeks, the girls immersed themselves in the world of coding, along other young coding enthusiasts. On top of blowing kisses to her fans, she wants to let them know how important it is for women to be creative, innovative and inclined to computer science. Kloss embodies beauty and brains, and she wants the young women who look up to her to follow her as well. The pilot scholarship program was such a smashing success. Last year’s initiative attracted 600 applications from all over the globe. Out of the chosen 21, 14 had no experience in coding at all! But, at the end of the
program, a batch of real-deal software engineers emerged. So, for a second collaboration with Flatiron School, Kloss is offering a new batch of girls a chance to learn the wonderful ways of coding through the 2016 Kode with Karlie Scholarship. “I was truly inspired by all the applicants for the Kode With Karlie scholarship, said Kloss through the Kode with Karlie website. “Their depth, creativity and thoughtfulness is a testament to how these young women will change the world through code. It was incredibly difficult to select the recipients as there were many qualified and incredible candidates.”
More with #KodeWithKarlie on YouTube
A full-time course, which covers the ins and outs of software engineering, is offered to all the scholars. By the end of two weeks, they would have learned Ruby - the awesome programming language used for bigtime apps, such as Twitter. As for the output each scholar must produce, they must build web apps, together with their classmates. Would you like to take part of this awesome scholarship program? Get ready for Summer 2016.
Similar Initiatives Aside from the Kode with Karlie scholarship program, there are nonprofit organizations, such as Girls Who Code and Ladies Learning Code that offer programs for young women. These organizations aim to give women a chance to create and innovate through computer science and to provide an opportunity to compete in a field usually dominated by men. Through Kloss’ enthusiastic posts about her love for coding, projects involving programming and girls, and offering scholarship grants, younger women are encouraged to be informed about the opportunities waiting for them when pursue a career in computer science. This also provides an avenue to address gender inequality issues in the workplace.
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THE PRESIDENT AND CEO
ROBOMATTER:
A Global Leader in
STEM Education
Robomatter is a private company that focuses on STEM Education and was founded in 2003 by researchers at Carnegie Mellon University. The company’s mission is to prepare students to compete in the developing economy. Their well-researched, proven methods and educational technology allows them to offer high quality STEM education, which prepares their students to excel in the future. According to their website, they use “motivational effects of robotics to excite students about computer science, science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. ROBOTS and ROBOTICS integrate math, science, engineering, and technology in ways that motivate and excite students.” GineersNow was able to get an exclusive interview with Robomatter Inc.’s President and CEO, James “Skip” Smith. 60
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GN: Introduce yourself. SKIP: James “Skip” Smith, President and CEO of Robomatter, Incorporated. I grew up in a small town on the east coast of Florida, in the shadow of the Kennedy Space Center. In fact, my first job was working as a computer operator at the Kennedy Space Center. I worked with a group called Launch Process Support and our job was to help support space shuttle launches. GN: How many years have you been working in your industry? SKIP: I got my first job in technology in 1986 and have been working in the industry ever since. I have spent a good deal of my time working in financial technology (FinTech), which enabled me to see, first hand, the need for quality technology education at all levels. Working in FinTech,
I became aware of the critical skills that are needed by employers, and the gap that often exists with employees entering the workplace. In today’s world, technology skills aren’t optional – they’re essential, and it’s surprising how many people are lacking in basic, essential skills. I joined Robomatter in early 2015, and before joining Robomatter, I was the President of iCarnegie Global Learning, which provided educational strategy to governments, businesses, and institutions around the world. I’ve found that one of the most rewarding things about working with educational technology (Ed Tech) is being able to educate the youth and make a difference in their lives. While visiting one of our customers in India, I met with a group of students who had been using our STEM curriculum. During our conversation, one of the students said to me, “Because of what I learned using your curriculum, I believe I can be an astronaut.” Moments like that help to clarify the importance of what we’re doing. GN: Tell us some personal stories that engineers will like to hear. Tell us what other people don’t know about SKIP. SKIP: One of the first programs I wrote as a professional was a program for a mainframe computer that had been programmed to boot from a card deck. The program I created replaced the card deck and enabled the mainframe to boot from a magnetic tape instead. While that sounds like such old technology now, it’s interesting think about how much technology has progressed in the last few decades, and how much it will progress in the decades to come. That’s one of the reasons that STEM education is so important.
ROBOMATTER GN: What is Robomatter? What does it do? SKIP: Robomatter is a K-12 STEM education company that provides complete, research-based, STEM solutions that focus on the “T & E” (technology and engineering) aspects of STEM. Our computer science and robotics curriculum is based on research and best practices from the Carnegie Mellon Robotics Academy and the University of Pittsburgh Learning Research and Development Center. Using unique and engaging tools, technology, and teaching methods, we teach kids foundational concepts, processes and principles, not just facts to memorize. In addition to teaching skills and concepts in computer science, we also emphasize the soft skills that are so critical to students’ success – things like computational thinking, programming, problem solving, teamwork, and creativity. This is very different than traditional education. But, we’re reacting to what students need to succeed, not just today, but 20 years from now. Innovation is critical in today’s world, and will only continue to become more critical. Our curriculum is designed to help develop the next generation of innovators who will create the products and processes that drive our future. GN: How did the concept start? Describe the “Aha!” experience SKIP: Robomatter was founded in 2003 by researchers from the Carnegie Mellon Robotics Academy. The Robotics Academy’s
mission is to use the motivational effects of robotics to excite students about science and technology, and Robomatter was started with the goal of operationalizing the research and educational technology developed by the Carnegie Mellon Robotics Academy. We began by selling individual, online courses to teach introductory programming and engineering skills. However, because we’ve seen how important STEM education is, and because we also seen
how important teachers are to the success of STEM education, we have grown to provide full, turn-key solutions that are designed to help any teacher easily implement a STEM program, even if the teacher has no prior STEM experience. We like to say that STEM education is critical, but it doesn’t have to be complex. We take the complexity out of implementing a STEM computer science or robotics program by providing the training, materials, and support they need to feel empowered in their STEM classroom. ISSUE NO.003 WOMEN IN TECH & ENGINEERING
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GN: What are the special features of your solution? Describe the specs, features and benefits to the consumers.
GN: How big is the social impact? Can you provide a qualitative and quantitative data?
SKIP: There are three features that really distinguish us from other STEM education solutions:
SKIP: We’ve been a part of STEM and Computer Science initiatives around the world, from local school districts in Pittsburgh, to school systems in Malaysia. It’s great to see our curriculum touching the lives of so many students across the globe.
- Our curriculum is research-based. The curriculum and courses we create are informed and shaped by research from the Carnegie Mellon Robotics Academy and the University of Pittsburgh Learning Research and Development Center. That means the technology and teaching methods we use are founded on principles about the most effective STEM teaching methods and practices. - We offer complete, turnkey solutions. That means our classroom-ready curriculum and tools are designed to help any teacher implement Robomatter’s STEM solutions, regardless of their experience. - We empower teachers to be successful in their STEM classrooms. We know that implementing new curriculum can be difficult, and that’s why we provide comprehensive training and support to help teachers achieve success in adopting new technology and curriculum. GN: What are the current statistics of beneficiaries, installations, teachers, projects, etc…? SKIP: Our educational solutions are used by millions of kids around the world, in over 16,000 educational institutions. And, we’ve trained over 11,000 teachers in how to successfully teach STEM Robotics and Computer Science.
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THE COMPANY GN: Are you an educational institution, social enterprise, non-profit or private company? SKIP: We are a private company with about 40 employees, primarily located in our headquarters in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. However, our team spans the globe with employees in California, Colorado, Florida, and the Netherlands. GN: Describe your mission, vision and values. SKIP: We’re committed to making sure students are prepared to succeed in a global, emerging economy. That means creating students who are more than just consumers of technology – they’re innovators and producers of technology. That’s a fundamental difference between what we do, and what you find in traditional education. GN: Describe your company work culture?
SKIP: Because we’re focused on preparing students for success 20 years from now, we need to be able to adapt to the ever changing demands of technology, before the changes have even happened. This requires agility and dedication to innovation, two things that are woven into, and drive, everything we do. We use an Agile development process, which helps us quickly adapt to feedback and new circumstances. We also have a great team of smart, and enthusiastic people who are really committed to and believe in what they do. And, because we have such a collaborative process, everyone has a voice in the process, and ownership in the final product, which makes for a great development experience, and an even better end product. GN: Where is this company headed? What’s your future expansion plans? Describe briefly your strategic goals (10 years to 20 years plan) SKIP: We’re focused on changing the way STEM education is taught and how it’s integrated into students’ everyday lives. Technology affects every aspect of our lives, and education needs to adapt to that fact. Robomatter is driving innovation in STEM education, in terms of pedagogy, implementation, and educational technology. This is because we want to change the way STEM is taught across the globe. Our goal is to make the classroom of the future a reality. 20 years from now, we will be able to look back and say that STEM education is fundamentally different because of Robomatter.
THE ORGANIZATION GN: How many engineers, scientists and mathematicians do you have in your company? SKIP: About 50% - 60% of our employees are engineers or computer science professionals. We also employ a number of educational experts and work closely with teachers to understand the realities of the classroom. GN: How do you motivate your employees? SKIP: They’re innovators and producers of technology. That’s a fundamental difference between what we do, and what you find in traditional education.
ADVICE TO THE YOUNG ENGINEER GN: Please give advice and words of wisdom to our young, global audience. What would you like to tell the young engineers or teens that are currently taking engineering or recently graduated from engineering university. Any inspiring words that you can give to those young engineers who want to become entrepreneurs like you? SKIP: My advice to young engineers and innovators is to think bigger. When you’re inventing and developing something, make sure you’re doing it right, so that it can perform at scale. It’s also important to not build your product in isolation. I’m a big proponent of an Agile approach, which means getting a minimum viable product (MVP) to market quickly, so you can quickly get feedback. And finally, it’s critical that you learn the business that you are in. I began my career as a techie, but my thought process about how to design solutions changed dramatically when I learned about the business side of things. It’s important to make sure your creating something that is going to make a positive impact for your organization. Don’t get caught up in implementing technology for technology’s sake.
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Inspiring Women to
Excel in TecH Women Who Code (WWCode) is a global non-profit organization based in the U.S. who are dedicated to inspiring women to excel in technology careers. They believe that the world of technology will be better if women are equally represented, and this has been their guiding principle. According to their website their key initiatives are Education, Development, Advocacy, Community, and Consulting. With their team of Board members, Advisors, and their volunteer leadership teams around the globe, they work hard to be able to meet their goals to inspire more women to pursue and continue careers in tech. GineersNow was able to get an exclusive interview with Women Who Code.
WOMEN WHO CODE GN: What is Women Who Code? What does it do? Women Who Code (WWCode): Women who code is global non-profit dedicated to empowering women to excel in their technical careers. GN: How did the concept start? Describe the “Aha!” experience WWCode: Women Who Codes started as a community organization in San Francisco, where a group of engineers got together, wanting to create a space where they felt they belong in the industry. As it turned out, they found many women, who wanted the same space in San Francisco, and created events week after week to make a space of belonging where women can excel in their careers. Soon enough, we realized we’re working hard to make this opportunity happen in San Francisco, and its added value to our lives and value to our friends. We’re advancing in our careers and we’re exceling. We wanted to bring that experience to women all over the world. GN: Describe your journey with the company… your experiences, struggles and achievements. WWCode: I’m knocking on a warehouse door trying to get into an office space in mid-market San Francisco on a Tuesday evening. I’ve never been there before and I’m a little bit nervous. Someone answers the door and it’s as if they were expecting me. They walked me into a room that is surrounded by people—who identify as
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women on laptops, and collaborating. They’re young, they’re old, they’re employed, they’re also jobless, they’re short, they’re tall, and they welcomed me with open arms, and they introduced themselves, and I introduced myself. They asked me what I’m working on, rather they tell me what I’m working on and they ask how I can help. They helped me get my development environment set up, and we get started. I come back week after week every Tuesday, rain or shine, on bus, train or car—regardless, I show up. I show up, because it’s fun. I leave each event smarter than I did when I came in. Fast forward 3 years, that’s what the same experience looks like for 50,000 people in 60 cities. Recreating that very experience all around the world that creates that feeling of belonging in the tech industry is one I’ve been very fortunate to be a part of. As an organization, we’ve been able to achieve this through our members and leaders, and it’s been a wonderful experience.
does tech need women in it? There are a number of reasons, many of them are purely economic. Having the disparity in tech hurts the technology companies. Women make up at least half of the users of technology products and websites. Further, women are the biggest consumers. Some analysis show that they account for 4.3 trillion of the total US consumers spending of 1.9 trillion. Another reason, is that there are not enough jobs to fill in this industry, there are 1.4 million software engineering jobs that will be available in 2020. 1 million of those jobs are expected to go unfilled by just traditional avenues. In the next 10 years, 77% of jobs will be related to coding. This means there’s a huge opportunity for everyone, especially women, to be a part of the technical workforce. Another reason is that companies that hire for diversity are more successful. They have strong female leadership generated in return in equity to 10.1 per year versus the 7.4 of those without.
GN: Why do women need Engineering, Science, Tech, Coding, and Math? What’s the importance?
On top of the economic reasons for global economy, the truth is, working at a technology company is lots of fun. As an engineer, you’re constantly collaborating with different team members to solve problems
WWCode: Really, the question is: Why
together. Built iterate, design, test. You’re always running experiments to figure out if the way you solved a problem was the right one. It’s very collaborative, it’s high paying, and has extremely flexible hours. It’s super great, especially for mothers who need the flexibility to manage being a parent and having a career. GN: How big is the social impact? Can you provide a brief qualitative and quantitative data of your social impact? WWCode: Rather, I’d like to point out which problem we’re focusing on right now. Currently, 56% of women are leaving tech mid-career. This is within a 5 year period. Men on the other hand are leaving at a much lower rate. Of the 56% leaving tech, 39% of those are engineers. Why are they leaving? 24% of them are leaving to take on non-technical jobs in different companies, 22% are becoming self-employed, 20% take time out of the workforce, and 10% go to work at a startup company. At women who code, we’re working to make sure we retain women in tech, they become leaders, and we also want to make sure that those women who left tech can re-enter into the industry.
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THE COMPANY GN: Are you an educational institution, social enterprise, non-profit or private company? WWCode: Women who code is a global non-profit GN: How big is your company? WWCode: Women who code is global, we are in 20 countries, 60 cities and have over 50,000 members GN: How many engineers, scientists, and mathematicians do you have in your company? WWCode: Women who code members include 1% executive, 35% engineers, 20% front end developers, 5% entrepreneurs, 5% junior engineers, and 34% learning to code and reentering the workforce.
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ADVICE TO ALL THE GIRLS GN: Please give advice and words of wisdom to our young global audience. What would you like to tell to the millennials and teens? Any inspiring words that you can share? WWCode: Being in tech has been a great privilege for me. I get to solve exciting problems with dynamic teams who cared just as much about the problem as I do. We solve problems by talking, thinking, drawing, writing on white boards, reading, laughing, and programming. I couldn’t ask for a better gig. I encourage you to explore your passion and your curiosity, whether it’s software, robotics, science, math or anything else. Just remember, you belong in this industry, and when you grow up there will be more role models who look like you.
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ENGINEERING
FOR KIDS Inspiring the Next
Generation of Engineers Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) education is one of the most trending topics in the academic field. Schools are looking for different ways to integrate STEM programs into their curriculum, making it one of their top priorities. Engineering For Kids, a Fredericksburg, Virginia-based franchise offers a range of learning-based classes which includes after school programs, camps, evening classes, in-school field trips, workshops and even birthday parties! Not only do they focus on teaching engineering skills to young children, but also highlight the potential success the children can have in engineering fields in the future. GineersNow got the chance to interview Dori Roberts, the founder and CEO of Engineering For Kids.
The Woman Who Started It All My name is Dori Roberts, and I’m the founder and C.E.O. of Engineering For Kids. While I was born in Texas, I have lived in Northern Virginia since the age of fourteen and call it home. I was the middle of three siblings growing up, and I was very much a hands on kid. I always got satisfaction out of fixing things and putting things together. I remember helping my friends when they needed their bikes repaired or when my mom needed help repairing her sewing machine. My Mother was a stay at home Mom, and my father is an entrepreneur, owning several businesses in the field of construction.
I am married to an attorney and have two kids, ages thirteen and fifteen. My kids mean so much to me, and their passion for engineering helped inspire me to start Engineering For Kids. My son, Matthew wants to be a software engineer and loves our EFK Electronic Game Design, Robotics, and Minecraft camps. He is also a sports fan and has been playing baseball since the age of 4. My daughter loves science, specifically Biology and wants to combine her love of science and animals and someday be a large animal vet. She spends her free time riding horses and volunteering at a local Therapeutic Riding Program. As a family, we love family game nights, watching Survivor, going to sporting events and supporting our local Washington DC teams!
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Project Overview Prior to starting Engineering For Kids, I taught math, science, and engineering courses for eleven years. I earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Math and Science Elementary/ Middle School Education in 1997 and a Master of Science degree in Technology Education in 2000. While teaching at a local high school in Virginia, I began gathering students each year to compete in events in technology and engineering at the local, state, and national level. In 2007, I brought my then six-yearold son, Matthew, and eight-yearold daughter Kaley, along to a few of the competitions. Matthew and Kaley were mesmerized by all of the engineering projects created by my high school students. They wanted to compete too! After looking for Engineering clubs geared toward kids their age, I was surprised to find that there weren’t many offerings. This was a major “aha!” moment for me as it was the experience that inspired me to start an engineering education program for kids. When I asked Matthew if he knew what an engineer was, his response was one many children have: “someone who drives a train,” he chimed. Once I explained what engineers do, his response was a delighted, “Cool, I want to be an engineer!” Matthew and Kaley soon became the test subjects for my curriculum. Matthew and Kaley loved the projects and wanted more! This inspired me to teach an after school engineering class at their elementary school. I was surprised to find out how quickly the class filled up. The first class I offered was a Civil Engineering class in which the student built model bridges. The feedback from parents was overwhelmingly positive!
Shortly after, I started Engineering for Kids and began offering summer camps, birthday parties, after-school programs, and evening classes at local community centers and schools. At its core, Engineering For Kids brings science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM), to kids ages 4 to 14 in a fun and challenging way. We are proud to inspire children to build on their natural curiosity by teaching engineering concepts through hands-on learning. Engineering is, after all, one of the fastest growing industries in the world! One thing that sets our program apart is that we encourage parents to enroll their children in EFK programs as early as four years old. Between the ages of four to six, kids have not developed that “boys play with this, girls play with that” thought process. They do not yet know about stereotypes or gender roles, and if we can reach them at an age where do not have preconceived notions of gender roles, we can inspire them to continue their journeys in learning more about math and science. EFK offers a proprietary curriculum that is extremely diverse with many opportunities to learn S.T.E.M. through content and technology based programs. Some examples of content-based programs include aerospace, mechanical, environmental, civil and chemical engineering. Technology-based programs include robotics, electronic game design, software and hardware engineering. While other programs in our space focus on LEGO kits, students enrolled in EFK’s aerospace engineering programs design and build rockets, parachutes and lunar landers. Students enrolled in mechanical engineering programs design and build rollercoasters, sails and catapults.
Engineering For Kids Although Engineering For Kids basically started as an after school program, the company has since been franchised and boasts over a hundred locations internationally. I started running EFK out of my home in the summer of 2009, using local organizations like the YMCA to conduct programs in. We opened our first brick and mortar corporate location a year later, and two years after that we began franchising. The Engineering For Kids mission and vision has remained simple and unchanged since our inception. Our vision is engineering education for every child. Our mission is to provide fun and educational engineering programs to children to inspire them to pursue engineering careers. The availability of youth engineering education is so important because it shows children that an integrated, cooperative approach to learning from our failures is important to their education and the future success of our nation. Children are our future, and by giving them the tools and the passion for S.T.E.M., we equip them to not only develop fulfilling and successful careers, but set them up to find solutions for both the problems we struggle with today, and the ones we will encounter down the road. Having a positive company work culture is very important to me. Engineering activities are supposed to be fun, so I try to stress that attitude in all areas of the company. One way I do this is by setting aside time off for team building and small celebrations. We can never do it often enough but we try to get out of the office to celebrate birthdays or other evens to drive home the sense of community in the office. We have had costume contests, gone to a ropes course, played frisbee golf, laser tag, etc.
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The Organization Engineering For Kids is currently comprised of just under 150 locations and 1000 employees. Most of our owners come from a teaching or engineering background so I would consider them all engineers! As previously mentioned, I put a very strong emphasis on team building, as it really helps unite us as we try to make our vision a reality.
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Advice to the Young Engineer My main piece of advice is always to follow your heart and realize that your dream is your dream for a reason. If you feel led to dream it, why not make it a reality? It’s also important for young engineers to ask lots of questions and never stop learning. Fortunately, this comes naturally to most engineers as engineering at its core is all about challenging what you know and figuring out different ways to do things.
“HEART For the Young Engineer:
Follow your
and realize that YOUR
DREAM IS YOUR DREAM FOR A REASON.
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What is a Stemette? Stemette (n):
Inspiring UK’s Girls
to Join STEM
One Step at a Time by Cielo Panda Many people around the world have tried to find reasons why women don’t go into Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM), as well as find ways to combat this. Stemettes is a group of volunteers from the STEM industry who are doing what they can to combat the lack of women in STEM. They are an award-winning social enterprise who are inspiring the next generation of women into pursuing the fields of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics. In their 3 years of operations, 7,000 girls from the UK, Ireland, and other countries in Europe have already been inspired and became involved in STEMettes. According to their website, STEMette’s mission is “To inspire the next generation of females into Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths (STEM) fields by showing them the amazing women already in STEM via a series of panel events, hackathons, exhibitions, and mentoring schemes.” Anne-Marie Imafidon is the Head STEMette and cofounder of STEMettes. She has always been interested in business, maths and technology since she was a child. Some of her many achievements include passing two GCSEs (Mathematics & ICT) at the age of ten; holding the current world record for the youngest girl ever to pass A-level computing, which she got at the age of 11; a Guardian ‘Top 10 women in tech you need to know’; and being one of the youngest to be awarded a Masters’ degree in Mathematics and Computer Science by the University of Oxford, aged 20. She is also the co-founder of Outbox Incubator: The world’s first tech incubator for teenage girls.
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a female who has the capacity to go into one or more of the STEM fields
Advice for All Young Girls As a final piece of advice for all the young women who want to pursue the world of science, technology, engineering and math, here’s what Anne-Marie has to say: “Seek forgiveness, not permission. It’s really easy to say you might need permission to do this, or ask someone if it’s okay before you do stuff. A lot of this is exploration, so if you ask people—they say no. So it’s better for you to go out and explore and then say you’re sorry if it doesn’t work, because chances are it’s going to work if it’s something new that you’re discovering,” “It has done really well for me and the only thing I say is “you do make mistakes”, which is what a lot of teenage girls are worried about, if they’re going to mess things up or do something wrong or end up with failure. You’re going to fail, but failure is not the person—it’s what happened. A lot of great things have been made from a mistake. Your failure is definitely a good thing, so learn to learn from that and what you did to get that. So that’s my few main pieces of advice.”
Importance of Teaching Women STEM “It’s not teaching, it’s inspiring,” Anne-Marie told GineersNow. “In the UK, women and girls are taught alongside boys and men in schools. They’re all taught sciences and math and now they’re taught coding. And the importance of inspiring girls and imparting knowledge to make that choice is to actually increase the digital and technical worlds,” she added. According to Anne-Marie, if we’re going to be solving any problems, we need to see the bigger picture from different perspectives to be able to solve it. So we can’t rely on only one gender to solve these problems. We also can’t assume that all the knowledge and the skills for problem solving reside in men. “Fully, it comes into showing that even in the UK, girls outperform boys when it comes to knowledge and understanding science and math. So why would you not encourage, inspire or empower them [women] to explore that or discover new things or create new products or solve extra problems,” The head STEMette explained. “So it’s not just for the women, it’s for everyone, it’s in everyone’s interest that we empower women for this. We all have problems; we have problems with water, we have problems with pollution, we all have these social problems, all kinds of problems. And so we need the best brains and as many as we can to solve those problems.”
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Empowering Girls to Pursue STEM
Photo by Knight Foundation
“In middle school, 74% of girls express interest in Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM), but when choosing a college major, just 0.4% of high school girls select computer science.” Girls Who Code is a non-profit organization that believes in the importance of closing the gender gap in technology. They aim to inspire girls to pursue computer science. They engage web developers, engineers, executives and entrepreneurs to teach and empower the next generation. GineersNow interviewed Emily Reid, the Director of Education at Girls Who Code.
THE DIRECTOR OF EDUCATION GineersNow: Introduce yourself (where are you from? Your designation in the company, describe your family life & kids, growing up, and other personal things you wanted to share) Emily: My name is Emily Reid and I am the Director of Education at Girls Who Code. I grew up in Wallingford, CT, a small town about halfway between Boston and NYC. GN: How many years have you been working in your industry (tech, engineering, education)? Emily: I’ve been in the tech industry for over 7 years. I started my career as a cyber-security engineer at the MITRE Corporation, where I create courses on our security technology and developed a strong interest in education. I moved on to get a Masters in Computer Science at Columbia University while working at CU’s Teacher’s College, where I discovered Girls Who Code. I have been a fulltime director at Girls Who Code for about year and a half. GN: Tell us some personal stories that engineers will like to hear. Tell us what other people doesn’t know about you (trivia, interesting, funny stories). Emily: I was definitely not your typical tech geek growing up. I loved math and science, but I was also choir and theater geek. I was not the kid pulling apart computers and putting them back together. I ended up finding computer science and programming when I was in college, and it was an unlikely lesson that really hooked me: my first theoretical lecture on the Church-Turing thesis and lambda calculi.
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THE JOURNEY OF GIRLS WHO CODE GN: What is Girls Who Code? What does it do? Emily: Girls Who Code is a national nonprofit organization working to close the gender gap in the technology and engineering sectors. With support from public and private partners, Girls Who Code works to educate, inspire, and equip middle & high school girls with the skills and resources to pursue opportunities in computing fields. GN: How did the concept start? Describe the “Aha!” experience Emily: Our founder and CEO, Reshma Saujani, was running for Congress in 2011. She’d constantly visit schools and see classrooms of boys learning to code with the hope of being the next Steve Jobs or Mark Zuckerberg, but she rarely saw girls in those classrooms. Her question “Where are all the girls?” became an obsession that lead her to start Girls Who Code. GN: Describe your journey with the company… your experiences, struggles and achievements. Emily: I got started with Girls Who Code as a Summer Immersion Program teacher when I was finishing my Masters in Computer Science. It was a life-changing experience. The change that I saw in my class of 20 high school students over seven weeks, in terms of their confidence and their technical ability, was a change that personally took me years. As an Education Director, the biggest challenge in my role has been to create a curriculum that is scalable and accessible, and to build a team of amazing CS educators as the organization grows.
THE TRENDS IN CODING GN: Tell us about the recent changes, trends and forecast in your industry (Coding, STEM education, robotics, computer or technology).
GN: Why do women need coding? Emily: It’s not just women who need to learn how to code; everyone should learn to code. Using technology everyday but not being able to code is like being able to read but not able to write. GN: How big is the social impact? Can you provide a brief qualitative and quantitative data of your social impact? Emily: We have 10,000 alumni of our Summer Immersion and Clubs Programs. 90% of our Summer Immersion Program alumni have declared a major in computer science or a related discipline, and 77% had a different intended path before Girls Who Code. This is significant because the U.S. Department of Labor projects that by 2020, there will be 1.4 million computer specialist job openings. Currently, US universities are expected to produce enough graduates to fill 29% of those jobs. GN: Are there other important topics that you want to share? Emily: The White House recently announced its #CSForAll initiative, which is a program to give all students in our country the chance to learn CS in school. While this is a historic step, it’s not necessarily sufficient, as many girls and women in the computer science field choose not to stay because they feel isolated and unsupported in their pursuits. If we want girls to succeed in CS, we need to help them connect coding to their passions and create a support system of role models and mentors for them to keep at it.
WHAT GIRLS WHO CODE IS FOR GN: Are you an educational institution, social enterprise, non-profit or private company? Describe your company (structure, history, board or advisers) Emily: Girls Who Code is an education nonprofit organization with the support of public and private partners. GN: How big is your company? (number of manpower and locations) Emily: We have 45 full-time employees with offices in New York City and San Francisco. GN: Describe your mission, vision and values. Emily: Our goal is to debug the gender gap in technology and empower women to pursue their passions. Our vision is gender parity in computer science, period. GN: Where is this company headed? What’s your future expansion plans? Describe briefly your strategic goals (10 years to 20 years plan) Emily: We are creating the largest pipeline of female engineers in the US with the hope of teaching 1 million girls to code by 2020. Our #HireMe campaign is a partnership with top US companies who have pledged to hire girls from our programs.
Emily: Barack Obama has called for $4 billion to be spent on computer science education in 2017. This is a historic event to ensure that the supply for careers in computer science and engineering are met. Now, more than ever, there’s a need for Girls Who Code. As access to computer science expands, we need more role models than ever.
ADVICE TO ALL THE GIRLS GN: Please give advice and words of wisdom to our young global audience. What would you like to tell to the millennials and teens? Any inspiring words that you can share? Emily: “I thought we were going to be paired up with people of similar abilities.” That was what my Intro to Computer Science lab partner, Gerald, said to me, 10 minutes into my first ever CS lab. This phrase has stuck in my head for over a decade. As a student with no CS background and a big dose of doubt and isolation in a class of 20 boys, these words crushed me. I almost walked out right then and there, leaving computer science and my jerk of a lab partner in the dust. Today, I am a computer scientist and the director of curriculum at Girls Who Code. If I had listened to Gerald ten years ago, or my own internal naysayer, I would never have been able to say that. Learning to code – or learning any profession – takes persistence. It won’t always be easy and people will constantly challenge you, especially if you’re good. When you have those moments of selfdoubt and fear, remember that you’re not alone and by pushing forward you have the opportunity to become the role model that you wish you had.
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Ladies Learning Code Empowering Women (and Everyone Else) It all started with a tweet. Heather Payne, one of the organization’s founders, wanted to learn how to code on her own. As soon as she asked her friends who felt the same way like she did, she organized a workshop for an Introduction to JavaScript five years ago. The tickets to the said workshop was sold out and fast track to 2016, the organization that came to be, Ladies Learning Code, is on its way to becoming the “leading resource for women and youth to become passionate builders” in their community.
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What makes Ladies Learning Code, Toronto-based, a little extra special is its aim to provide learners of all ages to be given the opportunity to learn coding and “feel the joy and satisfaction of making something from scratch.” Get the chance to know more about Ladies Learning Code in this exclusive interview with Melissa Sariffodeen and Laura Plant, co-executive directors of the company.
THE EXECUTIVE DIRECTORS GN: Introduce yourself. Melissa Sariffodeen and Laura Plant we’re the Co-Executive Directors of Ladies Learning Code based in Toronto, Canada. We both started out as non-technical with backgrounds in business and HR but it was through our desire to learn critical technical skills that we started the organization. GN: How many years have you been working in your industry? We’ve been running Ladies Learning Code for 5 years this July!
LADIES LEARNING CODE GN: Who/What is Ladies Learning Code? What does it do? Ladies Learning Code is a not-for-profit organization with the mission to be the leading resource for women and youth to become passionate builders - not just consumers - of technology by learning technical skills in a hands-on, social, and collaborative way. From workshops to courses to camps, we offer our communities fun, accessible ways to learn about coding and other digital skills! GN: How did the concept started? Describe the “Aha!” experience Ladies Learning Code started with a tweet. One of our four founders, Heather Payne, knew there had to be a better way to learn to code than struggling on her own. She wasn’t the only one. So she took to Twitter and issued a call out to her community to see who else would be interested in coding workshops for women. The response was immediate and enthusiastic. The founding team - Heather Payne, Laura Plant, Melissa Sariffodeen and Breanna Hughes launched our first workshop, an Introduction to JavaScript, on August 6th, 2011 and tickets sold out in a day. So they planned another workshop. And another. Shortly after starting Ladies Learning Code, we realized that it wasn’t going to be enough. If we really wanted to have an impact on the number of women in tech, we would need to start younger. So, in early 2012, we launched Girls Learning Code, which offers workshops, camps and other events for 8- to 13-year-old girls. Hundreds of girls in Toronto have already participated in Girls Learning Code programs, and we’re now expanding the program to new cities. A year later, due to overwhelming demand from parents, we launched Kids Learning Code - co-ed workshops, camps and events for 8- to 13-year-old boys and girls. Most recently, we launched the code:mobile - Canada’s first coding truck that will drive across the country in the Summer of 2016 teaching kids to code. GN: Why do women need coding? Digital skills, which include coding, are powerful tools for building a thriving career that is both intellectually and financially rewarding. Even if you don’t use coding every day in your job, being able to speak that digital language and interact with others who do use technology in their every day roles will set you apart and help you progress in your career. Plus, as we said, it really is just another language! And the great thing about learning another language is that it helps expand your perspective and encourages you to think in new ways about the world. GN: How big is the social impact? Can you provide a brief qualitative and quantitative data of your social impact? Now, four years after being founded, Ladies Learning Code operates in 22+ cities across the country and has had over 25,000 learners attend one of our workshops. We have reached the point in our life as an organization where participants who started as learners coming to our programs -- both adults and youth -- have now become volunteer mentors and instructors. It’s really inspiring to see the community grow and mature in this way.
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WHAT LIES AHEAD GN: Are you an educational institution, social enterprise, non-profit or private company? Describe your company. We are a not-for-profit organization with a small core team of five people and we are supported by a volunteer board that includes leaders in the Canadian tech industry. Outside of our core team, we have a network of 50+ Chapter Leads who run workshops in their communities, as well as a large network of volunteers (including our amazing mentors and instructors!). GN: Describe your mission, vision and values. Our mission is to become the leading resource for women and youth seeking to learn the skills that will enable them to become passionate creators -- not just consumers -- of technology. We believe in imparting those skills in an environment that is is social and collaborative and that encourages hands-on learning. A big part of creating this environment is our 4:1 ratio of learners to volunteer mentors at every workshop. While the volunteer instructor leads the course, mentors work one-on-one with learners to help them when they get stuck and provide encouragement and feedback as they move through the workshop. We want our learners -- of all ages! -- to feel the joy and satisfaction of making something from scratch. GN: Where is this company headed? What’s your future expansion plans? Describe briefly your strategic goals (preferably your 10-20 years plan) Inspired by our mission to become the leading resource teaching women and youth to become passionate builders -not just consumers -- of the technology, Ladies Learning Code has a bold goal: to reach 200,000 learners by 2020. This includes the learners that we reach every year through our National Learn to Code Day initiative (September 26), where learners from coast to coast take part in simultaneous coding workshops! Additionally, we are currently piloting code:clubs, a coding education resource tool for educators, and we are about to hit the road with our code:mobile which is travelling across Canada over the summer of 2016 teaching thousands of youth how to code! GN: How many engineers, scientists and mathematicians do you have in your company? We have STEM professionals from all sorts of industries among our thousands of volunteers across Canada!
ADVICE TO ALL THE GIRLS GN: Please give advice and words of wisdom to our young global audience. What would you like to tell to the millennials and teens? Any inspiring words that you can share? Coding is a beautiful tool that can allow you to create anything you dream of and more. It’s not always easy and you’ll fail a lot along the way but building some from scratch and seeing it out in the world impacting the lives of others is really awesome and totally worth it.
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Fixing the Gender Gap in Engineering Faculty Hiring Since the rise of the fields in science, technology, engineering and mathematics, it has been a struggle to balance the opportunities in such fields between the male and the female. The male has always outnumbered the female – with this demographic, women keep on struggling because of the prejudice which hinders them to perform. Faculty hiring is no exception. A study presented at the peer-reviewed International World Wide Web Conference in Montreal, Canada showed that in the hiring of computer science tenure-track faculty members, only about 15% are women. Although the bias is not that blatant, the authors found that women involved in trainings are not given much attention which poses gender-associated differences in productivity, postdoctoral experience, and institutional prestige of degree-granting institutions. Brian Keegan, a research associate at the Harvard Business School and non-author of the study weighs in, “This is evidence that gender doesn’t stand by itself; it’s baked into all these other processes.” Efforts towards hiring more female faculty members in STEM seem to not work on its own as women remain in the small slice of the pie among faculty members and at the top levels of education. There is no quantitative and qualitative data to explain this imbalance yet, because it requires an in-depth study of the underlying reasons. It could be tricky, too, because of the variety of factors needed to be considered. The absence of the science in explaining this gender gap prohibits it to solve the problem. To change it to how it should be, we need to trace the real problems through the required. But definitely, for now, women’s involvement in graduate programs in STEM is a great start while data scientists are still figuring it all out.
Engineering Universities to Boost Recruitment of Women and Minorities
Photo by Townnews
Rice University is among the many engineering schools that have programs to recruit and advance women and other underrepresented students. Which is why Rice University stood out among Sydney Gibson’s—a Rice University bioengineering Ph.D. Student—list of grad school choices. As an African-American woman, she was impressed by the university’s efforts to recruit women into a mostly white male domain by utilizing social activities, mentoring opportunities and professional development programs. Now, women earn more than 3- percent of engineering graduate degrees in this university, compared to the national average which is around 23 percent. In the engineering field, women comprise only 15% of the workforce, while black, Hispanic and American Indian workers account for only 1 in 10. Last year, around 150 engineering deans pledged to create plans on how to boost recruitment and retention of underrepresented students and faculty. This will go a long way in encouraging students, especially women, to keep them committed to the progam.
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10 Popular Graduate Engineering Schools Filled with Women A report in 2015 from the National Science Foundation indicates that the portion of women in engineering has increased at all degree levels, but mostly at the master’s and doctoral levels. From 1993 to 2012, a significant increase of 142 per cent has occurred in the number of women earning master’s degrees in engineering. The University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill topped the list of the graduate engineering schools filled with women which earned a 60.7% of female students in their program during the fall of 2015, the highest in the US. It is way higher than the second highest which is the University of Texas Health Science Center-San Antonio with 41.5%. Here is the complete list of the 10 engineering schools with the highest percentage of women enrolled at the master’s and doctoral level in both full-time and part-time programs in the fall of 2015. Some unranked schools that didn’t meet the criteria were not included in this list. Photo by Georgetown
% OF FEMALE STUDENTS
TOTAL FEMALE GRAD STUDENTS
60.7
68
112
University of Texas Health Science Center-San Antonio
41.5
44
106
Santa Clara University (CA)
37.8
336
888
Tufts University (MA)
35.3
218
618
Tulane University (LA)
34.7
33
95
North Carolina A&T State University
34.1
143
419
Prairie View A&M University (TX)
33.5
58
173
Yale University (CT)
32.3
91
282
Duke University (Pratt) (NC)
32.1
342
1,067
Howard University (DC)
31.9
22
69
SCHOOL
University of North CarolinaChapel Hill
TOTAL GRAD ENROLLED
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Using the Gemasolar Thermosolar Plant as the Runway by Alice Hernandez A long straight stage can be a boring place for a model to show off her clothes. The clothes may be gorgeous but without an interesting background, the fashion show wouldn’t be very memorable for an industry that thrives on the ever-constant changes of the trends. So, this model wants her fashion show to be an event people would talk about – not just in the fashion industry but also to everyone who supports the green energy movement. Meet Jessica Minh Anh. She’s a model, entrepreneur and a fashion show producer, who transforms popular places into phenomenal catwalks. She has made catwalks out of places such as the Eiffel Tower, One World Trade Center, Petronas Twin Towers and Londons Tower Bridge. What an awesome way to make a mark in the fashion world. For her 10th year in making extravagant productions, she chose the famous Gemasolar Thermo-
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solar Plant in Seville, Spain. Who would have thought that this power plant can be made into an awesome cinematic backdrop for the J Summer Fashion Show 2015? Wearing a red flamenco dress, Minh Anh strut the catwalk located in the main road at the center of the power plant, followed by other models wearing maxi dresses. The show’s audience sat on both sides of the catwalk while drones flew around on top. These drones filmed the whole show and featured how the sunlight gives a stunning effect on the power plant’s surroundings. Thanks to Jessica Minh Anh’s catwalk stint last July 2015, it inspired
other people in the creative world to pay attention to green energy as well. In an interview, Minh Anh how Gemasolar inspired her to take her extravagant show to this power plant: “Gemasolar took my breath away. It represents a rare modern beauty, which sees the best of designs and sustainability efforts in one place. I would consider this show my most challenging yet exciting project so far.” With Minh Anh’s ambitious creative side, where will she take her fashion show next? Would it also involve the theme of renewable energy in her next projects?
All Photos by JModel Management
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BADASS WOMEN WITH CAREERS IN MOTORSPORTS 84
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Photo by Female Racing News
When it comes to fast cars, we usually associate it with men. A lot of people just don’t see women and cars mix - even more impossible for them to join any Grand Prix, right? But that’s where these people are wrong. Contrary to popular belief, a lot of women do love to play the game and Susie Wolff is here to inspire other women to do the same. Susie Wolff is the first woman to join in a Formula One weekend during the 2014 British Grand Prix in 22 years! While that is a remarkable feat for a driver like her, she’s had herself busy with a new organization. Working with British Motor Sports Association (MSA), they launched a non-profit group called “Dare To Be Different” that encourages women to join a career in motorsport. In a career dominated by men, launching the project may have been hard for her but surprisingly, 100 young school girls (8-12 years old) attended the event and participated in different events. These included workshops on diet and fitness, taking a spin in karts, playing challenges and learned a lesson or two about media guidance from Natalie Pinkham, a Sky F1 presenter. “The format of the day was basically for us to change perceptions slightly in getting girls to the kart track, the first time for most of them, then opening up every aspect of the sport, not just karting… It isn’t about getting young girls interested in motorsport, it is actually opening up the sport to them because motorsport is seen as something very inaccessible and if your family isn’t into, let’s say, motorsport, or your father isn’t mechanically minded or your mother isn’t, how do you then get introduced to the sport?”
In this project, Susie Wolff wants young girls to be encouraged to join the motorsport group of careers: “There are lots of women behind the scenes in F1 but do you know what the percentage is? It is very low. At Williams when I was in the simulator two out of six engineers I was working with were female but the percentage overall was below 8% and that is small. So as much as we all say our perception is there are lots of women, it is under 10% still so not a lot. I never dared to be different, I have just done what I was doing but the truth is we are in the sport and that is our perception. Everybody outside sees it in a different light and that is why, for me, we all haven’t dared to be different, but the perception for everyone else out there is that we have. So we have got to change that perception. We have got to spread the message and make sure that it is possible. For me, it is about taking some of the spotlight that I managed to gain, because Formula One is so much in the media, and shine it on other women.” Other women involved in this project included Alice Powell, Rachel Brookes, Clare Morden, Nathalie McGloin and Victoria Guppy - women actively participating in the field of motorsport. Victoria Guppy, the data engineer for Power Maxed Racing in the British Touring Car Championship even said: “Why have I dared to be different? My mother brought me up on her own, so I have always had the ethos that a female can do anything a male could. I’ve never seen myself as different, just going through life the way I want to and not letting what other people think get in my way.” Photo by NY Daily News
Photo by Deccan Chronicle
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3D MODELLING BOOBS TO FIND YOUR PERFECT BRA
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If you are having problems in finding the perfect bra for those irregular-shaped boobs of yours – the bra is either too loose or too tight – there’s no need to fret now because the answer is here: 3D-modelled boobs to make you a better bra. Yup! Because standard sizes of bras do not conform to most of the ladies’ breasts, 26-year-old Mona Zhang developed custom bras in her own company called Bra Theory – she even quit her job as a software engineer for it. She thought of extending the limits of bra fitting to the present variables, band measurement and cup size, and ventured to a more mathematical approach to bras. This is where the 3D-modelled boobs come in – she creates a 3D model based on a certain number of measurements to take of a bust or chest to figure out what shape that is. She then flattens it out into a bra that fits. Calling herself “Founder and Head Bra Engineer,” Zhang explained that three women could have the same cup size and band measurement, and yet breasts could still be positioned in three different ways across their chest. Differences in boobs are the core of this innovation, like being broad and far apart, or narrower and closer together. There’s also the saggy. The variations with breasts. Source: Bra Theory No breasts are perfectly symmetrical, a study says, which means that you can be a ‘rightie’ or a ‘leftie.’ The customized bras by Zhang will somehow help you deal with this body asymmetry. Who said boobs, bras, and math can’t mix? Definitely not Mona Zhang. Illustrations by Yo Props
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NATIONAL WOMEN IN E N G I N E E R I NG DAY
JUNE
23 The Launch of National Women in Engineering Day 2016 The first day of April marked the launch of the National Women in Engineering Day (NWED) 2016. It is an international awareness campaign to raise the profile of women in engineering and to highlight the career opportunities to girls in the field. NWED is celebrated annually on June 23 and now on its third year. The NWED this year is backed by Cummins, Prospects College of Advanced Technology, Yorkshire Water, the National Structural Integrity Research Centre (NSIRC), Sheffield Hallam University, University of Surrey, Elsevier, the Royal Academy of Engineering, FM Global, The Institution of Engineering and Technology and Building Engineering Services Association (BESA).
An important sub-theme activity of this year’s NWED includes the first 50 Women in Engineering List being coordinated by the Daily Telegraph. It will be announced on the celebration day, but nominations will be open in early April through the Women’s Engineering Society website. Moreover, there’s also the Sparxx campaign, to keep up with the NWED fever during the off-season of the events. It will serve as a support for those students who express an interest in STEM and keep them inspired at those months where NWED is not celebrated. For updates, check the NWED website.
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