Women in Engineering
Thinking outside the box Leslie Langnau • Senior Contributing Editor
“I’ve been told that it’s rare to find an engineer who loves ballet, but it’s more common than you’d think -- it just doesn’t fit the stereotype we were all raised with,” says Amanda French, co-founder and CEO of Emme, a healthcare company that is revolutionizing birth control. Amanda French was a 2016-2017 Innovation Fellow at the Stanford-Byers Center for Biodesign, where the idea for Emme was born out of contraceptive research. Prior to founding Emme, she developed breakthrough heart valve technology as an R&D engineer with Edwards Lifesciences, where she also held roles in program management, manufacturing, and marketing through the Technical Development Program. She also was on the team at Earlens that developed a revolutionary hearing aid which was recently honored as one of Time’s Best Inventions of 2020. While some people hold the stereotype that engineers are solely devoted to all things logical, French finds that her strong passion for the creative arts, including dance and musical theater, nicely balances her love of math and science. She did not become aware of engineering until late in high school. Initially, she was on a quest to find a career where she could help make a difference in people’s lives with math and science. It was while she was visiting prospective colleges, though, that she learned about the field of biomedical engineering. “And I immediately knew this was the right industry for me,” she says. “Engineering is the
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perfect balance of creativity with rigorous science, and I am so drawn to the impact technology can have on improving lives around the world. It is so rewarding to invent a new product and have the tools and skills to build it from scratch. I think the most fun aspect of engineering is to see the impact of the products I’ve designed on the lives of the people who are using them.” While there were engineers in her family, such as her grandfather, the lecture on biomedical engineering that she attended during that college visit was what really influenced her career choice. “The professor was teaching about haptic robotics and neural prosthetics, DESIGN WORLD
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