Women in Engineering
Using engineering skills to make an impact Leslie Langnau • Senior Contributing Editor
For many women engineers, it’s the impact they find they can have on worldwide problems that either attracts them into engineering, or keeps them in it. Dr. Karen Panetta found that IEEE gave her exposure to worldwide engineering challenges that still keeps her enthusiastic about the field. “IEEE was my lifeline. It wasn’t my professional experiences that I would say helped groom me and prepare me for the realization of how impactful engineering could be. I could do more than just design CPUs, but that awareness came from my interactions with IEEE and all the amazing projects that I’ve worked on. Especially the projects that impacted humanity through technology. And such a realization resonates so much with young people and students, especially women. That’s the connection to engineering.” She’s worked on underwater drones, gone into quarries, helped firefighter’s use imaging technology, and is working on making rocket fuel from water. She’s also helped doctors investigate COVID through her image processing skills. “One of the biggest things I’ve learned is that not only do you need to understand what the problem is, you also need to understand the people you’re trying to solve the problem for. You can have an elegant solution, but if you don’t have that acceptance, it’s a waste. We find that when you use local materials that people understand, that the technology is less 136
October 2021 www.designworldonline.com
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10/19/21 8:24 AM
