Week of November 02, 2009
Building on its success in attracting young women to engineering, Cal State Long Beach’s (CSULB) College of Engineering will host its ninth annual engineering education conference, “Women Engineers @ the Beach,” on Friday, Nov. 6, at 9:30 a.m. in the campus’ Vivian Engineering Center (VEC).
The more than 130 middle and high school girls expected to attend this year will learn about the variety of disciplines involved in engineering and related sciences. The program’s long-term goal is to help increase the number of women in both academia and industry. Currently, women comprise less than 10 percent of the engineering workforce and represent less than 15 percent of the engineering student population.
Lily Gossage, director of engineering recruitment and retention for CSULB’s College of Engineering, has organized “Women Engineers @ the Beach” since 2001. She believes that aside from introducing young girls to engineering, the event also focuses on encouraging school counselors and teachers to promote engineering at their school sites.
“While there is much research that tells us that girls are just as capable as boys at succeeding in math- and science-based careers, opportunities for young girls to explore the mathematical-logical part of cognitive thought are limited,” said Gossage. “Socio-cultural issues and male and female expectations of career roles are barriers that often delay the discovery of the career until much later.”
Women Engineers @ the Beach, a biannual conference at Cal State Long Beach (CSULB), is designed to attract young girls to engineering. The program received the prestigious “Kimberly-Clark Outreach Event Award” on Oct. 17 by the National Society of Women Engineers (SWE).
Gossage also believes it is important to promote the social acceptance of young girls beginning early during the formative years when there is plenty of time for academic preparation. “It is important for parents, teachers and counselors to enforce the belief that engineering is also a woman’s world,” she said.
At the conference, students will be involved in hands-on activities in a variety of 45-minute workshops designed to teach them about engineering technology, human behavior-based product design, mechanical/robotics design and structural engineering.
A number of innovative and fun activities such as measuring concrete strength, building and testing student-built bridges, building generators and robotic training will enrich the students’ critical reasoning skills. CSULB student projects will also be on display, such as a formula-one race car, a concrete canoe and a steel bridge.
Also on display will be an off-road vehicle built by CSULB’s chapter of the Society of Automotive Engineers for the Mini Baja Project as well as an entry for the Intercollegiate MicroMouse Competition, which challenges students to build an autonomous robot designed to solve and run a maze in the shortest time.
The Californian schools participating in this year’s event are Holtville Middle School (Holtville), Kennedy Middle School (El Centro), Lakeside Middle School (Norwalk), Oxford Academy (Cypress), Seeley School (Seeley), St. Lucy School (Long Beach) and Westmorland Union Elementary School (Westmorland).
The students who will attend the conference this year were chosen for performing at grade-level or higher in mathematics. A large number of the students will also come from the schools’ Gifted and Talented Education (GATE) programs.
Industrial sponsorship at the conference will be provided by the Fluor Corp., which provides services on a global basis in the fields of engineering, procurement, construction, operations, maintenance and project management. CSULB's SWE chapter is also a sponsoring partner.
Like Gossage, Pannada Marayong, SWE faculty adviser, also believes that programs like Women Engineers @ The Beach are essential in attracting young women to engineering who may otherwise feel the industry is not suited for them. She also recognizes the importance of such programs in enabling girls to develop supportive relationships with working women engineers.
“It is immensely important for universities to provide outreach opportunities to attract more women into science and engineering,” said Marayong. “This should start as early as the middle school and continue all the way through high school. This is when kids start to explore their interests and their career paths. Unfortunately, many girls are discouraged about engineering because they perceive it as being ‘too technical’ and ‘unexciting.’”