Conference Session

1st Year Retention Programs for Women Students

Collection

2006 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Susan Donohue, University of Virginia; Carolyn Vallas, University of Virginia

Tagged Divisions

Women in Engineering

and Engineering (WISE) at peer institutions (see 4, 5, 6, 7, for example) wouldbe the vehicle for co-ordinating and implementing recruitment, retention, and support activitiesfor both undergraduate and graduate female engineering students. Establishing the Initiativewould give greater visibility to these activities, and the additional CDE staff would be dedicatedresources. Organizing current and planned activities and outreach projects also provides theopportunity to capture, quantify, and assess project performance in a systematic manner. Theability to evaluate project performance quantitatively is extremely critical to establishing thesuccess of the Initiative.One popular component of WIE and WISE programs is a seminar offering educational

Conference Session

K-12 Programs for Recruiting Women

Collection

2006 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Pat Pyke, Boise State University; Leandra Aburusa-Lete, Boise State University; Christa Budinoff, Visioneering LLC; Janet Callahan; Michael Luque, Boise School District; Cheryl Schrader, Boise State University; Michelle Taylor, Micron Technology, Inc.

Tagged Divisions

Women in Engineering

, media and marketing images may affect girls’ career choices in ways that steer girls indirections other than engineering. When planning the first-ever overnight engineering camp forhigh school girls hosted at Boise State University, the planning team decided to embracemarketing methods to create realistic images about engineering that are relevant to the lives ofgirls. The planning team represented a partnership among Micron Technology, the southwestIdaho Society of Women Engineers section, Boise public school staff, and Boise State Universityfaculty, staff and graduate students. The team defined four messages that formed the foundationfor curriculum development and communications with prospective participants: 1) Engineershelp the world; 2

Conference Session

1st Year Retention Programs for Women Students

Collection

2006 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Whitney Edmister, Virginia Tech; Amanda Martin, Virginia Tech; Bevlee Watford, Virginia Tech

Tagged Divisions

Women in Engineering

well as their continued efforts to be asuccessful engineering student at Virginia Tech. During class time, the students are exposed to anumber of different speakers and activities that focus on leadership from a number of differentperspectives. Opportunities are available for the students to organize and lead events, givingthem first hand experience with planning programs and taking charge of a team. As in the firstyear seminar class, this course is also built around the theme that learning is both an individualand a collaborative process. The course topics for the second-year seminar course are listed inTable 2.The second-year course objectives are: • To foster achievement in second-year engineering students; • To enhance personal

Conference Session

K-12 Programs for Recruiting Women

Collection

2006 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Firouzeh Keshmiri, Milwaukee School of Engineering; Ann Bloor, Milwaukee School of Engineering; Mary Jo Wellenstein, Milwaukee School of Engineering

Tagged Divisions

Women in Engineering

enteredthe pipeline. A vast array of programs, trainings and awareness events are being developed for Page 11.1453.4the following groups: - Middle school – instill interest in science and math - High school – encourage girls to continue math & science education, pursue STEM education in technical college and college - Technical college – support women’s science and math studies, encourage further education and job exploration - University – support women’s science and math studies, encourage further education and career planning - Leaders/adults (program leaders, parents, guidance counselors, etc.) – teach them

Conference Session

K-12 Programs for Recruiting Women

Collection

2006 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Karen White, Purdue University; Mara Wasburn, Purdue University

Tagged Divisions

Women in Engineering

over thepast decade to improve gender equity in STEM education and workforce. These programs seekto provide information and other support for women and girls, allowing them to make betterinformed decisions with respect to their educational activities and career planning.6,7 Given theproliferation of such efforts, some measurable effect on “entry and persistence” of women intothese professions should be expected. However, data do not indicate substantial gains.4,8The possibility exists that the apparent failure of these programs is due to a failure to implementor adopt them broadly. Teachers may lack the time to locate and evaluate additional resources toaddress such gender equity issues, or may lack the budget to adopt commercially

Conference Session

Women Faculty Issues and NSF's ADVANCE program

Collection

2006 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Lisa Aultman-Hall, University of Connecticut; Britt Holmen, University of Connecticut

Tagged Divisions

Women in Engineering

Engineering Leadership Institute (WELI), theSummit conference invited engineering stakeholders from academia, industry andprofessional societies to work collaboratively to develop action plans to increasethe number of women leaders in engineering. The Summit produced tenblueprints for actions that can be undertaken by different groups and these aredescribed in detail in the reference. The focus of this paper is dissemination ofthe different roles that (i) individuals, (ii) industry and academic organizations,and (iii) professional engineering societies can play to create a more genderequitable engineering profession, particularly realizing more women leaders inengineering academia.IntroductionGreater integration of women into the higher echelons of

Conference Session

Women Faculty Issues and NSF's ADVANCE program

Collection

2006 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Jana Renner Martinez, University of Texas-El Paso; Evelyn Posey, University of Texas-El Paso

Tagged Divisions

Women in Engineering

special emphasis on issuesaffecting women of color. These practices are shared through newsletters, fliers, the ADVANCEWeb site, and through presentation at national conferences, and publication in book chapters andjournals.In fall 2005, UTEP ADVANCE co-sponsored a workshop on conflict mediation in the Collegeof Engineering. An outcome of the workshop was the creation of a Faculty Advisory Council inthe college to address the feedback received form the college’s climate study, address policy thataffects faculty, and promote discussion of faculty concerns.During the second half of the grant, the ADVANCE team will facilitate the development ofdepartmental action plans that outline each department’s strategic plan to recruit and retain adiverse

Conference Session

Using Teams, Seminars & Research Opportunities for Retention

Collection

2006 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Christine Hailey, Utah State University

Tagged Divisions

Women in Engineering

freshmen and in Fall semester 2005 only femalestudents selected the course. The seminar was one credit hour, met once a week for an hour, andwas not required for any engineering major. Course goals were to: 1. provide a variety of speakers who share their knowledge and experience about the many career-options available in engineering, 2. provide information about internships from career placement and planning specialists, 3. discuss the ways in which women integrate their professional and personal lives, 4. provide information and strategies for the academic and interpersonal skills needed to succeed in engineering, 5. develop a community of learners among peers with similar academic and career goals.After completing

Conference Session

Using Teams, Seminars & Research Opportunities for Retention

Collection

2006 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Dawn Farver, University of Arkansas; Carol Gattis, University of Arkansas

Tagged Divisions

Women in Engineering

asked to fill out a brief questionnaire. To recruit freshman and transferwomen to the program, a representative spoke in each of the “Introduction to Engineering”classes for each department in the College of Engineering to inform them about the program andits benefits. An e-mail was also distributed to the women enrolled in these classes where they toowere asked to fill out a questionnaire if they were interested in the program. We are planning tooffer two more mentoring events through fall semester with more events to follow in springsemester. For next year, our goals are to recruit mentors throughout summer, contact incomingwomen in engineering students early by mail and e-mail, pair up students before the school yearstarts and have the first

Conference Session

Women & New Faculty Development

Collection

2006 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Julie Jessop, University of Iowa

Tagged Divisions

Women in Engineering

did not want to get anyone in atizzy unless it was a “sure” thing. However, in academia, where teaching schedules can bedrawn up a year in advance, this did cause some stress as the assignments had to be renegotiatedand rearranged among the faculty.Before arranging a meeting with your supervisor to negotiate the terms of your maternitypackage, develop a plan.7 Research and understand university and federal policies beforeentering into negotiations. Talk with other colleagues in the department, college, and universityto find out what they received and/or negotiated (make sure that they are discreet—you do notwant rumors to circulate before you have had a chance to share the news yourself). You may

Conference Session

K-12 Programs for Recruiting Women

Collection

2006 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Ann Beheler, Collin County Community College

Tagged Divisions

Women in Engineering

attractthe girls, parents, teachers, and counselors to attend the session, and, as is typical in education,marketing and advertising budgets are sparse. Fortunately, the CTC grant has established methods of communication with the middle-schools and high-schools of the region such that announcements for events such as “Girls are IT”can be widely distributed through electronic means, public media means such as newspapers, andthrough written invitations delivered to the educational institutions. Approximately twelveweeks before the event, grant office personnel meet with the Public Relations department atCollin County Community College to develop a marketing plan specifically for this instance of“Girls are IT.” Based on this meeting, a timeline

Conference Session

K-12 Programs for Recruiting Women

Collection

2006 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Emma Seiler, Mississippi State University

Tagged Divisions

Women in Engineering

of designing and building a prototype of a shoethat is sturdy, comfortable, and fashionable. They must try to “sell” their shoe to their fellowparticipants. Using this data, they must create a marketing plan and present it to a panel ofjudges.When not working on their project, participants visit each engineering department. Facultymembers give an overview of the department, usually followed by a tour of the labs or anactivity. For example, a visit to Aerospace Engineering would entail and overview of whataerospace engineers do and the tours of the wind tunnel and Raspet Flight Research Laboratory.Another example would include a visit to Chemical Engineering where the participants would

Conference Session

1st Year Retention Programs for Women Students

Collection

2006 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Rachelle Reisberg, Northeastern University; Amanda Funai, University of Michigan; Allison Interrante, Northeastern University; Sara Wadia-Fascetti, Northeastern University; Bala Maheswaran, Northeastern University

Tagged Divisions

Women in Engineering

Program during her senior year at Northeastern. She is currently a graduate student at the University of Michigan.Allison Interrante, Northeastern University Allison Interrante is a student in Civil and Environmental Engineering in the College of Engineering at Northeastern University. She has been involved in the Connections Physics Review Program for the past two years as a student-teacher. She plans to continue her studies as a graduate student in Civil Engineering.Sara Wadia-Fascetti, Northeastern University Sara Wadia-Fascetti is an Associate Professor of Civil Engineering at Northeastern University where she is actively involved in a research program on structural condition assessment

Conference Session

K-12 Programs for Recruiting Women

Collection

2006 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Jan DeWaters, Clarkson University; Susan Powers, Clarkson University; Mary Graham, Clarkson University

Tagged Divisions

Women in Engineering

plan includes a combination of quantitative and qualitativeinstruments to provide an in-depth understanding of the program’s impacts, this paper reportsfindings from the qualitative aspects of the program evaluation. The assessment has shown thatthe program improves participants’ understanding and appreciation of engineering problemsolving, increases the younger girls’ general understanding of engineering and the potential roleof women in engineering careers, provides leadership opportunities and opportunities forincreasing self confidence and self-efficacy, and provides positive role model and mentoringexperiences. Positive feedback from teachers and parents supports these findings. Commentsindicate that the 8th grade girls benefit from their

Conference Session

International and Sustainability Perspectives and Women in Engineering

Collection

2006 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Angela Bielefeldt, University of Colorado-Boulder

Tagged Divisions

Women in Engineering

undergraduate levels. Page 11.261.1© American Society for Engineering Education, 2006 Attracting Women to Engineering that Serves Developing CommunitiesAbstractThe University of Colorado at Boulder has created a program in Engineering for DevelopingCommunities (EDC). It is currently formalized as a graduate program within the Environmentalsub-discipline of Civil Engineering. Longer term plans are to create a certificate option forundergraduate students in the College of Engineering. In the meantime, a variety of courseshave included EDC-related content and projects. Service-learning and active

Conference Session

Women Faculty Issues and NSF's ADVANCE program

Collection

2006 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Cheryl Schrader, Boise State University; Janet Callahan; Amy Moll, Boise State University

Tagged Divisions

Women in Engineering

specific recruitment plans for women candidates and dual career couples 4 Cultural perceptions of “traditional” gender roles/lack of respect from colleagues, students and 5 parents Difficulty in finding mentors 5 Concerns about roles of women Ph.D.s in non-tenure track positions 6 Salary issues including inequity between departments and deviation from national rates 6Table 2: Results from Factor Finding SessionsAdditional themes which generated significant discussion were dual career couples, the lack oftransition opportunities between teaching or research tracks and tenure

Conference Session

International and Sustainability Perspectives and Women in Engineering

Collection

2006 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Nina Dahlmann, Technische Universitat Berlin, Inst. f. Mathematik; Sabina Jeschke, Technische Universitat Berlin, Inst. f. Mathematik; Christian Thomsen, Technische Universitat Berlin; Marc Wilke, Technische Universitat Berlin

Tagged Divisions

Women in Engineering

: oneaction-plan is characterized by the creation of additional choices and courses, the development ofan incentive system, etc. A second plan would rather address female interests and strengths inorder to turn them into door openers to an education in the natural and engineering sciences.In October 2004, the TU Berlin launched a program based on the second approach: GENESIS5.With the development of model-courses, the project GENESIS intends to not only convince morewomen to study engineering and natural sciences (and supervise them optimally within theirstudies from the beginning to the end), but furthermore tries to support universities in their effortto meet both the demands and needs of industry and science (which do not necessarily match).The

Conference Session

Using Teams, Seminars & Research Opportunities for Retention

Collection

2006 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Carolyn Vallas, University of Virginia; Anaïs Miodek, University of Virginia; Larry Richards, University of Virginia

Tagged Divisions

Women in Engineering

frequently madeavailable to undergraduates. While completing whatever technical training they require to workin the lab, participants create a plan of research with their mentors taking into account therelatively short, ten-week, time frame of the research experience. In this period the student musthave time to complete the planned research, analyze findings and write up their results. One ofthe stipulations is that the research be relevant to the faculty-mentor’s overall research goals sothat the student is involved in a meaningful way. During the course of their research, theparticipant meets regularly with their mentors which include the faculty member as well as withthe graduate students, post-doctoral researchers and even undergraduate

Conference Session

Women Faculty Issues and NSF's ADVANCE program

Collection

2006 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Barb Silver, University of Rhode Island; G. Boudreaux-Bartels, University of Rhode Island; Helen Mederer, University of Rhode Island; Lynn Pasquerella, University of Rhode Island; Joan Peckham, University of Rhode Island; Mercedes River-Hudec, University of Rhode Island; Karen Wishner, University of Rhode Island

Tagged Divisions

Women in Engineering

describing mentoring relationships. Participants discussed their experiencesand expectations, which were compared to research findings on mentoring, and generated manysuggestions.Several grant-related workshops have also been held. ADVANCE collaborated with the URIResearch Office in sponsoring a series of Grant Development Workshops geared toward juniorfaculty; these included sessions on Securing Funding, Collaborative Proposals, and GrantFunding. A Post-Award Grant Management Workshop is planned in the near future to provideconcrete advice for navigating the university bureaucracy once a grant is received.Monthly Writing Workshops, facilitated by a member of the ADVANCE leadership team, arealso being held. These provide a defined time set aside for

Conference Session

Climate Issues for Women Students

Collection

2006 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Elizabeth Creamer, Virginia Tech; Soyoung Lee, Virginia Tech; Peggy Meszaros

Tagged Divisions

Women in Engineering

Research As is typical for statistical procedures like multiple regression or path analysis, themajority of the variance in women’s interest and choice of a career in IT remains outside of theability of our conceptual model to explain. This was true for men as well. There are undoubtedlymany structural variables, such as cultural factors that support racial differences, genderstereotypes and gender based occupational segregation, as well as interactions that occur in theclassroom, that would add to the predictive power of the model were it possible to quantify it.Similarly, we have yet to investigate the relationship between performances in certain types ofcourse and course taking patterns to an interest in a career in IT. We plan to pursue

Conference Session

Women Faculty Issues and NSF's ADVANCE program

Collection

2006 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Catherine Pieronek, University of Notre Dame

Tagged Divisions

Women in Engineering

Page 11.1066.11benefit, service, plan or policy which such recipient administers, operates, offers, orparticipates.”19 This regulation appears to limit the requirement to treat pregnancy as a medicaldisability only in regard to the medical services and programs in which the educationalinstitution participates. Thus, a medical insurance policy offered to students cannot excludepregnancy. And although the regulations require that the educational institution treat anemployee’s or faculty member’s pregnancy the same as any other temporary medical disability“for all job related purposes,” with regard to students the regulations do not go beyond therequirement of equal treatment in medical services.19 Thus, the regulations appear to allow for

Conference Session

International and Sustainability Perspectives and Women in Engineering

Collection

2006 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Mike Murphy; Cecilia Chan, Dublin Institute of Technology

Tagged Divisions

Women in Engineering

will be set up in conjunction with WiSER DIT andstaff members. Experienced staff with a track record in research and attracting researchfunding will be trained as mentors for less experienced staff. This programme willestablish groups at three levels; final year undergraduate, postgraduate research andfaculty staff levels. The more senior staff will be active in a coaching and mentoring rolefor less experienced younger female staff and postgraduate students who in turn willmentor the undergraduates. In this way a tiered mentoring support system will ensure thatrelevant information and support is always available to the women researchers to helpthem plan their careers. The presence of such groups within an institution should act as avehicle to

Conference Session

Using Teams, Seminars & Research Opportunities for Retention

Collection

2006 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Harriet Hartman, Rowan University; Moshe Hartman, Retired

Tagged Divisions

Women in Engineering

Department of Sociology.IntroductionSince 2000, the Accrediting Board of Engineering and Technology has emphasized as one of its11 program outcomes in Criteria 3 the importance for engineering students to master “an abilityto function on multi-disciplinary teams”1 and hence the need to integrate teambuilding skills intothe undergraduate engineering curriculum. This need has arisen because of changes in theworkplace, which now develops engineers into specializations, and requires collaborationbetween specialists and with non-engineers for product planning, design, and completion.Cutting edge engineering programs integrate teambuilding skills and experience into theircurriculum (see, for example, www.foundationcoalition.org).As Rosser2 notes, there

Conference Session

Climate Issues for Women Students

Collection

2006 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Rose Mary Cordova-Wentling, University of Illinois-Urbana Champaign; Cristina Camacho, University of Illinois-Urbana Champaign

Tagged Divisions

Women in Engineering

%); and Less than high school,2 (2%).Of the 89 study participants, 67 (75%) indicated that they would choose engineering as a major,if they could choose their major again; 18 (20%) indicated that they would not chooseengineering as a major, if they could choose their major again; and 4 (5%) indicated they wereunsure. Of the 89 study participants, 18 (20%) were very satisfied with their overall experiencein their undergraduate engineering program; 58 (65%) were satisfied; 10 (11%) were neithersatisfied nor dissatisfied; 3 (3%) were dissatisfied, and none were very dissatisfied. The studyparticipants’ plans after graduation included: Having accepted a job and were going to beworking in a job related to engineering, 36 (40%); Attending graduate