Collection

2017 Gulf Southwest Section Conference

Authors

Sreedevi Ande P.E.

classroom environment.KeywordsSTEM, Women, Engineering, Soft skills, EducationIntroductionWomen are historically underrepresented in the STEM fields – specifically in the engineeringfields. As late as 2013 on average, one woman for every four men earned an undergraduateengineering degree and less than one out of those four women were from a historically minoritybackground1-9. Girls in Engineering, Math and Science (GEMS) Camp was funded and organizedby the Dean’s Office of the School of Mathematics, Science and Engineering at the University ofthe Incarnate Word. The camp was designed for the female students who were sophomores orjuniors at any San Antonio Independent School District high school, Incarnate Word HighSchool or St. Anthony Catholic

Collection

2017 Gulf Southwest Section Conference

Authors

Raj Desai

used to encourage brainstorming and help enhance creativity. This iswhy innovation, entrepreneurship, and leadership are critical skills for engineering students.Keywords – Projects, Innovation, Entrepreneurship, LeadershipIntroductionPractical innovative projects help students develop their portable skills. Portable skills are skills that cantransfer from one occupation to another, and from school to work. Both soft skills and hard skills helpencourage mobility of employees. This paper outlines the process for teaching these critical skills in ourclass “Introduction to Engineering.” The steps are idea generation, market research including stakeholderanalysis, evaluation, product design and development, product protection, and