Think Tank Summit explores engineering education, PLM, and human factor engineering

Benedict Bahner
ASME News Online

TORONTO — Participation in an engineering club called Nerd Girls at Tufts University gave Joanna Rucker, who graduated from the university this year, the confidence she needed to pursue her dream of being an engineer. But many schools have no such outlet for young women with an interest in engineering. In fact, a report released last year by the National Academies indicated that universities and their engineering departments are often biased against women, and that they actually discourage young women from engineering careers.

Joanna Rucker, a recent Tufts University graduate, gave her perspective of how women are treated in engineering schools during the Think Tank Summit at the Summer Annual Meeting last month.

The question of whether this bias really exists was explored during a 90-minute panel discussion —"Teaching Women Engineering: A Double Standard?" — during the ASME Think Tank Summit, held for the first time last month during the Society's Summer Annual Meeting here. The two-day summit, which received an overwhelmingly positive response from the audience and participants alike, also featured two other town hall-style discussions on "Fruits and Pitfalls of Product Lifecycle Management," and "Human Factor Engineering: Designing for the User."

"Teaching Women Engineering" panel member Ron Lasser of Tufts University

Members of the "Teaching Women Engineering" panel, which included Rucker and her professor from Tufts, Ron Lasser, generally agreed that there is indeed a bias against women in engineering education. And, according to Alice Agogino from the University of California, Berkeley, who provided a videotaped presentation for the session, this bias has resulted in a leveling off of the number of women pursuing engineering, physics, and computer science degrees.

"There are barriers," Agogino said. The report showed "there clearly was gender bias at all levels (of engineering education). Both men and women discriminate against women" at engineering schools. And that discrimination comes from not only the engineering teachers; it also comes from fellow students, she said.

John Falcioni (left), moderator of the "Teaching Women Engineering" session, and Patricia Campbell, panel member and co-author of the report "How Schools Shortchange Girls"

One barrier perpetuated by both male and female teachers and students is that engineering is not a "feminine" career choice. Panelist Patricia Campbell, co-author of the report "How Schools Shortchange Girls," noted, "We have our perceptions of what it means to be a man or a woman in our society. And there are consequences" in our society if women don't adhere to these stereotypes, she said.

To break these stereotypes and begin to attract more women to engineering programs, it is essential that universities weed out faculty who are discouraging women — and other minorities — from entering engineering programs, Campbell said. "If we know who these people are and do nothing, we're saying it's OK."

Carolyn Meyers, president of Norfolk State University (left and on the video screen at right), told the audience that curricula must be changed if engineering schools want to increase the number of women they enroll.

Another panelist, Norfolk State University President Carolyn Meyers, added that the engineering curriculum itself should be adjusted to appeal to young women. "We have to aggressively redesign our programs," she said. "We have to tweak our programs to make them more appealing to women."

University-sponsored activities like Nerd Girls, in which a group of female students tackle various engineering projects, seem to be doing just that. Lasser, a faculty advisor for the program, said Nerd Girls had a remarkable impact on fellow panel member Rucker. Although he described Rucker as timid when she first joined the club, being in an atmosphere that allowed her to be enthusiastic about engineering, Rucker "really became confident," Lasser said. "Her metamorphosis was incredible."

Michelle Tortolani, president-elect of the Society of Women Engineers

If engineering schools want to broaden their appeal to women, Lasser said it is crucial that they "provide a 'safe sandbox' " — a place where female students feel comfortable, even if they make mistakes in front of male classmates. "They need to feel that if they fail at something and a boy rolls his eyes, it's OK," Lasser said. "The more they fail, the more they're able to achieve. It's the only way to succeed."

Judy Vance, engineering design program director at the National Science Foundation, discusses human factor engineering during the third Think Tank Summit panel session.

The "Teaching Women Engineering" session also featured Michelle Tortolani, president-elect of the Society of Women Engineers, and was moderated by Mechanical Engineering magazine's editor-in-chief, John Falcioni. Board of Governors member Victoria Rockwell introduced the session, following a greeting by Past President Terry Shoup.

Don Norman of the Nielsen Norman Group and Northwestern University makes a point as he moderates the "Human Factor Engineering" session.

The Think Tank Summit session, "Fruits and Pitfalls of Product Lifecycle Management," moderated by Marc Halpern from Gartner Inc., featured panelists Walt Baxter, a principal scientist at Medtronic; David Kasik, a technical fellow at Boeing Corp.; Ken Kreafle, a general manager at Toyota Motor Engineering and Manufacturing North America; Ron Lasser, who also appeared on the "Teaching Women Engineering" panel; and Paul Murphy, director of engineering for Varian Semiconductor Equipment Associates.

The third session, "Human Factor Engineering: Designing for the User," was moderated by Don Norman, co-founder of the Nielsen Norman Group and a professor at Northwestern University. Members of the panel included Greg Jamieson, assistant professor at the University of Toronto; Ken Kreafle from Toyota; Judy Vance, a program director at the National Science Foundation; and Jeffrey Wilbert, an associate technical fellow of human systems engineering at Northrop Grumman.

Rick Chin, director of product and marketing at Solidworks, conducted a workshop innovative solutions to design challenges.

The program also included four workshops, covering topics related to PLM and human factors engineering. These workshops were led by Mark Strobel and Lance Murphy of Dassault Systèmes, and Rick Chin and Aaron Kelly of Solidworks. The Think Tank Summit was sponsored by Comsol, Dassault Systèmes, Solidworks, and Mechanical Engineering magazine.

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