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WiE Newsletter - January 2022 - ISSUE 26
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Front and Center News from the DirectorYup, I mistyped the year a few times already, but other than that, the Center is ready to continue our focus in the new year! Among the exciting activities is the upcoming Edible Car Contest, as well as the next in our series of webinars on amazing SEAS Faculty - Professor Leila Farhadi, who will be discussing her space-based observations. Below are details on both events, not to be missed!
In clearing my desk, I found this notice from Professor Roddis, which I paraphrase: "I don't know why, but CE (sic Civil Engineering) has 21 incoming students for Fall 2021, with 4 males and - wait for it! 17 women." While the published information as early as 2013 noted the lack of women in the field, the recent study from the Institute of Civil Engineers noted a call for actions we have heard all along - more flexible work environments, addressing unconscious bias, and promoting diversity. Bottom line is, there is nothing in the literature to help us understand this happy problem. Could it be that when you go to our CE website for incoming students, you read about the social impact of civil engineering? What do you think might be the influence for this increase of women undergrads in our CEE department?
With best wishes for a safe, healthy and inspiring 2022!
Dr. Shelly Heller
WiE Center Director
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Interested in Space-Based Research?Join Prof. Leila Farhadi, CEE, for a fascinating look at applying space-based observations to understand water, energy and carbon cycles.
When: Thursday, January 27 @ 12 pm
The exchange of heat and moisture fluxes between the land surface and the atmospheric boundary layer drives the dynamics of terrestrial systems and also weather and climate in the atmospheric system.
Thus, their accurate modeling is of critical importance in a variety of geophysical and ecological applications that involve the land and atmospheric components of the earth system.
Join us for this upcoming WiE webinar, as Professor Farhadi discusses her interest in modeling land surface and land-atmosphere interaction and exchange processes, through utilizing innovative remote sensing, optimization and numerical modeling techniques.
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Deadline to apply: February 15, 2022
Contest date: February 24, 2022 - 5-7 pm
When WiE held the first Edible Car Contest in 2020, little did we realize it would be two years before we would be able to repeat it. In anticipation of continuing this exciting series during GW eWeek, the GW SEAS Center for Women in Engineering invites all GW engineering students to compete in teams for the best, most functional vehicle created entirely from edible ingredients. The event is expected to be held in person at SEH - stay tuned for updates.
Feel free to contact WiE at scwie@gwu.edu if you have questions.
View the Video! This 3-minute video of the WiE Edible Car Contest, which was held February 24, 2020, shows the fun event during which seven teams of engineering students chose edible ingredients, then designed and assembled their edible vehicles.
A panel of judges assessed the vehicles according to set measurements, edible ingredients and the ability to roll down a short ramp without breaking. In 2020, seven teams competed: The SWEet Tooth; Lightning McQueen: KaCHEW; Actually Monday (Winning Team); Soy Bois; Compressed Air; Precision Pliers; and Tombolo.
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Spring Semester - Mentors and Mentees InvitedAs the Spring Semester launches, students may find themselves in need of a mentor. WiE's Mentorship Program offers a great oopportunity to flexibly build a relationship with a GW alum - someone who relates to your specific engineering interests, or particular challenges you may be facing as a woman or minority. Our mentors have much to offer! Mentorships take on a life of their own, as the mentor-mentee pairs design their own engagement parameters - whether to communicate only virtually, or to meet occasionally; whether to make contact routinely on a weekly or monthly schedule, or only as needed; and of course, topics of discussion, as needed by the student.
Call for BME and CS MentorsThe program is putting out a special call for mentors who have studied Biomedical Engineering or Computer Science. We have received applications from several students in these disciplines and would like to match them up appropriately. Please click on the button below to apply.
Call for MAE MenteesIf you are a student in Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, please consider applying. We have a few excellent mentors waiting to be paired!
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What We Are Reading
Since I am writing this during our break, I’ve been reading more for entertainment than ever. My al-time favorite read so far from about 10 books is The Anomaly, by Herve Le Tellier. It’s hard to tell you much about the story without spoiling it for you, so suffice it to say there is a connection with engineering and computer science, maybe more than one, it is a page turner and the type of book you want to chat about with friends. I was especially challenged by the very end, so if you have a chance to check it out, let us know how you understood that part!
Moving to more serious reading, the Chronicle of Higher Education published a very interesting article about the challenges to associate professors. While we regularly provide mentoring and support for career advancement for assistant professors, we often award tenure and then "abandon" our newly promoted faculty. Calling them an endangered species, the article notes “these tenured professors find themselves burdened with extensive service and administrative tasks and with little guidance and few incentives to seek promotion.”
We need to acknowledge our dependence on associate professors to take on new and varied service roles while expanding their teaching and sustaining, or growing, their research. We are called upon to create new models of faculty development for these colleagues.
Speaking of associate professors, USC associate professor Dr. Julie Posselt and Alfred P. Sloan Foundation Program Director Dr. Lorelle L. Espinosa note the rising need for systemic change in our efforts to expand and continue to diversify the academic STEM community. Otherwise, they note, “efforts to remedy racism, sexism, and other forms of discrimination in the STEM fields will continue to occur at the margins, reinforcing the status quo. This is particularly true in STEM graduate education, where the next generation of scientists is socialized to norms, practices, and networks of knowledge production.”
Happy New Year! Resolve to mentor a student, or maybe even an associate professor!
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