Prof. Janet Pan shares with the girls how she became interested in engineering
| "Introduce a Girl
to Engineering Day" Fifty 7th to 10th grade girls from ten area public and private schools toured Engineering labs, interacted with students and faculty, watched robots perform, constructed towers from spaghetti and marshmallows, and had lunch with the Provost of Yale University Thursday, February 27, 2003. The purpose of the "Day" was to have the girls meet young women and men who enjoy engineering, to show where engineering is done, and to impress on the girls that taking math and science courses in school will enable them later to go into engineering. Dean Paul Fleury welcomed the visitors and Provost Susan Hockfield and women faculty members joined them at the lunch. Monisha Merchant, SOM, initiated and coordinated the event together with the Yale Committee of Women in Engineering (undergraduates, graduate student, and Prof. Janet Pan, EE). The resource person for the event was Mrs. Jane Boone, Coordinator for Educational Affairs in Engineering. |
Prof. Janet Pan shares with the girls how she became interested in
engineering
Part of the audience, including teachers
Prof.
Duncan explains brain imaging
The brain, seen from the back of the classroom
The 7th and 8th graders begin planning how to build a tower of uncooked
spaghetti and
baby marshmallows.
The teams will feverishly try different ways of working on their tower until
they hit
on a way that works for them (some groups will work as a team; in others a
leader
will emerge and direct the participation of others). The purpose of the activity
is not
really to build a tower but to show the participants the importance of communication,
teamwork, and dividing up the tasks to
solve the problem at hand.
Same objective, different group
and still another...
thinking about it...
considering possibilities...
In
the meantime, the 9th and 10th graders listen to a panel discussion by various
engineering majors
Engrossed
A teacher, left, asks the first question
While
back at the tower-building, Monisha Merchant,
School of Management who suggested the "Day"
and was its main coordinator, lends a hand
New Haven Register
photographer taking notes
Students flock around a teacher, asking about what they have heard and
seen
Graduate student Tom Boone explains how materials called semiconductors
can emit light in different colors and make possible laser pointers and
large video displays in stadium and in Time Square in New York
Using
hand-held spectrometers, the students thrill to the array of colors emitted from
a white
light source
The visitors also saw what they would need to learn to make robot cars follow a
black
line (Prof. Peter Kindlmann, Prof. Janet Pan, and Mr. Edward Jackson), how microelectronics
and optoelectronics have changed our lives (Yanning Sun, Ph.D. candidate, and
Abigail Lubow,
graduate student), how engineers can make us see things that are
not there (Melissa Koudelka,
Ph.D. candidate), why engineers could design cars
that use less gas and pollute less (Barbara
La Mantia, Ph.D. candidate).
Prof. Roman Kuc shows how robots can decide on their own
how to avoid obstacles
Time for a break
A teacher, background, shares her insights
Prof. Janet Pan, EE, Dr. Beth Anne Bennett, ME, and Prof. Ainisha Ramirez,
ME
"What did you think about...."
In the background, a teacher talks with graduate students who served as guides
Prof. Janet Pan, member of the Yale Committee of Women in Engineering,
introduces Yale Provost Susan Hockfield, a neurobiologist
\
The Provost speaks of how much joy she gets from science
Provost Hockfield listening to a students opinion
Director
of the Mechanical Design Studio and Lecturer Glenn Weston-Murphy shows how
undergraduates can design on object on
the computer and then print it out as a three-
dimensional thing that you can hold in your hand
Ms. Natalie Jeremijenko and one of her robot "feral dogs" designed to
explore poisoned areas too dangerous for humans
Girls
who grow up to be engineers and scientists are great company!
Ms. Natalie Jeremijenko, ME, Prof. Ainissa Ramirez, ME, Prof. Janet Pan, EE,
Provost Susan Hockfield, and Dr. Beth Anne Bennett, ME.