STEM pipeline: Girls in Engineering
Hugging a towel-folding robot at Girls in Engineering summer camp. (Photo by Matt Beardsley)
This summer, the college launched an outreach program for middle-school girls designed to bring engineering to life and inspire the girls to pursue an education in STEM fields. Led by women faculty and graduate students, the camp was also designed to instill the confidence needed to master both the hard and soft skills required of engineering leaders. Offered free to students from five East Bay schools, the summer camps were part of the college’s commitment to increasing the ranks of women in technology. Research shows that by high school age, many girls have already dismissed the potential of careers in engineering.
Supported by grants from the National Science Foundation, General Electric and the Peggy and Jack Baskin Foundation, two weeklong sessions included hands-on projects in nanotechnology, robotics, optics and more, as well as field trips to nearby Pixar Animation Studios and Lawrence Hall of Science.