Envision Engineering - Women Engineers Forum at the Women at Work Museum

Dr. Karen Panetta, Associate Professor of Electrical Engineering, Tufts University served on a panel of women engineers from Raytheon, Hasbro and Pathfinder discussed their career choices, challenges and opportunities as well as gave advice for young women interested in pursuing a career in engineering.  Museum President Nancy Young stated “We are very excited and honored to bring this unique program and accomplished women to our community.  This event further underscores our mission to bring Math, Science, Engineering and Technology enrichment to our local youth.  It is not too early to plan for a career in these fields.” This program was geared to students ages 10 and older. Nearly 50 people, mostly teen girls listened to several extraordinary women talk about their career journey as engineers.

Dr. Panetta is a founder of a program at Tufts called Nerd Girls.  She began the innovative program to give the female engineers an opportunity to work together on special projects.  In recent years, the girls have built a full-size solar car that is “street legal” and also turned the light back on in a lighthouse.  In her presentation, Dr. Panetta stressed the varied interests of the girls in the program, saying that although they are all engineering students, they also have other interests such as dance, art and music, which shows that the stereotypical engineer with the calculator and pocket protector couldn’t be further from reality for these young women. 

2004-forum.jpgA 1999 graduate and Nerd Girl, Allison Bedwinek, joined the panel and told the audience that oftentimes male students ask to join the group and are invited in, but the guys have drawn the line at the trademark pink shirts, opting for white instead.  Bedwinek graduated with a degree in mechanical engineering and currently works for a Raynham company where she worked in Research and Development and will be focusing on neurosurgery medical instruments and implants.

Helena Willis also graduated with a degree in mechanical engineering and currently is the Director of Engineering for boys’ toys at Hasbro.  Willis brought some samples of toys with her to show the different types of engineering that goes into making and packaging a single toy.

Software engineer Carolyn Duby, a Brown University graduate, told the girls that her title is “fellow,” an odd title for a woman, but one that more women are receiving as a recognition of their high level of expertise in an area. She encouraged the girls not to be afraid of failure because “some of the greatest inventors failed over and over before perfecting their inventions.”

Melding fashion and machinery, mechanical engineer Kathleen Morris explained how inventions come to be by giving her version of the history of the clothes hanger.  With the aid of antique dresses, Morris showed how clothes hangers changed and developed over time and how fashion has influenced items that today we take for granted.  The underlying message was about looking at a problem or an inconvenience and being creative in how the problem can be solved, oftentimes in a simple way.

Beth Wilson received a Ph.D. from the University of Rhode Island and has worked at Raytheon since 1983 in varying positions such as design engineer, manager, researcher, scientist, function manager, test director on sonar, satellite and radar programs. Wilson pointed to a little black box on a cord around her neck and explained that it was a directional microphone which worked in conjunction with a hearing aid.  She was born with a hearing loss.  She told the audience that she remembers watching the first moon landing and asking her mother if the scientists could make her a hearing aid since they could bring a man to the moon.  Her mother told her that they could, but that all of the scientists were more interested in putting a man on the moon.  It proved to be a defining moment for Wilson because she said that it was clearly at that moment that she decided to be a scientist herself.

Each of these women talked about the encouragement they received from a parent or guidance councilor and many noted that their chosen path was not always easy. Kathleen Morris recalled being asked to leave the first class she took at Northeastern University because the professor didn't expect any women and she assumed she was in the wrong place. But things have changed, she went on to say, because her step-daughter, Marina Musicus, a sophomore at Carnegie Mellon University double majoring in Mechanical and Biomedical Engineering, is finding plenty of other young women in her classes, although women are still in the minority.   One thing hasn’t changed, though, as Marina and the Nerd Girls will attest, these bright young women still like to take on a challenge.