Project Reliability

WE-GIRLS: Women in Electrical Engineering

Background
According to the National Council for Research on Women (NCRW), women constitute 45% of the workforce in the U.S., but hold only 12% of science and engineering jobs in business and industry. This situation is expected to get worse because, according to the U.S. Labor Statistics, more than 75% of tomorrow’s jobs will require use of computers, while fewer than 33% of participants in computer courses and related activities are women. Among all engineering fields, electrical engineering has one of the largest gender gaps. That is, the women’s representation in electrical and computer engineering fields is only 10% compared to for example 35% in chemical engineering.

Overview
This Summer Camp for girls enrolled in grades 6-8 aims at improving the situation of women in electrical engineering. The participants are recruited from schools in the Milwaukee area. The camp runs for a week and contains hands-on activities that focus on electrical and computer engineering topics. During a typical day in this program, students will attend class discussions, perform hands-on activities and projects, meet women students in the Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE) Department, listen to various speakers, and tour research labs. Current women professors from Marquette University will be invited to talk and serve as role-models about empowering women in science. The goal is that by exposing women students to electrical engineering at an earlier age they will become more excited about pursuing electrical engineering and more confident in their math, science, and problem-solving skills. The camp is created and organized by Cristinel Ababei, assistant professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering with the initial generous financial support from the National Science Foundation (NSF). Logistics and other support is kindly provided by the Engineering Academies of the OPUS College of Engineering at Marquette University.

Summer 2017 - Edition #4: WE-GIRLS

The fourth edition of the WE-GIRLS summer camp will take place during four days on June 19-22 (Mon-Thu) 2017, 9AM-1PM in the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department at Marquette University. This edition will accommodate 12 participants. Participation cost is $125. The address where the camp activities will take place is:

Dept. of Electrical and Computer Engineering
Marquette University
Haggerty Hall, Room 388
1515 W. Wisconsin Ave., Milwaukee, WI 53233

Below is the tentative schedule (this is subject to change).

Day 1: Monday June.19.2017	Day 2: Tuesday June.20.2017	Day 3: Wednesday June.21.2017	Day 4: Thursday June.22.2017
Entry questionnaire Tour of ECE department What is a microcontroller? Intro to development board and programming in C Project 1: Blink LED* Project 2: Control patterns - array of LEDs Guest: Prof. Jennifer Bonniwell (MSOE) Assistant: Maggie	Project 3: 7-segment LED dice Visit: Haggerty Museum Assistant: Maggie	Project 4: Tune player Guest: Prof. Chandana Tamma (Marquette) Visit: Chadnow Museum of Yesteryear Assistant: Maggie	Project 5: Lie detector Photo shoot: Group photos Movie day! Exit questionnaire Assistant: Maggie

*These projects are adapted/simplified versions of projects presented in "Simon Monk, 30 Arduino Projects for the Evil Genius, McGraw Hill, 2010".
If interested to participate, please contact: Cristinel Ababei by email: cristinel DOT ababei AT marquette DOT edu or by phone: 414-288-5720.

Photos
Here are some photos of the 2017 participants:

Photo shoot.	With Maggie.	With Cris.
Hard at work.	With Prof. Chandana Tamma, Marquette University.	Visiting the Haggerty Museum of Art.
Visiting the Chadnow Museum of Yesteryear.	Visiting the Chadnow Museum of Yesteryear.

Summer 2016 - Edition #3: WE-GIRLS

The third edition of the WE-GIRLS summer camp will take place during four days on June 13-16 (Mon-Thu) 2016, 9AM-1PM in the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department at Marquette University. This third edition will accommodate 12 participants. Participation cost is $50 (to cover snacks and lunch). The address where the camp activities will take place is:

Dept. of Electrical and Computer Engineering
Marquette University
Haggerty Hall, Room 388
1515 W. Wisconsin Ave., Milwaukee, WI 53233

Below is the tentative schedule (this is subject to change).

Day 1: Monday June.13.2016	Day 2: Tuesday June.14.2016	Day 3: Wednesday June.15.2016	Day 4: Thursday June.16.2016
Entry questionnaire Tour of ECE department What is a microcontroller? Intro to development board and programming in C Project 1: Blink LED* Project 2: Control patterns - array of LEDs Assistant(s): Colleen Dunlap and Kristina Tatsanaram	Project 3: 7-segment LED dice Guest: Prof. Debbie Perouli (of Dept. of MSCS, Marquette) Visit: Haggerty Museum Assistant(s): Colleen Dunlap and Kristina Tatsanaram	Project 4: Tune player Photo shoot: Group photos Guest: Prof. Jennifer Bonniwell (of Dept. of ECE, MSOE) Visit: Harley-Davidson Museum Assistant(s): Colleen Dunlap and Kristina Tatsanaram	Project 5: Lie detector Tentative guest: Prof. Taly Gilat-Schmidt (Dept. of Biomedical Engr., Marquette) Movie day! Exit questionnaire Assistant(s): Colleen Dunlap and Kristina Tatsanaram

WE-GIRLS participants with Kristina T. and Colleen D. in front of the New Engineering Building.	With Colleen D.	With Kristina T.
With Prof. Jennifer Bonniwell (of MSOE), recent PhD from ECE Department, Marquette University.	With Prof. Debbie Perouli of MSCS, Marquette University.	Coming up with questions to be used for the lie detector.
Listening.	Visiting the Harley-Davidson museum.	Proof that Cris was there too :).

Summer 2015 - Edition #2: WE-GIRLS

The second edition of the WE-GIRLS summer camp will take place during the week of June 22-26 2015, 9AM-1PM in the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department at Marquette University. Participation cost is $60 (to cover snacks and lunch). The address where the camp activities will take place is:

Dept. of Electrical and Computer Engineering
Marquette University
Haggerty Hall, Room 388
1515 W. Wisconsin Ave., Milwaukee, WI 53233

Below is the tentative schedule.

Day 1 June 22 2015	Day 2 June 23 2015	Day 3 June 24 2015	Day 4 June 25 2015	Day 5 June 26 2015
Entry questionnaire Tour of ECE department What is a microcontroller? Intro to development board and programming in C Project 1: Blink LED* Outdoor physical activity Assistant(s): Sara Knox	Project 2: Control patterns - array of LEDs Guest1: Laura Lindemann (of Marquette) Guest2: Jen Black (of GE) Outdoor physical activity Assistant(s): Sara Knox	Project 3: 7-segment LED dice Photo shoot: Group photos Outdoor physical activity Assistant(s): Sara Knox, Britt Ahlgrim	Project 4: Tune player Visit: Prof. Rong Ge Lab Outdoor physical activity Assistant(s): Sara Knox, Jennifer Bonniwell	Project 5: Lie detector Visit: Prof. Taly Gilat-Schmidt Lab Exit questionnaire Outdoor physical activity Assistant(s): Sara Knox, Jennifer Bonniwell

WE-GIRLS participants with Cristinel Ababei (holding the exclamation sign) and Britt Ahlgrim (engineering student) in front of the Dept. of Electrical and Computer Engineering.	With Sara Knox and Britt Ahlgrim (engineering students).	With Sara Knox and Britt Ahlgrim in front of the new Engineering Hall.
WE-GIRLS!	Jennifer Bonniwell (current ECE graduate student) helps one of the WE-GIRLS participants test the electronic die.	Electronic die project.
Working on the tune player project.	With Prof. Susan Schneider.	With Prof. Taly Gilat-Schmidt.
With Prof. Chandana Tamma.

Summer 2012 - Edition #1: WEE-GIRLS

The first edition of the Summer Camp will take place during the week of July 9-13 2012, 9AM-1PM in the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department at North Dakota State University. The address is:

1411 Centennial Blvd.
Electrical and Computer Engineering Department
North Dakota State University
Fargo, ND 58102.

Below is the tentative schedule.
NOTE: Participation is free (though students must bring their own lunch) and acceptance is based on eligibility (girls grades 6-8 from Fargo area schools) and done on a first-come basis.

Day 1 July 9 2012	Day 2 July 10 2012	Day 3 July 11 2012	Day 4 July 12 2012	Day 5 July 13 2012
Entry questionnaire Tour of ECE department What is a microcontroller? Intro to development board and programming in C Project 1: Blink LED* Outdoor physical activity Assistant: TBD	Project 2: Control patterns - array of LEDs Tour: Phoenix International (direct walk, arrival at 10:00AM) Outdoor physical activity Assistant: TBD	Photo shoot: Group photos Project 3: 7-segment LED dice FORWARD faculty member presentation (visit to Prof. Kalpana Katti's lab) Outdoor physical activity Assistant: Nancy R.	Project 4: Tune player Tour: Packet Digital (travel by public bus, arrival at 11:00AM) Outdoor physical activity Assistant: Whitney C.	Tour: Appareo Systems (direct walk, arrival at 9:00AM) Project 5: Lie detector Exit questionnaire Outdoor physical activity Assistant: Courtney B.

*These projects are adapted/simplified versions of projects presented in "Simon Monk, 30 Arduino Projects for the Evil Genius, McGraw Hill, 2010".
If interested to participate, please contact: Cristinel Ababei by email: cristinel DOT ababei AT ndsu DOT edu or by phone: 701-231-7617.

Here are some photos of the 2012 participants:

WEE-GIRLS participants with Cristinel Ababei (holding the letter "G") in front of the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering.	WEE-GIRLS participants listening to a presentation of Prof. Kalpana Katti on nano-materials research.	The "space-ship" building.
WEE-GIRLS participants with Whitney (recent ECE graduate).	WEE-GIRLS participants with Courtney (current ECE student).

Results
Exit questionnaire responses (2012) - three out of six participants said that (with a score of 4/5) they wanted to become electrical engineers:
2012 results
wee-girls