Local Students Introduced to Engineering at MITRE

February 2012

Among the activities at the Young Women in Engineering event was this demonstration, led by MITRE employees Isaac Dekine (left) and David Mabius (right), of radar fundamentals using an inexpensive, table-top radar designed for teaching purposes (hence the coffee cans being used as antennas).

They sat at round tables covered in bright table cloths, talking, laughing, and listening. High school students in hooded sweatshirts and letter jackets. MITRE engineers in suits and sweaters. All had one thing in common: a belief that women can make an impact through a career in engineering.

For the third straight year, MITRE hosted a Young Women in Engineering workshop. From 12 local schools, 35 girls in grades 8 through 12 visited MITRE's Bedford, Mass., campus on Friday, Nov. 4 to learn more about a career in engineering and to receive advice on how to pursue such a career. The event's agenda included an opening presentation, three workshops, a panel discussion, and a group mentoring session.

Abigail Gertner, an artificial intelligence engineer in the Cognitive Tools and Data Management department, began organizing the Bedford Young Women in Engineering workshop after she read a company news article about a similar event on MITRE's McLean, VA, campus. "Our goal with this workshop is to raise awareness of what a career in engineering is about," she said.

Jaclyn Hayes and Shaylynn McGrory, both seniors at Bedford High School, heard about the workshop in their engineering class, where they are learning how to design, build, and prototype products. "I've always liked math and science," said McGrory, "so engineering seems like a natural career choice."

"And I've always liked taking stuff apart and putting it back together again," said Hayes. "So when I found out that's what engineering involves, I became interested in it as a career."

The students started their day with breakfast. Kim Warren, technical director for MITRE's Center for Transforming Health, welcomed the students and shared with them her career path from promising high school art student to MITRE director. By pointing out how seamlessly she was able to translate her passion for drawing to her passion for engineering, Warren showed how engineering is a broad enough field to encompass all interests. "All you need to do to succeed in engineering is be yourself, be confident, and do what you love," she said.

The students then broke into groups to attend three demonstrations. The Collaborative Lab Demo, led by Julia McHugh, Steve Cunha, and Marie Francesca in the Agile Capability Mashup Environment (ACME) Lab, introduced the students to the Collaborative Storytelling Development Kit, which they used to brainstorm ideas on technology.

Meredith Keybl, Justin Richer, Amanda Anganes, Jenifer Mathieu, and Paula Mahoney led the Modeling and Simulation Demo. It introduced students to the Emergency Response Experiment Network, which they used to simulate an influenza pandemic and model effective quarantine responses.

The Radar Demo, led by Glenn Meurer, Robert Davis, Brett Bishop, K.C. Kerby Patel, and Isaac Dekine, introduced the students to Doppler and range radars. They tracked the speed of passing bicyclists and the location of trucks clearing brush from the quad.

After the demonstrations, the students went to lunch and heard a panel discussion about careers in engineering. The panelists—Janet Werth, Marie Francesca, Amanda Anganes, Meredith Keybl, and K.C. Kerby Patel—discussed their careers and fielded questions. "I've received a lot of help in my career, and I want to give it back," said Patel about volunteering to serve on the panel and help run the radar demo.

Panel members and others then joined the students at their tables for a networking session, where the students could engage in more personal conversations about a career in engineering.

"I didn't know there were so many different kinds of engineers, that you could move around between fields, and that engineers from the different fields collaborate so closely," said Zuleyma Velez, a senior at Tewksbury Memorial High School.

Her classmate Rebecca Davies added, "The workshop helps you gain insight into what engineers do, even if you don't know for sure what you want to do yourself."

—by Christopher Lockheardt

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