Women in Engineering Design Their Own Future

On March 16, the 2019, Silicon Valley Women in Engineering Conference created a safe and comfortable space at the San Jose State Student Union for women in engineering.

“Looking at so many women here today in one room makes me hopeful,” Julie Bao, a computer engineering senior and the president of Society of Women Engineers at SJSU said.

During her university orientation five years ago, Bao walked into a room where freshmen were grouped by majors. “In computer engineering, there was only one other girl. And I was like, oh, okay, that’s my friend,” Bao said, “Honestly, I didn’t know about the gender gap going to engineering. That was kind of an eye-opener.”

Her personal experience, being the only female in a class of about 50 students or in a meeting room during work, is the common experience that these engineering women share.

This conference gathered together 100 acclaimed female technologists from Silicon Valley with more than 450 female engineering and computer science students from 29 campuses throughout California. These women talked about their careers and future, shared experience with their peers and formed networks to support each other in the male-dominated engineering field.

“The power in this room is amazing,” said Michelle Bockman, GM and global head of Automotive & High Value Applications, 3D Printing & Digital Manufacturing at HP Inc. During her morning plenary address, she told the young engineering female students, “Find your confidence, raise your hand, because your time is now.”

“Design Your Future” is the theme of the WiE Conference this year. In the one-day conference, there were different tracks and sessions with a total of three keynotes and 22 breakout sessions.

“Engineering is all about solving problems, finding its pain points,” Bockman said.

The sessions of the conference addressed topics such as emerging technologies for a better environment and living, increasing productivity, and improving health, as well as professional development and exploring engineering careers

“It has been said that women hold up half the sky,” said Sheryl H. Ehrman, the Don Beall Dean of Charles W. College of Engineering at SJSU.

She said that women contribute to around 80% of consumer spending, so it stands to reason that “more women should engineer the world that we live in.”

Story by Huan Xun Chan