Women engineers focus on girls’ futures in field

More than 100 middle school girls wandered the halls of UCF Saturday as they participated in the UCF chapter of the Society of Women Engineers' sixth annual Mystery Design event held in the Student Union.

The Mystery Design is an all-day event that is planned and hosted by the SWE at UCF chapter with the name originating from the main activity of the day, which is to create some type of structure that can withstand various tests, but the general guidelines of what kind of structure is to be made is not revealed until the event itself.

This year, students were given newspaper and tape and had to design the tallest, self-supported structure. The middle school students worked in teams against all of their parents to build the mystery design structure out of these ordinary materials. Each year the design changes. In the past, it was a cantilever beam and catapult, and the tests change according to the design. This year, the winners managed to create a 16-foot structure out of their materials.

"This exercise not only teaches the basics of the assigned structure, but also promotes team work and collaboration," said Tanid Paredes, senior civil engineering major and SWE at UCF co-fundraising chair.

Aside from the main activity, registered middle school students enjoyed a lunch sponsored by Science Applications International Corporation. A focus was also put on informing the students about the importance of a higher education and having the option to major in engineering, as many do not realize until late in high school or well into college.

"The main purpose of this event is to bring together middle school girls from the Orlando area to make them aware of the importance of continuing education and introduce them to the possibilities of the engineering and science fields," Paredes said.

To help reinforce this, the middle school visitors attended a student panel session where they sat with current UCF students who answered a variety of questions about engineering and college, including how important college is to how financial aid works to what it's like to move away from home.

For seventh-grader Kristin Pursel, the student panel was one of the best parts about the event because she says learned a lot from it.

"I got to ask a lot of questions and learn more about engineering, even though I am not sure what I want to be when I grow up, but I really loved this event and it was totally awesome," Pursel said.

Throughout the day, the middle school students participated in various workshops and presentations that explained the different roles engineering plays in everyday society.

"With these hands-on experiments and exercises, we make every area of engineering more accessible, and hope to inspire at least a few to pursue these fields," Paredes said.

Learning more about engineering sparked eighth-grader Gabriela Groff's interest.

"I really loved just learning more about exactly what engineering is and about environmental engineering, because I didn't even know there was such a thing," Groff said. "I will definitely be coming back for the event for high-schoolers, because I had so much fun learning about engineering this year."

The annual event is geared toward female middle school students each year because members of SWE at UCF believe women are a minority in the engineering industry, and they would like to see that change by informing as many girls as possible.

"This event is a great way to encourage young girls to live up to their potential," said Maria Maldonado, junior mechanical engineering major and SWE at UCF outreach co-chair. "There are so many stereotypes surrounding women in engineering and this event opens their eyes to how fun and interesting the math and science field can be."

Bianca Wood, senior electrical engineering major and SWE at UCF outreach co-chair, hopes this event has helped balance the men-to-women ratio in the engineering industry by giving the students a chance to learn about what opportunities can come from majoring in engineering.

"This stigma is something we are trying to fix by getting the next generation of girls to consider engineering, and engineering-related fields like science, technology, engineering and mathematics," Wood said. "We hope that we can open these girls' eyes to consider STEM fields when thinking about their futures and careers. There is a serious lack of women in these technology-based fields, and we want young girls to see that engineering is fun and could possibly be what they want to do with their lives."