{"303041":{"#nid":"303041","#data":{"type":"news","title":"Georgia Tech Spotlights Women in Engineering at Washington, D.C. Media Roundtable","body":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EAttracting female students into the engineering field is a challenge facing educators, industry and policy makers across the country. Twenty-eight percent of Georgia Tech\u2019s College of Engineering students are female. That compares to the national average of 18 percent.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EGeorgia Tech is leading the way, graduating the most female engineers in the nation, but the College of Engineering is not resting on its success. Its incoming freshman class this fall will have close to 30 percent women. Two of Georgia Tech\u2019s engineering programs, biomedical and environmental, both have more than 50 percent women.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EDespite the success, Georgia Tech Dean of Engineering Gary May knows the Institute can do more.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cRight now we have a lot of work to do to build awareness and provide a support system for our women students as well as for our faculty, for that matter,\u201d said May, who hosted a media roundtable in Washington, D.C. to discuss the challenges and success stories involved with attracting women to the STEM fields.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cI think the most critical aspect of what we\u2019re doing is bringing awareness of the issues,\u201d said May. \u201cAs an institution in a leadership position in the production of women engineers and scientists, it is our responsibility to get the word out about how important this is to the rest of the nation.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThe roundtable, held on Capitol Hill, highlighted a discussion of thought leaders from the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, IBM and Caterpillar; representatives from academia; and recent alumni. \u0026nbsp;Panelists shared their personal stories about overcoming obstacles, how they developed their own career in a STEM field as well as shared what their employers are doing to encourage women in the STEM fields.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cI\u2019m an engineer. I\u2019ve had a terrific career and really enjoyed what I\u2019ve done and the types of problems you can bring your toolset to solve,\u201d said Patricia Falcone from the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy and a roundtable panelist. \u201cWhen I went to school, it was kind of the early days for women going into engineering. What surprises me is that the numbers haven\u2019t gone up. We know that having mixed and diverse teams really enables creativity and good solutions.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cI believe the number one issue with girls and women in technical fields is confidence or lack of confidence,\u201d said Susan Puglia, vice president of IBM\u2019s Global University Programs and vice chair of IBM\u2019s Academy of Technology board of governors. \u201cBuilding that confidence early on as girls are going through middle school, high school and even college, as well as into the workforce, is so important.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EPuglia says that IBM and other companies have programs designed to support their female workforce.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cWe\u2019ve been focused on some programs at IBM on teaching women what computing and engineering is all about,\u0022 she said. \u0022In the workforce, it takes the form of coaches or sponsorships to help them progress and do well in their fields.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThe media roundtables are an example of a collaborative effort between Georgia Tech\u2019s Office of Government and Community Relations, College of Engineering, Office of Development and Institute Communications.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cPolicymakers in Washington, D.C. are very concerned about the STEM crisis in our country and the impact it\u2019s having on our competitiveness,\u201d said Robert Knotts, Georgia Tech\u2019s director of Federal Relations. \u0022As the producer of more engineers than any other university in the country, it\u2019s important that Georgia Tech lead the discussion about how we can get more girls and women engaged in engineering. We were thrilled to hear from Congresswoman Eddie Bernice Johnson (the ranking member of the House Science, Space and Technology Committee) and from our distinguished panel of experts about what we can all do to encourage and support female engineers.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cThis collaborative effort was possible because we had the support of so many units across campus,\u201d said Matt Nagel, director of media relations. \u201cMedia roundtables give us a unique opportunity to raise Georgia Tech\u2019s profile among many of its key audiences on a national level including media, congressional staff and other influencers in the D.C. area.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EGeorgia Tech media relations team is working on several upcoming media roundtables, but Nagel says they are always looking for good ideas from the units across campus.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cEach roundtable is different. The Women in Engineering roundtable was targeted toward congressional staff and higher education reporters. In the future, we may take a more specific topic and have a much more intimate group setting.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E","summary":null,"format":"limited_html"}],"field_subtitle":"","field_summary":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EMedia roundtables give the Institute a unique opportunity to raise Georgia Tech\u2019s profile among many of its key audiences on a national level including media, congressional staff and other influencers.\u003C\/p\u003E","format":"limited_html"}],"field_summary_sentence":[{"value":"Event explored the challenges and success stories involved with attracting women to the STEM fields."}],"uid":"27918","created_gmt":"2014-06-13 09:33:39","changed_gmt":"2016-10-08 03:16:33","author":"Laura Diamond","boilerplate_text":"","field_publication":"","field_article_url":"","dateline":{"date":"2014-06-13T00:00:00-04:00","iso_date":"2014-06-13T00:00:00-04:00","tz":"America\/New_York"},"extras":[],"hg_media":{"151171":{"id":"151171","type":"image","title":"Capitol Building - Washington DC","body":null,"created":"1449178848","gmt_created":"2015-12-03 21:40:48","changed":"1475894784","gmt_changed":"2016-10-08 02:46:24","alt":"Capitol Building - Washington DC","file":{"fid":"195187","name":"capitol_dc.jpg","image_path":"\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/capitol_dc_0.jpg","image_full_path":"http:\/\/tlwarc.hg.gatech.edu\/\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/capitol_dc_0.jpg","mime":"image\/jpeg","size":181105,"path_740":"http:\/\/tlwarc.hg.gatech.edu\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/740xx_scale\/public\/images\/capitol_dc_0.jpg?itok=QYkB9UaA"}}},"media_ids":["151171"],"groups":[{"id":"1214","name":"News Room"}],"categories":[{"id":"129","name":"Institute and Campus"},{"id":"155","name":"Congressional Testimony"},{"id":"132","name":"Institute Leadership"},{"id":"133","name":"Special Events and Guest Speakers"}],"keywords":[{"id":"594","name":"college of engineering"},{"id":"1976","name":"Media"},{"id":"167258","name":"STEM"},{"id":"1235","name":"women in engineering"}],"core_research_areas":[],"news_room_topics":[{"id":"71871","name":"Campus and Community"}],"event_categories":[],"invited_audience":[],"affiliations":[],"classification":[],"areas_of_expertise":[],"news_and_recent_appearances":[],"phone":[],"contact":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EGeorgia Tech Media Relations\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003ELaura Diamond\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Ca href=\u0022mailto:laura.diamond@comm.gatech.edu\u0022\u003Elaura.diamond@comm.gatech.edu\u003C\/a\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E404-894-6016\u003Cbr \/\u003EJason Maderer\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Ca href=\u0022mailto:maderer@gatech.edu\u0022\u003Emaderer@gatech.edu\u003C\/a\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E404-660-2926\u003C\/p\u003E","format":"limited_html"}],"email":["laura.diamond@gatech.edu"],"slides":[],"orientation":[],"userdata":""}}}