{"id":71960,"date":"2020-12-03T18:07:30","date_gmt":"2020-12-03T23:07:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newsroom.carleton.ca\/?post_type=cu_story&p=71960"},"modified":"2025-09-30T10:41:00","modified_gmt":"2025-09-30T14:41:00","slug":"more-support-women-in-engineering","status":"publish","type":"cu_story","link":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/story\/more-support-women-in-engineering\/","title":{"rendered":"Carleton’s Faculty of Engineering and Design Building More Support for Women"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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\n Carleton's Faculty of Engineering and Design Building More Support for Women\n <\/h1>\n \n <\/header>\n <\/div>\n\n \n <\/path>\n <\/path>\n <\/svg>\n <\/div>\n\n \n\n <\/div>\n<\/section>\n\n

As an undergraduate in electrical engineering in the early 2000s, Prof. Winnie Ye was one of only five female students in her program. In 2007, she was also the only woman in her PhD cohort. And two years later, she was the first woman faculty member in Carleton\u2019s Department of Electronics.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Prof.
Prof. Winnie Ye<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

But now that she is a professor\u2014and the Chair of Women in Engineering for the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) Canada\u2014she sees a different environment for female students and faculty who are coming to Carleton for programs in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI\u2019ve seen a lot of improvements in supporting and empowering women in the faculty over the years,\u201d says Ye.<\/p>\n\n\n

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\u201cWe have an outstanding engineering outreach team in the faculty that has been leading many creative events, as well as a really active IEEE Women in Engineering chapter that is hosting wonderful outreach and professional activities.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

These activities at the faculty, student and recruitment levels reflect enhanced efforts within the Faculty of Engineering and Design (FED) to recruit more women and girls, and create a welcoming and supportive environment for them on campus. According to the most recent Women in Engineering and IT Annual Report<\/a>, there has been a 25 per cent increase in female enrolment in Carleton\u2019s engineering and IT programs over the past five years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Larry
Larry Kostiuk, Dean of Faculty of Engineering and Design<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

\u201cFar too often, young women and girls do not view STEM as a viable academic and career path,\u201d says FED Dean Larry Kostiuk.<\/p>\n\n\n

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\u201cWith that in mind, our faculty has been committed to delivering initiatives that challenge these perceptions and promote a culture that supports women in engineering and IT at all levels.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Recognizing these efforts is particularly important at this time of year, when FED takes the lead on Carleton\u2019s observance of the National Day of Remembrance and Action on Violence Against Women, in honour of the 14 women who were killed on Dec. 6, 1989 at l’\u00c9cole Polytechnique de Montr\u00e9al.<\/p>\n\n\n

\"Carleton\u2019s<\/figure>\n\n\n

Building a Thriving Community<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

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When you talk to a \u201cCEng\u201d student or alumna, one of the first things they mention are the clubs and societies on campus. Engineering students have a thriving culture of clubs created by students and funded by departments. Alumna Kelsey Doerksen was one of the founding members of the Carleton Planetary Robotics Team.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n

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\u201cCarleton does a really good job of allowing students to pursue what they want. We started from nothing, but we were able to go to our first competition in the U.K. in 2016,\u201d she recalls.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

\u201cI ended up with an insane amount of experience building rovers and going to competitions around the world, which helped me establish my career.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Kelsey
Kelsey Doerksen<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Doerksen is now a satellite operator at Planet, a private Earth-imaging company based in San Francisco. She is also applying to PhD programs with a long-term goal of becoming an astronaut. After meeting engineers from around the world, she feels fortunate to have studied at Carleton.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe always say it takes a village to get through engineering school and the Carleton community does that,\u201d she recalls. \u201cThere were always spaces where you could study and find friends to work late nights with. Some of my best friends are from there.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Doerksen says there was also a strong culture of mentorship.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Members
Members of CU-WISE<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

\u201cGrowing up, I didn\u2019t know anyone with a STEM degree or who had applied for a master\u2019s degree, so I attribute a lot of my success to the upper-year students who supported my questions, reviewed applications and enabled me to be where I am today,\u201d she says. \u201cThen, when I was in an upper year, I could play that role with younger students myself.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Systems and Computer Engineering student, Zoya Mushtaq, has also benefited from the culture of support and collaboration within engineering\u2014particularly as a member of CU-WISE<\/a>, the Carleton University Women in Science and Engineering club.<\/p>\n\n\n

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\u201cThrough that club, I met so many other people I can relate to because the entire club is women in STEM,\u201d says Mushtaq, who serves as the club\u2019s social media executive as well as a mentor.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

\u201cWe host different workshops and have done a lot of online networking for students to socialize with and get advice from female alumni. There is such a sense of community and support.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n

\"Carleton\u2019s<\/figure>\n\n\n

Playing The Long Game<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

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One area of focus that each of these women mentioned was the need for more education and exposure among female high school students.<\/p>\n\n\n

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\u201cIn high school, I was reluctant to enrol in engineering,\u201d recalls Mushtaq.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

\u201cI found that we weren\u2019t taught what an engineer is or what the full scope of what they do is in school. And when I read about the low percentage of women in engineering, it made me nervous. I wasn\u2019t sure I would fit in.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Zoya
Zoya Mushtaq<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Ye also encounters a lack of knowledge among high school students, particularly about her field, electrical engineering.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThey always think of electric cables, but they don\u2019t know anything about my field of photonics. We are using light to communicate in the future,\u201d says Ye.<\/p>\n\n\n

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\u201cI spend a lot of my time doing public education to raise awareness of new technologies.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

In fact, outreach to elementary and high school girls is an important part of FED\u2019s mission. It has its own not-for-profit organization, Virtual Ventures<\/a>, which runs summer camps, clubs and workshops for students from junior kindergarten through Grade 12.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The annual report found 25 per cent of campers who registered from 2007 to 2018 eventually enrolled at Carleton and 61 per cent were in STEM programs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This idea of introducing girls to the excitement of engineering resonates with Mushtaq. She represented Carleton at the recent Professional Engineers Ontario Student Conference, which included a panel on non-traditional career paths.<\/p>\n\n\n

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\u201cThat really sparked my interest in getting involved in and possibly starting my own initiative that will encourage future generations of girls to become interested in engineering.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

To find out more about the Faculty of Engineering and Design\u2019s commitment to initiatives that support women in engineering, IT and design, read the <\/em>Women in Engineering and IT Annual Report for 2019\/2020.<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

—
\nMore Stories<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As an undergraduate in electrical engineering in the early 2000s, Prof. Winnie Ye was one of only five female students in her program. In 2007, she was also the only woman in her PhD cohort. And two years later, she was the first woman faculty member in Carleton\u2019s Department of Electronics. But now that she […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":410,"featured_media":71980,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"cu_story_type":[17,28,1931,25],"cu_story_tag":[1930,1918],"class_list":["post-71960","cu_story","type-cu_story","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","cu_story_type-alumni","cu_story_type-community-partnerships","cu_story_type-social-innovation","cu_story_type-student-experience","cu_story_tag-equity-diversity-and-inclusion","cu_story_tag-faculty-of-engineering-and-design"],"acf":{"cu_post_thumbnail":"blueprint"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/cu_story\/71960","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/cu_story"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/cu_story"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/410"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/cu_story\/71960\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":97284,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/cu_story\/71960\/revisions\/97284"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/71980"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=71960"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"cu_story_type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/cu_story_type?post=71960"},{"taxonomy":"cu_story_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/cu_story_tag?post=71960"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}