Emerson Exchange 365

Early in my school days, I was pretty sure that I wanted to be an engineer and while I didn’t expect all the twists and turns my career would take, I still work in a (mostly) technical engineering role. During my junior year of high school, I attended a summer at Carnegie Mellon University that was sponsored by the Pennsylvania Governor’s School for the Sciences.  Here, a group of 90 high school students from across the state of Pennsylvania spent a summer studying college-level science and mathematics courses.  Spending the summer with this motivated and amazingly intelligent group of people absolutely confirmed my desire for a scientific career. Looking at the lofty places that my colleagues from PGSS have gone makes me realize what a powerful group of men and women I was a part of. It also makes me feel like a bit of a failure that I’m not a professor at a prestigious university or amazing doctor like some of them, but there's still time...

One of the twists in my career that I mentioned earlier, was when I was sent to work in Singapore for an extended period to help startup a new biotech facility. Although the project was unanticipated, it was the best learning experiences in my career and taught me to value different experiences and cultures. I was pleasantly surprised to see that nearly half of the local engineers in Singapore were women. In fact, Singapore has made a concerted effort to increase the participation of women in technical fields - moving from 23.5% in 2004 to 26.5% in 2009. Today, women represent over 29% of their technical workforce.

As the father of a ten-year-old daughter who continues to express an interest in becoming a veterinarian, I have done everything in my power to encourage her and her friends to explore science, technology, engineering, and math (aka: STEM). I am also the proud co-leader of her Girl Scout troop. Last year, the Girl Scouts of Central Texas partnered with Google's Made with Code initiative to build an activity that taught girls to code. They even designed a special Girl Scout patch for the girls who completed the project. The Made with Code activities were one of the troop's favorite activities that year. We have the glittery evidence from this and many other activities caked into every inch of our house. Years from now when my daughter is older, these will serve as sparkly reminders of the many fun-filled evenings we spent together.

Living in Austin we are blessed with many organizations and workshops where girls can experiment with STEM activities. One of our favorites is SXSW Create, which my daughter and I have participated in for 4 years running. She has acquired quite the steady soldering hand thanks to the fantastic booth put together by Sparkfun Electronics. The University of Texas at Austin’s Women in Engineering Program also runs a fantastic Introduce a Girl to Engineering Day each year. Together, my daughter and I have learned about all sorts of engineering disciplines. This year, we visited the Acoustic Engineering department’s anechoic chamber which was a very cool experience. 

Recently, a group of engineers from Emerson’s Women in STEM group went to a local high school for a GirlStart event which annually introduces over 650 girls to Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math. We sponsored a workshop where we introduced girls to the variety of engineering roles that are available in a production facility. We did so by having the girls work together to make their own lip gloss. Activities included solving a variety of challenges around scaling up production recipes, safely gathering and mixing materials and determining a name and marketing ideas for their new lip gloss product. 

Activities like these continue to help generate interest in STEM among girls and all young adults; however, I think we need to do more to not just nurture that interest in children, but to continue to support that interest as students mature into high school and college. Working at Emerson, I am proud of the stance we have taken as a company to help inspire tomorrow’s engineers – especially female engineers. Last summer, I hired a wonderful intern from Baylor University that I met through the SWE (Society of Women Engineers) conference here in Austin (Hi, Jordan). She was a fantastic asset to our organization and you can consider this an open letter of recommendation. Beyond her technical contributions to Emerson and our project, working with her was a personal growth experience for me as well.

I challenge you to reach out to your local high school and see if they have an engineering club or a FIRST robotics team. Or, to contact a local university and get involved with Society of Women Engineers or other engineering organizations that value and foster diversity. When you are hiring interns or new hires, look for someone different than you. By doing so, you may just create your own career twist and that can lead to personal growth. As engineers, we have a duty to help solve the problems of the world. Part of solving those problems is ensuring that we have engineers ready to continue to build upon our successes. Together, we as an industry have the power to inspire the future and then, be amazed by what today’s children AND teens will do as tomorrow’s engineers.