Category Archives: General

Hackbright Academy Places Female Coders In Their Own League.

13 Sunday Oct 2013

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More positive news from the ASEE aggregator:

The San Francisco Chronicle (9/26, Floum) reports on the Hackbright Academy. The academy teaches “women how to program in a supportive, all-female environment.” In its first year, the San Francisco ten-week crash course graduated close to eighty female software engineers. The article notes that “55 women graduated with computer science or related bachelor’s degrees from UC Berkeley, and 27 women graduated with computer science degrees from Stanford in 2012,” according to the American Society for Engineering Education.

Under the headline, “Why Aren’t Women Interested in Computer Science?,” the Wall Street Journal (9/25) “Digits” blog reported the number of women pursuing computer jobs has been falling. Women made up 27 percent of computer jobs in 2011, but the number has fallen since 1990 when it was on 34 percent.

Record Numbers Of Women Majoring In Engineering At The University Of Texas.

12 Saturday Oct 2013

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As reported on the ASEE aggregator

On its website, KXAN-TV Austin, TX (10/11, Schwaller) reports twenty-nine percent of the freshman engineering class at The University of Texas are women. University officials say the “increases have become more rapid in the last five years.” According to Tricia Berry, director of the Cockrell School’s Women in Engineering Program, “the increase reflects a national trend to put an emphasis on” STEM.

I must find out what they are doing…

US Must Educate More Female Engineers, Professor Of Mechanical Engineering Writes.

18 Wednesday Sep 2013

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From the ASEE aggregator:
In US News & World Report (9/17) Amy Fleischer, PhD., a Professor of Mechanical Engineering at Villanova University and the Director of the Novatherm Laboratory, wrote that if our nation does not acknowledge that America’s lack of “is not an ability-driven gap but instead a pervasive socialization problem that begins at the earliest ages, then we will continue to alienate and exclude half our population from these critical fields.” Fleischer wrote that “it is overt social pressures that continue to steer most girls away from these fields despite their natural talents and abilities.” She wrote that if the US wants to continue its “dominance in technology development and secure our nation’s economic future, it is absolutely imperative that we educate thousands more engineers.”

Equality or Fairness?

31 Saturday Aug 2013

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As many of you know, I am dedicated to the issues of gender balance and diversity. However, I assert that equality is not the point in question: fairness is.

Certainly, equal pay for equal work, equal respect and equal inclusion are vital. Yet the concept of equal work for all is ridiculous: each of us has different strengths and abilities. We need to recognize and value those differences, and emphasize what we can accomplish through diversity.

Equal work for all? Clearly not.

Fairness for all? Yes.

American Library Association: equality vs. equity
DifferenceBetween.com
Youth in Transition

Trust Me, Trust You

21 Wednesday Aug 2013

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From The Ryan Group, offering the Trust Me, Trust You Assessment [which] addresses behavioral characteristics in key dimensions of trust associated with team, group, department, and organization performance.

What is trust? Trust is to have belief or confidence in the purpose, honesty, actions, competency, decisions, and intentions of a person, organization, or team based on predictable behaviors observed over time. Trust is also the positive expectation of a person or group’s methods, measures, principles, decisions, and outcomes demonstrated by the consistency and congruence of behaviors expressed in words and actions.

Why is trust important? As a team member, you have a critical role in helping your team identify and address trust issues that hinder your team’s growth and effectiveness.

In an ideal work situation, people trust each other; they do not feel people will do them harm; they feel that their members have the knowledge, skills, and motivation to interact with each other and get things done.

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Member Engagement

24 Monday Jun 2013

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One of the outreach objectives of the Association is to increase the level of participation of  members in association activities.  Our new president mentions in his blog that the Association appreciates when “members take the initiative” to connect (http://michaelbapty.ca/apegbc/member-engagement/), and I think that is exactly right:  we have an obligation to do what we can to reach out to other members within the Association and to our communities at large.

Here in the Victoria Branch, we are making efforts to connect with each other and the public through a variety of interesting and intriguing dinner meeting activities.  A few of our great successes this past year included tours of innovative companies such as

We have seen great improvements in the breadth of member participation during these dinner meetings as well as increasing numbers of the public coming to join the tours:  Lots of new faces!

Thanks for your support, Victoria!