Area high school women explore high-tech careers at Rensselaer’s annual “Design Your Future Day”

Troy, N.Y. — Nearly 300 11th grade girls from the Capital Region, New York state, and across New England will participate in Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute’s “Design Your Future Day” (DYFD) program on Saturday, April 19. The event is designed to engage students in activities to inform and excite them about career opportunities in science, technology, engineering, math (STEM) disciplines, and architecture.

“According to a January 2008 population survey by the U.S. Bureau of Labor and Statistics, 46 percent of the civilian labor force that is 20 years old or older are women,” said Barbara Ruel, director of Rensselaer’s Diversity and Women in Engineering programs and coordinator of the day’s events. “Yet the most recent data from a National Science Foundation study in 2003 indicated that only 11 percent of all engineers in the labor force were women.”  

“Rensselaer is working to change that,” Ruel added. “Design Your Future Day gives young women the opportunity to explore intellectually stimulating and exciting careers in math, science, technology, and engineering and to meet young women like them who have already chosen to pursue such careers.” 

Some participating local high schools include Albany, Amsterdam, East Greenbush, Colonie, Saratoga Springs, and Bethlehem. Students from upstate New York, New York City, Long Island, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, New Hampshire, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Maine, and Vermont also plan to attend the event. 

The event will take place on Rensselaer’s campus from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. in room 308 of the Darrin Communications Center, as well as various other campus locations. The event is hosted by Rensselaer’s School of Engineering and sponsored by General Motors, Lockheed Martin, and the Gene Haas Foundation.

The 12th annual program will kick off at 10 a.m., with a welcome address by Danielle Desalu ’01 who serves as a mobility systems engineer for Cisco Systems’ Federal Channels Organization based in Herndon, Va.  In her current position, Desalu designs, validates, implements, and trains customers on wireless technologies that provide business solutions for organizations worldwide. As an advocate who encourages and challenges young women to investigate and pursue careers in science, engineering, and technology, she has assisted in the development of the “IT Rocks” campaign, a program launched by Cisco Systems to promote careers in the field for high school and middle school. Desalu will share her personal stories and aspirations, and the lessons learned in college and since college about excellence, leadership, and persistence.

The program also will feature a panel discussion with Rensselaer alumni and undergraduate and graduate students from noon to 1 p.m. In addition, the program includes 13 workshops – led by Rensselaer faculty, staff, and graduate students on a range of topics including: nanomaterials science and engineering; architectural modeling and design; embedded control systems; the design, manufacture and use of medical devices, prosthetic limbs, tissues and organs; building electrical circuits; and manufacturing candy boxes, among others.

Since its inception, more than 3,000 female students have participated in the DYFD program. In addition, Rensselaer graduates have gone on to pursue careers as manufacturing engineers, system programmers, business analysts, mechanical design engineers, medical researchers, biomedical engineers, doctors, patent attorneys, architects, and Naval officers, to name a few. 

Design Your Future Day is part of Rensselaer’s larger effort to engage young people in science and engineering studies and professions. Other “pipeline” programs include: Black Family Technology Awareness Day, to interest area young people and their families in pursuing occupations in the fields of science and engineering; and Exploring Engineering Day, to spark the interest of Girl Scouts and Boy Scouts in science, technology, and engineering.

Sample workshops that will be offered from 10:30 to 11:30 a.m. and from 1:15 to 2:15 p.m. include:

• Going Nano: Walker Laboratory, room 6113
  Students will explore the exciting field of nanomaterials and see how and why size matters.

• iCHAIR: Greene Building, room 204
  Students will work in teams to brainstorm designs for a chair and then build a full-scale prototype.
• The Body Bag: Russell Sage Laboratory, room 2112
  Students will explore how medical devices, prosthetic limbs, tissues, and organs are designed, manufactured, and used with the help of interactive anatomy software and models.
• From iPods to Guitars: JEC, room 4201 
  Students will build an electronic circuit and discover how circuits operate inside iPods, cell phones, and robots. Students will also see how a guitar can maneuver like a robot.
• Engineering at Rensselaer is Sweet: CII, room 1027 
  Students will learn how to assemble a box of candy in the Advanced Manufacturing Lab and learn the different processes including robotics and automation, plastic injection molding, 3-D printing, and water-jet cutting.

For more information and to view the 2008 Design Your Future Day program, go to: http://www.eng.rpi.edu/dyfd/.