Calendar of Events

Gendered Pathways to Success in Engineering

November 13, 2007
4:15 pm	to	6:30 pm

Presented by The Michelle R. Clayman Institute for Gender Research

Location:Bio-X, Clark Center, Room S360
318 Campus Drive, Stanford

Directions to the Clark Center
Room S360 is on the third floor. Take the stairs or elevator up, and then proceed to walk through Peet’s Coffee & Tea.
Parking is unrestricted after 4:00pm.

This event is free and open to the public.
We particularly welcome our local middle and high school communities.

About the Program
Engineering is at the heart of our local and national economy, and women are an underutilized resource in this key area of our economic well-being. Only 21% of undergraduate degrees in engineering go to women. How do we get women to self-identify as future engineers? How do we get men to accept them in that profession?

The Clayman Institute is pleased to welcome the SpelBots Robotics Team from Spelman College, Atlanta, Georgia. The SpelBots are the USA’s only all women, African American competitive undergraduate robotics team. Andrew Williams, Associate Professor of Computer and Information Sciences, and Director, Artificial Intelligence, Informatics, and Robotics (AIR) Lab, along with undergraduate students, Whitney O’Banner and Philana Benton, of the SpelBots team, will share their personal experience (and demonstrate their award winning four-legged robots) in the context of a wider conversation on the impact of gender on engineering education.

Sheri Sheppard, Professor of Mechanical Engineering at Stanford and Senior Research Fellow at the Clayman Institute, will discuss results from the Academic Pathways Study (APS) which explores developmental, cognitive and institutional factors that contribute to student persistence and success in engineering majors. APS is a mixed methods longitudinal study involving four universities and is funded by an NSF Higher Education Center Grant (Center for the Advancement of Engineering Education).

Dean Jim Plummer of the School of Engineering will conclude by responding to a panel discussion with students, including an audience question and answer period, and to the program overall.

Co-sponsored by the Office of Science Outreach.

Further information about this and other Clayman Institute happenings.