By Dr. William Wulf
Dr. William Wulf is president of the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) and vice-chair of the National Research Council, the principal operating arm of the NAE. Wulf is the AT&T Professor of Engineering and Applied Sciences at the University of Virginia, Charlottesville. He is on the IWT Board of Trustees and talks here about the importance of increasing the numbers of women in computer science and engineering.
I believe that the serious under-representation of women and some minorities in engineering is inequitable, especially in computer science, where the numbers of women have dropped significantly over the past 15 years. I’ve analyzed the numbers, and I know we won’t have enough engineers and computer scientists to sustain our economy unless we work to increase the diversity of the workforce.
I also believe that we’ll do a better job with that diverse workforce, because it’s not just the quantity of engineers and computer scientists that’s at stake, it’s also the quality of the job they do.
The usual arguments for diversity in engineering and computer science are framed either in terms of equity or of ensuring an adequate supply of talented workers in the future. Both are powerful arguments, but there is another: We need diversity in order to engineer well.
Engineering and computer science are profoundly creative professions. They’re about creating solutions to human problems. They are, as has been said, about creating what has never been. Designing a wheelchair that can climb stairs, a software program to promote literacy, or an aircraft that can fly around the world without refueling is an intensely creative act.
Psychologists have studied creativity and found that it comes from making unexpected connections between things we already know from our life experiences. That’s why we need more women in the engineering workforce: by increasing diversity, we increase the breadth of life experiences that can be drawn upon, the gene pool of creativity, and hence increase our ability to create a range of elegant solutions to society’s problems.
There’s a real economic cost to the poor representation of women and minorities in computer science and engineering. It’s an opportunity cost, a cost of what might have been, a cost of designs that could have served society better. Opportunity costs are hard to measure, but they’re very real!
Through its Virtual Development Center, the Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing, the Systers online community, and the Senior Women’s Summit, IWT is working to see that these opportunities are not lost.