Area program helps introduce High School girls to engineering
CARY, North Carolina (WTVD) -- Many young women are showing more interests in science and on Tuesday, high school ladies around the area got a chance to experiment with their skills.
Their tasks may sound simple... Protect an egg from breaking. But put it in a toy dump truck and run it down a ramp into a concrete cinderblock and that task just got a little trickier.
"They have to come up with the calculations to figure out what's going to be the most cost-efficient but also going to protect their egg," said NCDOT Introduce A Girl to Engineering, Coordinator Sterling Johnson.
The group project the girls worked on is part of NCDOT's "Introduce A Girl to Engineering," a program for high school girls in the Triangle interested in engineering or STEM.
The idea is to create a pool of women engineers in a male-dominated profession who will bring their skills to North Carolina after graduating.
"We hope that the girls figure out problem-solving skills, how to work together as a group because that's what engineering is all about fixing the world's problems," Johnson said.
And one Cary High School senior already knows she wants to be a problem-solver.
"I'm just looking for inspiration to get me going in the field of engineering," Brinda Thakore said. "I want to be that one smart woman in a room full of men."
Students not only get a taste of the industry through hands-on activities. They can also meet women already working in the field.
"Engineers are responsible for building the communities we live in, so we should look like the communities we live in," HDR Project Manager, Dena Snead said.
Professionals hope events like this help close the gender gap.
"It's inspiring to see that we can do it too," Thakore said.
