This year’s theme for WE17 is Always Connecting … Always Engineering. You cannot attend a WE conference without forming connections, and we know that engineering is more than just a profession: it’s a mindset and outlook that defines who you are and how you think.
So, in anticipation of the largest conference for women engineers, we’re asking our members how they’re Always Connecting and Always Engineering in their lives.
Dinika Singh
Biomedical Engineering student, Tulane University“I rush out of class in a blur, dance and school bags in tow, and jump on my bike. Mind still absorbing Reynold’s Transport Theorem from Fluid Mechanics lecture, I rush up the stairs into a blur of athletic wear and black leotards. From the lecture hall to the ballet studio, engineering is something that’s integrated into everything I do. When I first started my collegiate career, I was told to make a decision between engineering and dance, two disciplines that had been at the forefront of my mind for my entire life. For a long time I struggled, trying to pick and choose between dance or engineering, and one day spoke to a BME professor, Dr. Dancisak, who asked me the one thing no one else had asked me before: ‘Why can’t you do both?’ Fast forward to my junior year of college, and Dr. Dancisak and I are now working in our anatomy lab to integrate my Biomedical engineering degree and my Dance degree for my upcoming senior project.”
Tell us how you’re Always Connecting … Always Engineering with hashtag #AlwaysEngineering. Tag @SWETalk on Twitter and Instagram, and on Facebook!
About WE17
More than 10,000 women engineers from all over the world will gather in Austin, Texas Oct. 26-28 to empower each other, learn and get inspired at WE17. Hosted by The Society of Women Engineers (SWE), WE17 is the world’s largest conference and career fair for women in engineering.
The gender gap in STEM fields remains wide across all specialties, and more females than males leave the engineering profession as their career grows. In fact, 30 percent of women leaving STEM fields cite workplace climate as the reason. Corporate culture, perception and other conscious and unconscious biases are preventing the gender gap from closing and are discouraging women from pursuing a successful future in STEM.
