UMass Conference Urges Young Women to Seek Engineering Careers

Oct. 23, 2009

Contact:

Janet Lathrop 413/545-0444

AMHERST, Mass. – More than 250 women students, teachers and guidance counselors from high schools in 50 Massachusetts towns and cities will gather in the Campus Center Auditorium at the University of Massachusetts Amherst on Thursday, Oct. 29 at 8:30 a.m. for the annual Women in Engineering Career Day Conference.

The goal is to excite, inspire and encourage young women to pursue engineering as an academic track and career path. The keynote speaker is Gemma Bar? Montes, a consulting engineer and environmental specialist with Tighe & Bond of Westfield. Her 9:15 a.m. talk is titled, “The Global Connection.” She will be talking about her involvement with Engineers Without Borders. Montes earned her master’s degree in civil and environmental engineering at UMass Amherst in 2007.

At 10:15 a.m., Thea Sahr, the star of the PBS TV program, Design Squad, and associate director of educational outreach at WGBH Boston, will lead students in two entertaining and interactive exercises intended to show them what engineers do. Also, UMass Amherst engineering students will be sharing their research projects with the high school students.

Representatives from Abbott Labs, the Chubb Group of Insurance Companies, Raytheon, the Shaw Group Inc. and Verizon will bring interactive displays to Career Day. Among the equipment on display at past events of this kind were infrared cameras, radar systems and space suits.

This year’s Women in Engineering Career Day conference is sponsored by the College of Engineering, the UMass Amherst Graduate School, the polymer science and engineering department, the Commonwealth Alliance for Informational Technology Education, Abbott Labs, the Chubb Group of Insurance Companies, Raytheon, the Shaw Group Inc., Verizon, and by the Collegiate Chapter of the Society of Women Engineers.

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