New Web Resource for Female Engineers Premieres During “Introduce a Girl to Engineering Day” on February 21, 2002

MEDFORD, MA—The second annual “Introduce a Girl to Engineering Day” on Wednesday, February 21, 2002, part of National Engineers Week (February 17-23), will also mark the introduction of a major Web resource for current and prospective female engineers. The Women in Engineering Organization (www.WIEO.org) is the first Web site to organize information about educational and career opportunities and programs for female engineers into one central clearinghouse, aiming to help girls and women continue to explore the field of engineering beyond a one day experience.

Developed by Peter Wong, Director of Special Projects at Tufts University’s School of Engineering in Medford, Massachusetts, with a grant from the GE Fund, and co-sponsored by WEPAN (Women in Engineering Program & Advocates Network) and SWE (Society of Women Engineers), the site was created as a one-stop directory and resource of engineering programs and career options organized by category: girls, college level women, parents, K-12 teachers, guidance counselors, college faculty, industry, and project directors on both the local and national level. The site also includes an awards section for programs of the month, an easy user interface to add an organization’s programs to the site, and a discussion board to promote collaboration between students, parents, teachers, and organizations.

“The importance of this site is its potential to develop into an active repository of information about engineering to introduce girls to the field at an earlier age and to encourage women to consider engineering as a career ,” says Tufts University’s Peter Wong. “The scope of programs searchable by target population makes WIEO.org unique,” adds Susan Staffin Metz, president of WEPAN.

”Introduce a Girl to Engineering Day” is one of the many events during National Engineering Week, celebrated annually since 1951 by thousands of engineers, engineering students, teachers, and leaders in government and business and dedicated to increasing public awareness and appreciation of engineering. During its inaugural year last year, “Introduce a Girl to Engineering Day” reached hundreds of thousands of girls with more than 90 participating partner organizations. This year the program has the support of more than 100 organizations in an effort to mobilize at least 10,000 women engineers and their male colleagues in reaching one million girls nationwide.