Attracting Women Into Electrical And Computer Engineering

Engineering is currently absent in most K-12 schools, which poses a large obstacle to the recruitment of students, particularly underrepresented groups, such as women, into engineering programs. Reaching back into middle schools and/or high school has been identified as one of the effective ways to recruit undergraduates. This paper describes such efforts at Rowan University to introduce young women into engineering and technology through a summer program titled “Attracting Women into Engineering”. Particularly, this paper focuses on two Electrical & Computer Engineering (ECE) modules that were developed in exposing middle school girls to ECE as a viable, exciting career option.