Introduce a Girl to Engineering Day!

by girls, FOR GIRLS

By Mikaela M.

On Tuesday, February 20, Girl Scouts from Nassau County assembled at the DeMatteis School of Engineering and Applied Science at Hofstra University for Introduce a Girl to Engineering Day!

The day started with a presentation on the different fields of engineering and how Hofstra helps students gain positions within companies. We learned that engineering encompasses all fields, in fact, many doctors have roots in engineering.

Following the presentation, two female engineers held a forum where they spoke about their experience in the field and at work. They offered two important pieces of advice; math is important, if you don’t like math the chances of you enjoying engineering are slim and that social skills matter. Both women agreed that their social skills helped them rise in their respective companies and that being able to communicate with their team is crucial in technology careers.

The final speakers were two engineering professors from Hofstra, they taught us about the logistics of bridge building, specifically suspension bridges. All of the girls at the event had the opportunity to build a suspension bridge out of masking tape and styrofoam. We conducted experiments on the best length and give of materials used in the making of our bridges and were surprised by how much weight some of our bridges could hold.

Overall, we learned about working in one of the fastest growing fields from experts in the profession and we had fun!