Universities support women in male dominated field of engineering

Samsung Convergence Software Course and Engineering education for women
Ewha has been providing various engineering programs to students of all majors, one of them being the “Samsung S/W Training Program” which was implemented in 2013 in collaboration with Samsung.
Samsung introduced the program to 26 universities in Korea to enlarge and strengthen the basics of software education and nurture software-related talents in the society. It is comprised of “Samsung S/W Track (SST)” and “Samsung Convergence Software Course (SCSC).”
SST is open to students majoring in Computer Science and Engineering, Electronic and Electrical Engineering. It is an academic-career link program. Students are eligible for application for the SST from their fourth semesters and are provided up to twenty million won in scholarships.
SCSC, supports non-engineer majoring students in registering for fundamental software courses. 40 to 80 students are chosen twice a year. Participants benefit through scholarships and during Samsung’s open recruitment and receive a minor degree in Computer Science and Engineering. To become recipients of the SCSC, students are required to enroll in three bridge courses and seven required courses. So far, more than 120 students have participated in the program.
Lee Hei-sook, an emeritus Professor of Ewha who is also part of Principal Research Fellow of GISTeR focuses on ‘Gendered Innovation and Engineering Education,’ shared her opinion of engineering education of women.
“Most of the current male oriented technologies and services are men-standardized,”said Lee. “For example, until recently car crash test dummies did not account for important differences between women and men in anthropomorphic and morphological characteristics, and biomechanical responses during a crash.”
She emphasized that design or technologies should be gender inclusive from the beginning so that companies do not have to retrofit technology for the excluded gender, whether it be men or women.
 Lee also voiced the importance of developing women engineers.
“Engineering education is closely related in everyday life from culture  to environment since development of technology affects human and society,” Lee said. “Women account for half the society. As women and men differ in various aspects, we require engineers who meet the need of women and understand their perspectives.”
She points out that engineering education in universities are currently neither gender inclusive nor differentiated.
To advance engineering education for women in Korea, she quotes that we should focus on gender inclusiveness.
“We need more women engineers to embrace different aspects of engineering field and be innovative,” Lee said. “Once gender diversity is settled in a group, innovation and competitiveness can be achieved. Students should be taught to be confident on this issue.”

Reporters: Jang Min-jeong, Lim Ye-ju, Kim Yun-young, Pak Gee-na
 

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