WIE 2022 Engineering Leaders for Tomorrow

When I was in college I had no idea that I would end up as a university professor and certainly not as an associate dean. I thought I was too quiet, too reserved for such roles. Like me, probably many of you have no idea what your future holds or what kind of leader you may become. One purpose of this conference is to give you an idea of the possibilities.

So many challenges face our society that we as engineers are called to address, ranging from drought in California to ethical issues surrounding social media. What role will each of you play? You could end up as a leader in the field of sustainability, such as our speaker Dr. Audrey Lee, who is Senior Director of Energy Strategy at Microsoft. Or you could work on medical advances, like speaker Neeta Mhatre, who is a VP at Intuitive Surgical. Or perhaps you will work on the development of new semiconductors that can be used in electronics used to help solve these problems, like speaker Zhan Yu, Senior Director at Marvell Semiconductors. What is clear is that we will need the involvement of all segments of our society to address the complex problems we face. According to the US Census Bureau, in 2021 only 17% of all engineers were women. Our hope is that this conference will inspire you about the possibilities for women in engineering – and to hearten you that although our numbers may be small, we are everywhere.

Join the conference. Listen to the speakers and ask questions. Talk with engineering students from other schools. Explore careers that perhaps you have not considered before. While our conference has had to go virtual once again due to concerns surrounding Covid, we are planning for many opportunities for you to interact with speakers and other attendees.

Our speakers are engineering leaders of today. We rely on you to be our engineering leaders for tomorrow.

Nicole Okamoto, Conference Chair
Associate Dean, Undergraduate Studiess and Student Success
College of Engineering, San José State University