Nerd Girls Create Excitement About Engineering

Through a variety of community projects and outreach activities, Nerd Girls, a group of women engineering students at Tufts, are creating excitement about engineering.

What do building a solar race car, powering a lighthouse and developing software to train helper monkeys for quadriplegics have in common? For the engineering students of Tufts' Nerd Girls, they are all ways to demonstrate the thrill of engineering, experience real engineering at work, and make a difference in the community.

This is what Tufts' Dr. Karen Panetta had in mind when she founded the group eight years ago. "The whole idea came when I had well-rounded girls in my class," Panetta told PRISM, a publication of the American Society for Engineering Education, about the creation of Nerd Girls. The associate professor of electrical and computer engineering wanted "to help dispel the myth that engineers are single-minded, anti-social types," according to PRISM. Even freshmen can immerse themselves in Nerd Girls' hands-on projects.

The past and present members of Nerd Girls, including biomedical, computer, mechanical and electrical engineers, have made Panetta's task easy. When they aren't focused on engineering, the students, mostly juniors and seniors and including the occasional male, may be learning new languages, playing the guitar or training for a marathon.

While the Nerd Girls' extracurricular interests vary, those who participate share a bond: They work together on exciting, hands-on engineering projects. In addition to building a solar race car, the team has collaborated on developing alternative energy solutions to power an 18th century lighthouse on a small island off the coast of Rockport, Mass. According to Cara Vik, a senior in chemical engineering, the lighthouse project helped her learn to work independently and empowered her with confidence. "This was 'for real.' We had to make the lighthouse work for the client; that was a real confidence-booster," she says.

Currently, members of Nerd Girls are developing a system that will enable people with physical disabilities to interact more effectively with "helper monkeys" trained to aid them with their daily tasks. The engineers are designing a mechanism that will allow quadraplegics to feed the monkeys and let them in and out of their cages using voice-activated software. With the voice-activated software, disabled patients will be better able to care for and control their helper monkeys, allowing these quadraplegics to live more independently.

"There are people lined up for these [cage] doors, so the pressure is on," Valery Thompson, a senior electrical and biomedical engineering student, told PRISM. "But so far this has been my favorite project because it's improving someone's life."

The Nerd Girls take this enthusiasm for their work to local schools. There they talk to students with the hope of piquing children's interest in science and technology. Panetta and her students recently spoke to a group of Massachusetts eighth graders who paid a visit to Tufts. Among Panetta's key points: Engineering is exciting. "If you think being an engineer is sitting around and being boring, you're dead wrong," she told the youngsters.

According to PRISM, "Many of the Nerd Girls say the experience has helped shape their future." This year's crop of graduates fielded offers from prominent companies including The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc., Ford Motor Company and General Motors Corporation, as well as leading graduate schools.

PRISM also noted that Nerd Girls "has caught the attention of the local and national press," with a reality television show potentially on the horizon. While the details have not been finalized, Panetta told PRISM that it's an exciting opportunity.

"It's going to change the way our nation's youth think about engineering," she told the publication.

Photos by Tufts University Photography