Girls-only day at the Faculty of Engineering

High school girls will learn how to cut a diamond from stone and hear why “Madonna isn’t the only material girl” when The University of Auckland hosts Enginuity Day.

Each year, the Faculty of Engineering throws its doors open to high school girls for a day in a bid to attract more women to careers in engineering. This year, a record 300 girls from 45 secondary schools across the North Island are taking part.

The girls will hear from female faculty members, including Dr Bryony James whose talk “Madonna isn’t the only material girl” will cover the dynamic field of Chemical and Materials Engineering.

They will also mix with recent female graduates, who occupy roles as diverse as civil engineers, environmental consultants, water resources engineers and chemical engineers.

But the highlight of the day will be when the girls take part in eight different activities demonstrating the creativity and problem solving processes that all engineers use in real life.

The activities range from learning how to use optimisation software to cut a diamond from raw stone; how to design a podcasting feature for a mobile phone; or how to programme a robot to produce surprised speech.

Women in Engineering Equity Adviser Robyn MacLeod says the faculty hopes to increase its number of female students to 50 percent. Currently, 20 percent of engineering undergraduates are women.

"There is a shortage of skilled engineering graduates making it essential to attract more people to the profession," she says. "While the uptake of women into engineering is increasing, they are still significantly underrepresented."

"Engineering graduates earn comparatively high salaries in New Zealand and abroad. It can be a very rewarding and challenging career for both men and women," Ms MacLeod says.

Enginuity Day is on at The Faculty of Engineering, 20 Symonds Street, Auckland City, on Thursday 3 July 2008. Activities take place from 10.30am to 1pm.