5^th May 2006

DIT's Faculty of Engineering will host a 'role model day' for girls in senior cycle on Friday 5th of May. The event is being organized by WAVES - a group set up by women in the faculty, both lecturers and students.

Based on a model devised by WITS - Women in Technology and Science - students from secondary schools will be invited to attend presentations given by women who are professional engineers, and senior undergraduates currently studying in the faculty. The speakers will talk about how they decided to go into engineering, where they studied, how they got to their current positions and what they do on a day to day basis. Students will be free to ask questions of any of the speakers after each presentation.

During a refreshment break, students and speakers can meet informally, and will be joined by other women engineers from the faculty and from industry. Students can also visit various stands to ask questions about programmes, or log on to DIT's ENGZONE website which provides lots of information about course content and the different types of engineering that may interest different students.

Among the role models present on the day will be the winners of the 2006 All-Ireland Student Enterprise Award. Competing under the name EIRMED, they are five young women in the third year of their Product Design degree in DIT's School of Manufacturing and Design Engineering - Aisling Conroy, Audrey Maher, Jennifer Kent, Siobhan Groark and Honora Egan. For their winning entry for the prestigious competition the team designed a prototype for an 'assistive diagnostic device for bactierial and viral infections in paediatric and geriatric care'. They will talk about their path into engineering, the degree programme they have chosen and their future ambitions as product designers - and of course their recent All-Ireland win!

Invitations have been sent to 300 schools in the Leinster area, and already more than 100 senior cycle students have registered for the event.

The Role Model Seminar will take place in DIT Bolton Street on Friday 5 May 2006 starting at 11.15 and will finish with lunch for all participants at 2.45 pm.

For more details please contact Michael Core, Faculty of Engineering, Dublin Institute of Technology - 01-4024725/87 257 7126 or email michael.core@dit.ie

Click Here to read a Report on the Event: