March 25, 2024

Happy Women’s History Month! We at the Museum of Life and Science had the pleasure of hosting our annual Engineers Day event earlier this month, and with it some incredible local scientists. Women are still underrepresented in the field of engineering, making up only 16.7% of professional engineers and architects in the United States. I was excited this year to highlight some of the incredible women doing work in this field.

Kendra Settles, an electrical engineer with Siemens, led circuitry activities in The Lab exhibit space. Her programs are always awesome — you may have seen her previously at Black Excellence in Science — with participants quickly connecting to the material. Kendra is an incredible facilitator, and a regular in The Lab, so look out for more chances to learn with and from her in the future!

The NC High Powered Rocketry Club had a blast outside in Hideaway Woods, launching rockets way up into the air and exploring the power of pressure. Indoors, Splat Space tinkerers and engineers showcased some of their work, along with our very own Dawn Trembath, who volunteers with our exhibits team. Dawn has done a substantial amount of work revamping our circuitry table — the new and improved version of which can be found in TinkerLab!

The wonderful Women in Electrical and Computer Engineering (with support from the Quantum Computing Club) from NC State led a quantum computing workshop during the day as well! If you read my blog on Engineers Day from last year, you already know that this material is way out of my comfort zone. But these excellent engineers were able to break down complex topics so that even I could understand them!

Speaking of egg-cellent, I would be remiss not to mention the many successful participants in our first ever Epic Egg Drop Challenges. Using recycled materials, all these young minds were able to design a vessel that protected an egg as it fell from the top of our Hideaway Woods treehouses! I was floored by the overwhelming success of both groups, and the ingenuity displayed throughout the day.

I am so excited to see what we design next year — and to watch the field of engineering become more inclusive over time. So many people are doing important work in breaking barriers, and it is always an honor to give them a platform to share!