Emma Pierson
机械工程部研究生助理
阿克伦大学
Emma Pierson began her journey into engineering through nursing. She spent two years in the nursing program at Akron, but felt unchallenged by the classes.
“我觉得这些课程不一定像我认为大学那样让我工作。我不想上大学，而没有想到我真的很真正地赚了一些东西。因此，我开始探索其他专业，并且由于我已经参加了所有解剖学和生理学课程，因此我进入了生物医学工程。当您在这条赛道上时，您正在参加许多大二机械工程课程。我很喜欢他们。我知道我还有更多的职业选择，并具有机械工程学位，因为这是一个广泛的学科。这就是我改用机械工程的时候。
目前，皮尔森（Pierson）是克利夫兰NASA Glenn Research Center的一名途径实习生，与人为因素实验室合作。她正在参加统计研究生课程，并希望专注于动态和振动。
皮尔森（Pierson）很幸运能拥有一名母亲工程师。榛树玛丽（Hazel Marie）也在本期中进行了介绍。
皮尔森说：“我想妈妈实际上完成了博士学位时，我才12岁，所以在我的青春期，妈妈都在学校。如果我不知道她在职业生涯中有多满足，即使这是一个充满挑战的领域，并且知道这是并且一直是一个非常受追捧的领域，我也不会想到要进入工程学。”
皮尔森（Pierson）在她的几位教授中还发现了强大的影响者。“博士我的振动教授凯利（Kelly）确实让我想追求振动场。”她说。“很高兴看到有人非常了解主题材料。我真的很吸引它。他真的吸引了我进入机械工程的系统动力学部分。”
Putting statistics, dynamics, and vibration to use
皮尔森（Pierson）在学习学位的同时，是一名合作实习生，曾与固特异（Goodyear）进行四种涉及轮胎工程的旋转。在这些合作计划中，她曾从事过多个项目，其中包括由NSF资助的一个名为to STEM的NSF资助的项目。在这个为期三年的项目中，阿克伦大学的工程系和教育系创建了八年级课程，将在阿克伦公立学校科学课上实施。在此课程中，教师将教育学生有关空气动力学的基础知识。然后，学生将使用基本的3D建模技术设计微型肥皂盒德比汽车。一旦学生完成设计，他们就会将其上传到虚拟风洞中。
“And that’s where we became involved,” says Pierson, “because my senior design team was tasked with creating that virtual wind tunnel capable of uploading any 3D model of a certain size, running a computational fluid dynamic analysis on it, and outputting a simple drag value for those students to learn from. We used Matlab to create the virtual wind tunnel because this program has functions that we used to code the graphical user interface and create the CFD functions for the final output.”
The students were allowed several iterations to improve their design and then they could 3D print it and test it in a small wind tunnel provided for all of the Akron public schools. The final step was to actually race their design on a miniature track.
The U of A project gives public school students a chance to see the whole engineering process in terms of design, analysis, redesign, prototype, and test.
目前，皮尔森（Pierson）正在从事一个具有挑战性的项目。“我正在利用我在虚拟风洞的高级设计项目中学到的许多技能。这个新项目是我的硕士工作，我通过联邦航空管理局资助。他们正在开发与天气有关的培训。他们想看看，如果将概率的天气信息实施到其显示器而不是确定性信息，则如何将空中交通管制员的天气传播转换为飞行员。”
Pierson is making another standalone program that will show either deterministic or deterministic and probabilistic information on weather patterns.
她说：“这是充满挑战的部分，是我在其他人已经开始进行背景研究的六个月后进入了这个项目。所以我不得不快速起步。对于机械工程师来说，知道如何编码可以执行我们能够做的事情类型的软件接口是一件奇怪的事情。”
问题是,以前的程序员没有know how to test probabilistic versus deterministic situations. “There were a lot of different minds on this project,” she says, “and it was a challenge influencing them to cooperate in how I knew it could be done. We just presented it to the FAA this summer, and they are going to continue funding us. But the challenge is, when you’re working with other engineers, trying not to “step on any toes” in terms of what they’ve already done. When there are multiple people involved, you have to be able to fight for what you think should be done if you know the way to do it. It would be nice if engineering schools included classes on how to deal with human behavior. I definitely think it’s important to choose your own attitude,” she says. “You decide in every situation how you will respond.”
鼓励他人
皮尔森（Pierson）看到一个普遍但很少提到的教育方面，可以阻止妇女攻读科学学位。
“自五年级以来，我一直参加高级数学课。但是前阵容对我来说是一场挣扎。数学老师直接告诉我：“也许您只是不擅长数学。”不幸的是，我认为很多女性都看到了这种态度。仅仅因为您在主题的一个方面挣扎，老师就会以为您只是不擅长，并且不会停止怀疑他们的教学方法是否是一个问题。当您从另一个老师那里参加类似的课程时，这很容易，现在您想知道为什么您无法从另一个老师那里得到它，但是您可以从这个老师那里得到？然后，您意识到一个人能够到达您，而另一个老师无法接触您。”
皮尔森（Pierson）看到每个人的学习方式都不同。但是许多教育者认为，由于他们成功地教导许多学生，这不是他们的教学方法，而是学生“不擅长”。
“我认为这经常发生，”皮尔森继续说道。In my grad program, I come into contact with people from many different countries, and I’ve had discussions with them about it, and they say that in their country, when someone is struggling with math, it is never, “Oh, you’re not good at it.” It’s, “Try again.”
“In our middle and high school educational system, I’ve seen and heard this same type of story way too often where assumptions are made that maybe you’re not good at this. I think if we could change that type of attitude, it would be a world of a difference. At Akron they have a crash course in software where they do SolidWorks, Matlab, and AutoCad in one semester. You see it then. There are obviously students who have strength in 3D modeling but are not so good at coding. And then you have the students who are great at coding, but their strength isn’t 3D modeling. We need all types of engineers, and I don’t know why we’re so focused on turning out only one type of engineer.”
与人打交道
在皮尔森（Pierson）的合作社中，她了解到，如果某人对与您合作不感兴趣并与您交谈，那不是您，就是他们。她学会了不亲自接受事情的价值。“很多时候，这是别人的问题。找到真正想与您合作的人，并且确实想确保您在走得太远的想法之前就了解您的理解。
“如果工程世界将为女性腾出空间，我认为男人的态度需要改变。我真的不认为这只是一个女人的问题。我认为，对于男性的教育，需要做得更好，这个世界上有女性的空间。到目前为止所做的一切都很棒，但是我认为我们需要在让男人加入它方面做得更好。
“我在研究生院的许多男学生中的许多同学认为，女性的能力较低，她们获得的机会比男人更多。当事实并非如此时，他们对此表示仇恨。当妇女获得奖学金，求职面试等时，他们认为这些妇女仅仅因为她是多样性的选择而收到的。不是因为她赢得了。
“I think this viewpoint is in a lot of the world of engineering where woman have to prove themselves before being respected in any position. But when a man comes in and takes that same position, it’s assumed that they’ve already 100% earned it. You see this in school and in industry.”
皮尔森网站一个年轻的女导演的一个例子at Goodyear. “I’m friends with a lot of men there, and they feel free to debate these issues with me. One time there was plenty of commentary about this female director being promoted at a young age, even though there was a man in the same position two years younger than her. The conversation was, “Oh, what did she do to get there so fast? But they don’t question the younger man and how come he advanced so fast. When a woman moves ahead, it’s “diversity pick.” That’s the first thing that always comes out of their mouth.”
As young as Pierson is, she’s not alone among women grad students noticing such attitudes.
Which goes to show that engineering is not just about math, science, numbers and problem solving. It’s also about people, a subject that should be covered more in today’s engineering classes.
提交以下：工程领域的妇女
