Using biographies of outstanding women in computer engineering to

							     Using biographies of outstanding women
       in computer engineering to dispel false
                 impressions about engineers
                                                                                            Yin Kiong Hoh


    ABSTRACT The author has carried out an activity with 80 teachers to enable them to reconsider
    their perceptions of engineers. This introduced them to 20 outstanding women in computer
    engineering, and raised their awareness of their contributions to engineering and society. The
    results revealed that the activity was effective in countering typical perceptions of engineers. By
    providing detailed information about the personal lives and work experiences, the biographies
    might be useful in countering existing cultural stereotypes of female engineers and initiating
    changes in perceptions needed to narrow the gender gap in engineering.


    The	perception	that	engineers	and	scientists	         science	in	Austria.	In	Germany	it	was	15.1%,	in	
    are	intelligent	Caucasian	men	who	are	socially	       France	22.1%	and	in	the	USA	27.1%	(National	
    inept	and	absent-minded	seems	to	be	prevalent	        Science	Foundation,	2006).
    among	students	of	all	levels,	from	elementary	            Fortunately,	research	has	shown	that	strategies	
    school	to	college	(Congressional	Commission	          such	as	presentation	of	female	role	models,	
    on	the	Advancement	of	Women	and	Minorities	           distribution	of	career	information,	examination	
    in	Science,	Engineering	and	Technology	               of	gender-equitable	materials,	and	participation	
    Development	[CCAWMSETD],	2000;	Knight	                in	hands-on	science	investigations	are	effective	
    and	Cunningham,	2004).	While	the	media	may,	          in	countering	the	stereotypical	perceptions	of	
    by	chance	or	choice,	promote	this	image,	it	is	       engineers	and	scientists	(Anderson	and	Gilbride,	
    unfortunately	not	far	from	reality.	For	example,	     2003).	Research	has	also	pointed	to	the	presence	
    while	women	constituted	46.1%	of	the	general	         of	female	role	models	as	the	most	important	
    workforce	of	the	USA	in	2000,	they	represented	       factor	in	sustaining	girls’	interests	in	engineering	
    only	25.4%	of	the	engineering	and	science	            and	science	(Advocates	for	Women	in	Science,	
    workforce	(National	Science	Foundation,	              Engineering	and	Mathematics,	2000).
    2006).	These	stereotypical	images	of	engineers	           In	order	to	reach	out	to	students	at	an	early	
    and	scientists	as	Caucasian	men	have,	in	part,	       age	when	they	are	still	impressionable,	many	
    discouraged	many	young	women	from	pursuing	           universities	have	recently	organised	outreach	
    any	interest	they	may	have	in	an	engineering	         programmes	to	inform	high-school	teachers	about	
    or	a	science	career	because	they	do	not	want	to	      engineering,	in	the	hope	that	this	will	encourage	
    be	the	people	so	often	portrayed	in	the	media	        their	students	to	study	engineering	(Jeffers,	
    (Brownlow,	Smith	and	Ellis,	2002).                    Safferman	and	Safferman,	2004).	The	feedback	
        Stereotypical	images	of	engineers	and	            from	such	programmes	has	been	encouraging.
    scientists	have	contributed,	in	part,	to	the	             For	this	work,	the	author	wanted	to	inform	
    existing	gender	gap	in	engineering	and	science	       teachers	about	the	applications	of	engineering,	
    (CCAWMSETD,	2000).	This	gender	gap	can	be	            to	demonstrate	the	problem-solving	approach	
    traced	back	to	the	educational	choices	made	by	       of	engineers,	to	correct	perceptions	of	engineers	
    young	women.	Statistics	show	that	women	in	the	       generally,	and	to	provide	them	with	female	
    OECD	countries	earn	fewer	Bachelor’s	degrees	in	      role	models	from	the	various	disciplines	of	
    most	engineering	and	scientific	fields	as	compared	   engineering.	To	achieve	these	goals,	the	author	
    with	men.	For	example,	in	2003,	women	earned	         recently	conducted	a	number	of	outreach	
    only	9.5%	of	all	Bachelor’s	degrees	in	computer	      workshop	activities	for	80	high-school	computer	
	                                                                       SSR September	2009,	91(334)	      113
Biographies of outstanding women in computer engineering                                                  Hoh



science	teachers.	The	teachers	were	then	                conduct	their	research	and	were	encouraged	to	use	
encouraged	to	integrate	what	they	had	learned	           Internet	resources.
from	the	workshop	into	their	teaching.                       To	familiarise	the	participants	with	the	
                                                         discipline	of	computer	engineering,	individuals	
Method                                                   from	a	broad	range	of	specialties	were	included	
The	45	male	and	35	female	teachers	were	first	           in	Box	1.	These	areas	of	specialisation	were:	
asked	to	complete	a	‘draw-an-engineer’	test	to	          coding,	cryptography	and	information	protection;	
assess	their	perceptions	of	engineers.	The	test	         communications	and	wireless	networks;	compilers	
required	them	to	draw	a	picture	of	an	engineer	          and	operating	systems;	computational	science	
at	work	(Knight	and	Cunningham,	2004).	The	              and	engineering;	computer	networks,	mobile	
drawings	were	analysed	as	follows.	Drawings	             computing	and	distributed	systems;	computer	
showing	short	hair	and	broad	shoulders	were	             systems	–	architecture,	parallel	processing	and	
regarded	as	males	and	those	with	long	hair	and	          dependability;	computer	vision	and	robotics;	
narrow	shoulders	as	females.	Engineers	working	          embedded	systems;	integrated	circuits,	very	
with	one	or	more	of	the	following	items	were	            large-scale	integration	design,	testing	and	
considered	as	engaged	in	building	or	repairing:	         computer-aided	design;	and	signal,	image	and	
hard	hat,	workbench,	heavy	machinery,	hammer,	           speech	processing.	The	range	of	specialties	would	
wrench,	car,	engine,	rocket,	airplane,	robot,	bridge,	   enable	the	participants	to	note	that	the	work	of	
road,	building,	train	and	train	track.	Those	working	    computer	engineers	was	grounded	not	only	in	
with	computer,	blueprint,	pen,	model	and/or	desk	        the	hardware	–	from	circuits	to	architecture	–	but	
were	regarded	as	engaged	in	planning	or	designing,	      also	in	operating	systems	and	software	(Sloan	
while	those	working	with	test-tube	and/or	beaker	        Career	Cornerstone	Center,	2008).	The	computer	
were	deemed	to	be	doing	laboratory	work.                 engineers	worked	on	the	design,	planning,	
    The	participants	were	then	randomly	divided	         development,	testing,	and	even	the	supervision	of	
into	groups	of	four,	and	the	groups	were	each	           manufacturing	of	computer	hardware	–	including	
assigned	someone	to	research	from	the	20	                everything	from	chips	to	device	controllers.	They	
outstanding	women	in	computer	engineering	listed	        might	also	focus	on	computer	networks	for	the	
in	Box	1.	The	participants	were	given	one	week	to	       transmission	of	data	and	multimedia,	and	design	
                                                         and	develop	software	applications.
 BOX 1 Outstanding women in computer                         Each	group	was	required	to	produce	a	
 engineering                                             20-minute	oral	presentation	and	submit	a	written	
 1.	 Prathima	Agrawal                                    report	on	the	female	computer	engineer	assigned	
 2.	 Frances	E.	Allen                                    to	the	group.	The	participants	were	required	to	
 3.	 Ruzena	K.	Bajcsy                                    design	and	present	various	documents	to	give	an	
 4.	 Alice	M.	Chiang                                     overview	of	the	computer	engineer’s	life,	such	as	
 5.	 Frederica	Darema                                    birth	certificate,	educational	certificates,	marriage	
 6.	 Susan	J.	Eggers                                     certificate	and	summary	of	a	hypothetical	research	
 7.	 Susan	L.	Graham                                     post	that	the	female	computer	engineer	wished	to	
 8.	 Mary	Jane	Irwin                                     apply	for.	They	were	also	required	to	address	the	
 9.	 Ruby	B.	Lee                                         following	questions	during	the	presentation:
 10.	Nancy	G.	Leveson                                    l	 Who	inspired	her	to	become	a	computer	
 11.	Barbara	H.	Liskov                                   engineer?
 12.	Jane	W.	S.	Liu                                      l	 What	were	her	research	interests?
 13.	Teresa	H.	Meng                                      l	 What	were	her	major	research	findings,	and	
 14.	Catherine	P.	Rosenberg                              how	had	they	influenced	current	knowledge?
 15.	Jean	E.	Sammet                                      l	 What	were	the	difficulties	she	had	encountered	
 16.	Patricia	G.	Selinger                                in	her	research	or	work,	and	how	had	she	
 17.	Eva	Tardos                                          overcome	them?
 18.	Bhavani	M.	Thuraisingham                            l	 What	were	some	issues	in	her	life	which	were	
 19.	Elaine	J.	Weyuker                                   unusually	inspiring	for	young	women	studying	
 20.	Jeannette	M.	Wing                                   engineering?

114	 SSR		September	2009,	91(334)
    Hoh                                   Biographies of outstanding women in computer engineering


         Each	oral	presentation	was	followed	by	a	
                                                            BOX 2 Post-activity survey questions
    five-minute	question-and-answer	session.	After	
    all	the	groups	had	presented,	the	‘draw-an-             1	 Who	inspired	the	female	computer	engineers	
    engineer’	test	was	administered	again	to	determine	     featured	in	the	oral	presentations	to	become	
    the	effectiveness	of	the	oral	presentations.	The	       engineers?
    significance	of	differences	in	drawings	before	         	 Parents
    and	after	the	intervention	was	assessed	using	          	 Peers
    McNemar’s	Test	for	the	Significance	of	Changes.	        	 Relatives
                                                            	 Teachers
    A	post-activity	survey	consisting	of	four	forced-
                                                            	 Others.	Please	specify	...................................
    choice	items	was	also	administered	(Box	2),	
    which	required	the	high-school	teachers	to	             2	 What	appointments	did	the	female	computer	
    indicate	what	they	had	noted	about	the	female	          engineers	featured	in	the	oral	presentations	hold?
    computer	engineers	in	terms	of:                         	 Professor
                                                            	 Senior	position	in	the	civil	engineering	industry
    l	 Who	inspired	them	to	become	engineers?
                                                            	 Senior	position	in	the	government
    l	 What	appointments	did	they	hold?
                                                            	 Laboratory	assistant
    l	 What	difficulties	did	they	encounter	at	their	       	 Others.	Please	specify	...................................
    workplaces?
    l	 How	did	they	cope	with	both	work	and	family	         3	 What	difficulties	did	the	female	computer	
    life?                                                   engineers	featured	in	the	oral	presentations	
                                                            encounter	at	their	workplaces?
    Results and discussion                                  	 Absence	of	female	role	models,	mentors	and	
    The	author	observed	that	the	female	engineers	             colleagues
    featured	during	the	oral	presentations	successfully	    	 Inadequate	physical	strength
    captured	the	attention	of	the	participants.	The	        	 Male	supervisors’	stereotyping	of	women’s	
                                                               abilities
    teachers	became	actively	involved	in	the	question-
                                                            	 Differences	in	communication	style	between	
    and-answer	sessions,	showing	greater	enthusiasm	
                                                               male	supervisors	and	female	engineers
    than	expected.                                          	 Difficulty	in	coping	with	both	family	and	career
        The	participants	commented	that	                    	 Lower	pay	scales	and	slower	promotion	rates	
    administering	the	‘draw-an-engineer’	test	at	the	          for	females	compared	with	males
    outset	without	them	suspecting	anything,	was	a	         	 Others.	Please	specify	...................................
    powerful	way	to	make	them	become	aware	of	
    their	entrenched	perceptions	of	engineers.	The	         4	 How	did	the	female	computer	engineers	
                                                            featured	in	the	oral	presentations	cope	with	both	
    percentage	of	male	participants	who	depicted	
                                                            work	and	family	life?
    engineers	as	men	decreased	from	100%	before	
    the	intervention	to	62%	afterwards	(p	<	0.01).	For	     	 Quitting	and	resuming	career	some	years	later
                                                            	 Pro-family	workplace	policies
    females,	the	decrease	was	from	91%	to	31%	after	
                                                            	 Having	a	supportive	and	understanding	
    the	intervention	(p	<	0.01).	The	male	participants’	       husband
    perceptions	of	engineers	as	men	seemed	to	be	           	 Having	an	efficient	domestic	help
    more	tenacious	(38%	reduction)	than	those	of	the	       	 Others.	Please	specify	...................................
    female	participants	(56%	reduction).
        In	the	drawings,	the	participants	showed	
    engineers	engaged	in	building	or	repairing,	           participants	who	depicted	engineers	engaged	in	
    planning	or	designing,	or	laboratory	work.	The	        planning	or	designing	increased	from	27%	before	
    results	showed	that	the	activity	was	effective	in	     the	intervention	to	91%	after	the	intervention,	
    countering	the	participants’	perceptions	of	the	       while	that	of	female	participants	increased	from	
    nature	of	engineering	jobs.	The	percentage	of	male	    20%	to	91%.	Thus,	prior	to	the	intervention,	a	
    participants	who	portrayed	engineers	engaged	in	       majority	of	the	participants	had	the	misperception	
    building	or	repairing	decreased	from	67%	before	       that	engineering	jobs	involved	a	lot	of	manual	
    the	intervention	to	4%	after	the	intervention,	        work	and	were	physically	demanding.	The	oral	
    while	that	of	female	participants	decreased	from	      presentations	enabled	the	participants	to	note	that	
    74%	to	3%.	Conversely,	the	percentage	of	male	         engineers	were	increasingly	required	to	think,	

	                                                                          SSR September	2009,	91(334)	               115
Biographies of outstanding women in computer engineering                                                 Hoh



plan,	design	and	communicate,	and	not	just	do	            revelations	might	deter	talented	young	women	
manual	work.	In	order	to	encourage	more	girls	            from	pursuing	careers	in	engineering.	This	is	a	
to	pursue	engineering,	teachers	need	to	highlight	        significant	point	because	research	shows	that	
to	students	that	in	today’s	knowledge-based	and	          young	women	are	less	likely	to	choose	careers	in	
innovation-driven	economy,	engineering	requires	          science	because	of	the	difficulties	associated	with	
intellectual	ability	and	capacity	for	innovation	and	     doing	science	(Clewell	and	Campbell,	2002).	The	
less	manual	work.                                         participants	felt	that,	while	it	was	important	to	
     In	the	post-activity	test,	the	participants	noted	   raise	young	women’s	awareness	of	the	unfriendly	
that	the	female	engineers	studied	cited	the	role	         environment	that	might	exist	in	engineering,	
of	their	parents	or	teachers	in	encouraging	their	        it	was	even	more	important	to	highlight	the	
pursuit	of	an	engineering	career.	Research	has	           progress	being	made	towards	more	inclusive	
pointed	out	the	importance	of	parental	support	           workplaces	in	engineering.
in	fostering	young	women’s	interest	in	science-               It	was	noted	that	the	female	engineers	were	
related	careers	(Tilleczek	and	Lewko,	2001).	             able	to	cope	with	both	work	and	family	life	because	
Research	has	also	shown	that	teachers	play	a	             of	pro-family	workplace	policies,	and	having	a	
critical	role	in	young	women’s	decision	to	pursue	        supportive	and	understanding	husband	and	efficient	
careers	in	engineering	and	science	(Schoon,	              domestic	help.	This	is	an	important	point	because	
Ross	and	Martin,	2007).	All	these	might	suggest	          concerns	about	how	to	balance	work	and	family	
that	organising	outreach	programmes	directed	             responsibilities	appear	to	be	a	recurring	issue	in	
specifically	at	parents	or	teachers	might	help	to	        research	on	the	factors	that	keep	young	women	
narrow	the	gender	gap	in	engineering.                     from	pursuing	engineering	and	science	careers	
     The	fact	that	these	female	engineers	held	           (CCAWMSETD,	2000).	In	order	to	encourage	
senior	positions	in	academia,	government	or	              more	young	women	to	pursue	engineering,	it	is	
industry	was	also	noted.	Many	of	them	were	               thus	important	to	highlight	how	female	engineers	
members	of	the	US	National	Academy	of	                    successfully	combined	work	and	family.
Engineering	(NAE)	or	fellows	of	the	American	
Academy	of	Arts	and	Sciences	(AAAS),	the	
                                                          Conclusion
Association	for	Computing	Machinery	(ACM)	                The	results	showed	that	the	activity	appeared	
or	the	Institute	of	Electrical	and	Electronics	           effective	in	countering	false	perceptions	of	
Engineers	(IEEE).	They	were	different	from	the	           engineers	among	high-school	teachers.	By	
female	engineers	the	participants	had	encountered	        providing	detailed	information	about	the	personal	
and	those	found	in	many	studies,	where	most	              lives	and	work	experiences,	the	biographies	
female	characters	were	shown	as	pupils,	laboratory	       might	be	useful	in	countering	existing	cultural	
assistants	or	science	reporters	(Steinke,	2004).	         stereotypes	of	female	engineers	and	initiating	
These	engineers	could	therefore	be	used	to	               changes	in	perceptions	needed	to	narrow	the	
overcome	existing	stereotypes	of	female	engineers.        gender	gap	in	engineering.	The	activity	could	
     The	participants	noted	that	the	female	              also	be	used	with	elementary	and	middle-school	
engineers	acknowledged	that	they	had	                     teachers,	and	might	enable	them	to	correct	
encountered	difficulties	at	their	workplaces.	            false	impressions	about	engineers	amongst	
These	included:	the	absence	of	female	                    their	students.	Furthermore,	the	activity	could	
role	models,	mentors	and	colleagues;	male	                be	carried	out	by	professors	with	female	
supervisors’	stereotyping	of	women’s	abilities;	          undergraduates	or	graduate	students	in	order	
differences	in	communication	style	between	male	          to	provide	them	with	female	role	models.	This	
supervisors	and	female	engineers;	difficulty	in	          would	encourage	them	to	pursue	and	excel	in	
coping	with	both	family	and	career;	and	lower	            computer	engineering	as	a	course	of	study	and	
pay	scales	and	slower	promotion	rates	for	females	        as	a	profession.	It	is	hoped	that	more	educators	
as	compared	with	males.	The	female	engineers	             will	use	this	type	of	activity	to	correct	the	myth	
also	mentioned,	however,	progress	made	towards	           amongst	girls	and	young	women	that	a	career	in	
acceptance	and	equality.	The	participants	felt	that,	     engineering	is	not	for	them.
although	these	difficulties	truthfully	reflected	             Box	3	summarises	some	of	the	biographical	
the	experiences	of	the	female	engineers,	such	            details	collected	by	the	20	working	groups.	

116	 SSR		September	2009,	91(334)
    Hoh                                      Biographies of outstanding women in computer engineering



     BOX 3 Summarised biographies produced by the teams on a selection of the engineers listed in Box 1
     Prathima Agrawal
     She	was	the	Samuel	Ginn	Distinguished	Professor	in	the	Department	of	Electrical	and	Computer	
     Engineering	at	Auburn	University.	Internationally	renowned	for	her	research	on	computer	networks,	
     wireless	communication	systems,	computer-aided	design	and	testing	of	integrated	circuits,	and	parallel	
     computing	architecture	and	algorithms.	Held	48	patents.	Elected	a	fellow	of	IEEE.
     Ruzena K. Bajcsy
     She	was	an	Emeritus	Professor	in	the	Department	of	Electrical	Engineering	and	Computer	Sciences	at	
     University	of	California,	Berkeley.	Internationally	renowned	for	pioneering	research	on	artificial	intelligence,	
     machine	perception	and	robotics.	Elected	a	member	of	the	US	NAE	and	Institute	of	Medicine,	and	a	
     fellow	of	ACM	and	IEEE.
     Ruby B. Lee
     She	was	a	Professor	of	Electrical	Engineering	and	Computer	Science	at	Princeton	University.	
     Internationally	renowned	for	pioneering	multimedia	instructions	in	general-purpose	processor	architecture,	
     and	innovations	in	the	design	and	implementation	of	the	instruction-set	architecture	of	RISC	processors.	
     Held	115	patents.	Elected	a	fellow	of	ACM	and	IEEE.
     Teresa H. Meng
     She	was	the	Reid	Weaver	Dennis	Professor	in	the	Department	of	Electrical	Engineering	at	Stanford	
     University.	Internationally	renowned	for	contributions	to	the	system	integration	of	algorithms,	parallel	
     architectures	and	signal	processing	circuits,	and	for	pioneering	the	development	of	distributed	wireless	
     network	technology.	Held	15	patents.	Elected	a	member	of	the	US	NAE,	and	a	fellow	of	IEEE.
     Catherine P. Rosenberg
     She	was	a	Professor	and	the	Chair	of	the	Department	of	Electrical	and	Computer	Engineering	at	
     the	University	of	Waterloo,	Canada.	Internationally	renowned	for	contributions	to	wireless	networks,	
     broadband	networks,	multimedia	applications,	quality	of	service,	traffic	engineering	and	network	security.	
     Held	eight	patents.



    Readers	are	encouraged	to	use	the	same	exercise	           would	deliver	mainly	female	pictures.	Afterwards,	
    with	students	to	find	details	about	the	other	female	      people	know	what	is	expected	and	why	they	
    computer	engineers	listed	in	Box	1.	Alternatively,	        are	being	asked.	Hence	the	results	are	not	then	
    this	information	is	available	from	the	author.             necessarily	genuine	reflections	of	their	feelings.	
        Teachers	and	professors	need	to	take	every	            They	still	have	other	experiences.	Some	will	
    opportunity	to	assure	girls	and	young	women	that	          draw	females,	believing	that	is	what	the	presenter	
    females	can	contribute	as	significantly	as	males	          wants,	without	changing	their	true	ideas.	Others	
    to	engineering.	As	the	world	economy	becomes	              will	deliberately	not	draw	females	because	they	
    increasingly	reliant	on	a	technologically	literate	        know	that	most	engineers	are	male	even	though	
    workforce,	the	world	cannot	afford	to	overlook	            they	have	accepted	that	some	top	engineers	are	
    the	talent	and	potential	contributions	of	half	of	the	     female.	Using	only	the	very	narrow	evidence	of	
    population.	If	it	does,	societies,	nations	and	our	        this	directed	research	(only	computer	engineers	
    world	will	suffer.                                         and	only	females)	the	inference	would	be	that	all	
                                                               engineers	are	female,	which	is	of	course	not	true.
    Limitations
                                                               References
    Participants	in	this	or	any	similar	study	cannot	
    be	guaranteed	to	give	responses	that	demonstrate	          Advocates	for	Women	in	Science,	Engineering	and	
                                                                Mathematics	(2000)	In their nature: Compelling 
    their	genuine	thinking.	The	‘draw-an-engineer’	             reasons to engage girls in science.	Available	at:	www.
    activity	(with	no	introduction)	would	certainly	            saturdayacademy.pdx.edu/awsem/Articles/AWSEM_In_
    bring	results	with	male-dominated	figures	                  Their_Nature.pdf	(visited	December	2008).
    anywhere	in	the	world,	just	as	‘draw-a-nurse’	             Anderson,	L.	S.	and	Gilbride,	K.	A.	(2003)	Pre-university	
                                                                outreach:	encouraging	students	to	consider	engineering	

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Biographies of outstanding women in computer engineering                                                               Hoh



  careers.	Global Journal of Engineering Education,	7(1),	        students’	ideas	about	engineers	and	engineering.	
  87–93.                                                          Proceedings of the 2004 American Society for 
Brownlow,	S.,	Smith,	T.	J.	and	Ellis,	B.	R.	(2002)	How	           Engineering Education Annual Conference and 
  interest	in	science	negatively	influences	perceptions	of	       Exposition.	Salt	Lake	City,	UT.
  women.	Journal of Science Education and Technology,	          National	Science	Foundation	(2006)	Women, minorities 
  11(2),	135–144.                                                 and persons with disabilities in science and engineering.	
Clewell,	B.	C.	and	Campbell,	P.	B.	(2002)	Taking	stock:	          Available	at:	www.nsf.gov/statistics/wmpd/listtables.htm	
  where	we’ve	been,	where	we	are,	where	we’re	going.	             (visited	December	2008).
  Journal of Women and Minorities in Science and                Schoon,	I.,	Ross,	A.	and	Martin,	P.	(2007)	Science-related	
  Engineering,	8,	255–284.                                        careers:	aspirations	and	outcomes	in	two	British	cohort	
Congressional	Commission	on	the	Advancement	of	Women	             studies.	Equal Opportunities International,	26(2),	
  and	Minorities	in	Science,	Engineering	and	Technology	          129–143.
  Development	(CCAWMSETD)	(2000)	Land of plenty:                Sloan	Career	Cornerstone	Center	(2008)	Computer 
  diversity as America’s competitive edge in science,             engineering.	Available	at:	www.careercornerstone.org/
  engineering and technology.	Available	at:	www.nsf.gov/          compeng/compeng.htm	(visited	December	2008).
  pubs/2000/cawmset0409/cawmset_0409.pdf	(visited	              Steinke,	J.	(2004)	Science	in	cyberspace:	Science	and	
  December	2008).                                                 engineering	World	Wide	Web	sites	for	girls.	Public 
Jeffers,	A.	T.,	Safferman,	A.	G.	and	Safferman,	S.	I.	(2004)	     Understanding of Science,	13(1),	7–30.
  Understanding	K-12	engineering	outreach	programs.	            Tilleczek,	K.	C.	and	Lewko,	J.	H.	(2001)	Factors	
  Journal of Professional Issues in Engineering Education         influencing	the	pursuit	of	health	and	science	careers	for	
  and Practice,	130(4),	95–108.                                   Canadian	adolescents	in	transition	from	school	to	work.	
Knight,	M.	and	Cunningham,	C.	(2004)	Draw	an	engineer	            Journal of Youth Studies,	4(4),	415–428.
  test	(DAET):	development	of	a	tool	to	investigate	


Dr Yin Kiong Hoh is	Assistant	Professor,	Natural	Sciences	and	Science	Education,	at	the	National	
Institute	of	Education,	Nanyang	Technological	University,	Singapore.	Email:	yinkiong.hoh@nie.edu.sg




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