My name is Emma Christensen and I am fortunate enough to be taking part in a program promoting women in engineering at the UPEI Faculty of Sustainable Design Engineering this summer. It is a five-week program in which we are introduced to life as an engineering student and women working in engineering fields. I will be going into grade 11 in September at Colonel Gray High School. I applied for this program because I am interested in science and math, I wanted to see what life as an engineer is like, and I wanted to develop a deeper understanding of what it means to study engineering.

My Project

I will be working with Ankita Shrestha along with Dr. Bishnu Acharya on a project involving finding a use for sea lettuce as a biofuel. Sea lettuce has become an increasing problem for PEI fishermen as it is an invasive species that has overtaken rivers, killing native fish and shellfish. Ankita is taking the sea lettuce and putting it through Hydrothermal Carbonization (HTC) after mixing it with water, which produces char and processed water. The char can be burned to create heat, and the processed water can be converted to biogas, which can also be burned and used in households.

Week 1: July 9-13

We started our first week with introductions and tours of the UPEI campus and the Sustainable Design Engineering building. We completed mandatory WHMIS training, and had an introduction to Solidworks, which is a Computer Assisted Design (CAD) program where we followed tutorials on how to make 3D shapes and designs. I met my mentor, Ankita, and we started working together on the project. We ran her experiment for the first time this week, which was very exciting, as was seeing the alterations produce different results in the following three tests. We also went on a field trip to Aspin Kemp and Associates, which is a company that works with clients to create energy-efficient products such as hybrid tugboats, microgrids, and potato harvesters. We got a tour where we were introduced to the various products, as well as being shown inside a microgrid, which is a device that converts energy from solar or wind power plants to energy that can be used in households. I really enjoyed meeting successful women engineers and being introduced to an engineer work environment. This week has been an amazing start to ProGRES and I am excited to see what the next four weeks will bring.

Week 2: July 16-20

This week was focused on learning more about and becoming more familiar with our projects with our mentors. Throughout the week I worked with Ankita in the lab doing tests with the biochar such as Proximate Analysis (test for moisture, volatile matter, which is the gas that escapes at extreme heat, and ash), as well as Ultimate Analysis (testing for carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen and sulfur in a machine called an Elemental Analyzer), and putting samples in the Bomb Calorimeter (measures the amount of energy the sample gives off when burned). We also designed our own projects using Solidworks and sent them to Jeff so they can be printed on the 3D printer next week. We were invited to attend Dr. Burton's seminar about Soil Health on Tuesday, and Dr. Hsaio and Dr. Moran's presentations on Wednesday. I really enjoyed hearing how Dr. Hsaio got to where she is today, and more about what she does as a researcher. Dr. Moran's presentation was also interesting because he talked about his travels and studies in the history of mental health. On Thursday we took a field trip to Diversified Metal Engineering Ltd. (DME). DME is a company that, much like AKA, works with clients to create products made of stainless steel such as vessels for producing beer, that are shipped worldwide, to destinations as far as Australia, New Zealand, and China. This has been an awesome week and I look forward to meeting more women engineers and continue the project with Ankita.

Week 3: July 23-27

This week was very different for me because Ankita has been away at a conference in Toronto starting on Tuesday, so I have been working independently for most of the week. I have been working on putting data that Ankita and I collected together into tables and charts in Excel, researching the uses of biochar and new methods of converting plastic to fuel. As a group, on Tuesday we had the pleasure of visiting Engineers PEI for lunch. I really enjoyed talking to more women engineers and hearing their stories. On Thursday, we laser-cutted our names into our notebooks, which was really cool, and we got to see some of our Solidworks projects being printed. On Friday, we did an activity with some students from Japan where we had to work together to create a wind turbine strong enough to lift a tea bag. For me this was the best part of the week, because I loved working with these students, and it was a great challenge to see how we could make the turbine work.

Week 4: July 30 - August 3

For most of this week I have been working on my own, but Ankita returned on Thursday so we have been busy in the lab since then. We have also been working hard as a group to finish the second Solidworks project, which we decided to make together. It is a puzzle where each of us has a piece that will fit together to make a box. That was a great challenge for me and I enjoyed working with the other ProGRES girls on this. While we were there, we had the chance to see the 3D metal printer in action. In the Bioresources lab we ran the reactor again, now at 180°C for 1h and 2h. We ran into the first issue so far with the HTC reactor on Friday, which was that for some reason the heater didn't start, so we had to figure that out before continuing. I have also worked on the final presentation for next week and started practicing presenting it.

Week 5: August 6-10

This week has been a great end to our five weeks! We had so many activities planned, and together with finishing up our final presentations and projects, it has been a busy week. On Monday we had a field trip to Maritime Electric, and Alisa talked to us about what they do and how she got to where she is today. It was really neat to see where the electricity goes around the island and hear how they make sure everyone has electricity all then time. Then on Tuesday, most of our day was for working on our projects, and Ankita and I finished up the final tests I needed for my presentation. We had another field trip planned for Wednesday: we visited Sandy Rae Farms, which is owned and run by engineers. It was so interesting to see all the many ways they had made the farm easier to run through engineering techniques. When we returned, I spent the rest of the day working on my presentation. On Thursday we had interviews with CBC, and an introduction to MATLab in the morning, with project time in the afternoon. The MATLab, which is a computer programming program, was really interesting. I liked how we could make the computer do different things, and experimenting to see what it would do when we changed a number or letter. On Friday we presented our project, and we had a celebration lunch all together afterwards.

ProGRES was an amazing experience for me. I have loved working with Ankita on her project, learning about biofuels, and just in general working in the lab and trying new things. I also enjoyed meeting with women engineers and hearing their stories. They have made me realize that engineering is a real possibility for me and for all girls my age. I so enjoyed meeting the other ProGRES girls and after spending time together, we've become really close. All in all, I've loved being taking part in this amazing program and I would recommend it to anyone thinking about taking science, math or engineering.

Week 1 Reading Reflection

This week, we read about Julie Payette Canada's current Governor General, and Jennifer Sidey-Gibbons, a mechanical engineer. They are both engineers and astronauts who have been extremely successful in their careers. Julie Payette has been to space twice as an astronaut before becoming Governor General, once in 1999 and once in 2009. On her first mission, she was the first Canadian to participate in an International Space Station (ISS) assembly mission and to board the Space Station. She has been recognized for her achievements with 21 honours and scholarships. She is an amazing woman who I look up to because of her astounding success in her field and her bravery during her missions to space. Jennifer Sidey-Gibbons has recently been selected to begin an astronaut candidate training program in Texas. As a mechanical engineer she studed combustion, gave lectures, taught undergraduate and graduate students at the University of Cambridge, and is a role model for young women. She is an inspiration because she followed her dream to become an astronaut and achieved her goal. Both of these women are incredible role models for myself and other high school students interested in science, math and engineering. They have achieved their goals and dreams in life and have accomplished amazing things.

Week 2 Reading Reflection

This week's readings were Debbie Sterling's Ted Talk and Tara C. Dennehy and Nilanjana Dasgupta's study on the effect of women mentors for female engineering students.

Debbie Sterling is an engineer who was at a disadvantage in her classes because she was female, and never really felt that she fit in. So after mastering in engineering, she went on to try to change this so that girls would be more numerous in engineering classes in later generations. She designed an engineering toy for girls that will develop their spatial awareness skills like so many construction toys for boys do. Many times, she attended conferences and met with producers who didn't believe that anything but pink dolls and princesses for girls would sell. She didn't give up, and finally her prototype - Goldie Blocks - became a huge success and is helping young girls worldwide develop an interest in science, math and engineering. Her story is very inspirational for me because though she felt intimidated by all the men that surrounded her through her studies and later on as well, she stuck with it and made her goal of changing things for young girls become a reality.

Dennehy and Dasgupta's paper describes just how much women mentors help female students in engineering. During their one-year study, they discovered that women mentors preserved the students' confidence as well as their drive to continue in engineering. They also realized that the only real difference between men and women mentors working with female students was that they felt closer and more similar to the women and simply had a stronger connection to them. I've realized, from reading the article and the paper how important it actually is to for female students have women mentors and meet women engineers. I think that having female mentors for female students is something that UPEI and other universities should make a strong effort to achieve.

Week 3 Reading Reflection

This week we read about the United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals and looked for connections to engineers, and watched Abby Wambach's closing speech at Barnard.

Some of the most important ones for me are No Poverty (1), and Climate Action (13). Poverty is a huge problem for incredible amounts of the people that live on our planet. It is so important to better the living conditions of people in 3rd world countries that simply don't have the resources we do. Ending hunger (2) is a crucial of overcoming poverty, as is Health and Well-Being (3), and Education (4). If someone is starving, they can't work well or learn as well, and the same goes for health: if half the population of people living in poverty are sick, you can't succeed in educating all of them. It is also extremely important that we take action in order to save our planet. Climate change is drastically changing our environment, and will eventually cause the sea level to rise so much that whole cities will be flooded. We need to change our ways and really take hold of this situation to ensure that the more than 7 billion people that live on Earth will have enough dry land to live on in the future.

Many of these goals also interconnect with what engineers do, for example Affordable and Clean Energy (7), Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure (9), and Sustainable Cities and Communities (11). Many engineers work with developing alternate sources of energy, such as Ankita and the engineers we visited at AKA. They also build transport and other new technologies to better our lives. Sustainability is one of the key things engineers work to achieve, and what everyone in the SDE building works with as well. Engineers can also help the poorer countries to develop better water systems, agricultural practices, hospitals and other ways to decrease the population in poverty.

I believe that, if everyone works together to support goals like these, and we have more engineers working with sustainability and countries in poverty, we can change things. With a positive attitude and a drive to succeed that is common among everyone in all countries, we can help those in need and decrease or even stop climate change.

Abby Wambach is a retired soccer player who played for team USA for many years, who spoke at clsing at Barnard. During her speech, she talked about women learning to be the wolves instead of the Little Red Riding Hoods and being able to be both grateful for what you have and also demand what you deserve. I agree with these points because I think, maybe by nature, women are too grateful for what they have and fearful of losing it to ask for more. I think it is important for everyone to get what they deserve, and to not have to be afraid of asking. Abby also mentioned four rules for the graduating women to live by: Make Failure Your Fuel, Lead from the Bench, Champion Each Other and Demand the Ball. I believe that making failure into fuel is something everyone in every situation can live by, and that instead of hiding your failures, you should use them to power your future. Leading from the bench is also super important because being a leader isn't just about leading on the field, it's about being a leader everywhere you go. The third rule is to champion each other, and sharing in each other's successes. Abby encourages women to celebrate when someone earns an important spot or achieves an important goal, which I also agree with. Lastly, demanding the ball is important, because when you've earned something, you have to stand up ask for it. Abby's speech was empowering and inspirational and it is certain she has inspired many graduating women, as well as myself, to make a difference.

Week 4 Reading Reflection

This week we read about a team of young women who created an affordable text-to-braille device, emotional intelligence, and we watched a speech by JK Rowling.

I found the story about the students super interesting and inspiring, because they built something that will help a lot of people in the very near future. They decided to make a text-to-braille device because the devices already invented are extremely expensive. They can cost around fifteen thousand dollars, while the estimated cost of the students' machine is only $100, which is nothing in comparison. Their device will help the 39 million people who are legally blind in the world and the 246 million who have low vision. Creating devices and technologies like this is the kind of thing I am interested in doing if I pursue engineering, and the young womens' spirit and dedication makes them roles models for students like myself and the other ProGRES girls.

I also found the article about emotional intelligence very interesting as well, especially the fact that having a high IQ does not mean you will have a high emotional intelligence, or EQ. Your emotional intelligence is your personal and social competence, which is your ability to understand and cope with your own and the people around you's emotions. I believe it is important to understand the difference between IQ and EQ and to improve your emotional intelligence so you have a better understanding of your emotions.

JK Rowling's commencement speech at Harvard in 2008 was comprised of two themes: Failure and Imagination. She talked about how each of us have to decide for ourselves what failure is, for example one person's failure could be very close to another person's success. She talked about her failure, and how is she hadn't failed, she wouldn't have been so determined to work hard on her writing, because failure made her focus on what was the most important for her. She also discovered things about herself she wouldn't have is she hadn't failed, such as her perseverance. The second theme, imagination, was not about her novels, but about having the imagination to empathize with others and put yourself in others' shoes. I agree that this is important because we need to reach out and help those less fortunate than us, which connects to last weeks reading about the Sustainable Development Goals, especially No Poverty (1).

Week 5 Reading Reflection

This week's reflection was around the theme of peer-pressure. We read two articles, one about the word 'nerd' the other about programs that help girls find the confidence to pursue computer science.

Marshall Shepherd wrote about why we need to stop using the word 'nerd', and after reading this article, I can recall several times when I have been called a nerd. It doesn't really bother me, because I have sort of accepted that that's who I am and I am not ashamed of it. But for those who don't feel this way, being called a nerd could really damage their self-esteem and prevent them from having an interest in science and math. So I agree that we have to stop using this word and other words that can have the same effect.

Techbridge Girls and TechGirlz are two programs that target girls in junior high, and encourage them through project that are similar to the ones the other ProGRES girls and I are working on (though not as advanced). They are very similar to the Girls Get WISE days the UPEI hosts, and I think in the future, the SDE building should try to have a longer program for junior high age girls as well. I think programs such as these, and working with girls to show them that these fields are possible for them are extremely important.

After reading these articles, I have thought more about the influence peer-pressure has on me. I have realized that I often think about what my peers would think about me, and that it sometimes it this matters quite a bit. I also think that, depending on the people I am with, I sometimes say things I wouldn't otherwise have said or behave in a way I wouldn't have. Lots of people my age aren't as concerned about studying and getting good grades as I am, but then I am a perfectionist. However, most of my peers plan to attend university after high school, as I do, and I share some common values with others in my age group such as equality for everyone is important. Positive peer-pressure is also important because you need positive influences in communities as well, to encourage others. This ties into this program, and how when we return to school in September, we will be examples for others our age and younger, promoting interests in science and math for girls.