The high school student and the University of Virginia doctoral student engaged in a gentle tug-of-war over a lit Bunsen burner.
“Normally, this glass is going to shatter if you try to bend it,” said Sarah Beth Holles, the materials science and engineering doctoral student who performed the glass pulling demonstration last week in the lab of Elizabeth J. Opila.
“But when we apply heat to it,” Holles continued, “we have this softening point where it becomes more of a viscous material that we can actually do something with. So as you can see, we're starting to bend the glass.”
Normally, this glass is going to shatter if you try to bend it.
As the 32 high school women participating in the summer session, held Aug. 5-9 at the School of Engineering and Applied Science, investigated the correct temperature for bending (but not completely melting) glass or how a robotic arm could be moved with the electrical impulses from a person’s thoughts, the metaphor was the same: With the power of the mind, you can do amazing things.
That’s the heart of the Engineering-Girls (formerly Biomedical Tech-Girls) approach. Show girls and women the power of STEM up close, make it accessible, and place students at ease in activities and discussions.
As Petra Reinke, a materials science professor and the engineering director of the Engineering Physics Program, told the students, “You can guess. Guessing is always perfectly fine.”
Bending, Breaking and Translating
UVA's Department of Biomedical Engineering with support from the Wallace H. Coulter Center for Translational Research began the annual program in 2013. This year, faculty and staff members Leyf Starling, Ryan Henry, Hannah Moore and David Chen led the team.
In addition to the preexisting biomedical engineering track, they added a civil and environmental engineering track, along with "first-year foundations" skills.
“With civil, the students got to break concrete, bend rebar and brainstorm sustainable cities of the future,” said Chen, who serves as managing director of the Coulter Center. “With biomedical, they got to see a vastly different side of engineering, you know, using pipettes and talking about capillaries and muscles, and working with patient needs.”
We’ve been working on a light up medical pill box for people with Parkinson's disease.
Lena Byard, a junior graduating early from Deep Run High School in Glen Allen, participated in the biomedical track.
“We’ve been working on a light up medical pill box for people with Parkinson's disease,” Byard said of her project that week. “They have memory loss sometimes where they won't be able to remember what pills they're taking or when to take the pills.”
She added, “I came into biomedical engineering not really knowing much about the field itself or about how it can help people. As we've been working throughout the week, I've learned more about people with certain diseases or certain disabilities, as well as what we can build to help them.”
For Your Kind Consideration
Engineering-Girls helped all of the precollege visitors better understand how diverse engineering careers can be and how much they might enjoy one. Students interviewed said UVA would be high on their list of applications because of the experience.
Also of note were the little acts of kindness that were abundant throughout the week. Healthy salads were accompanied by sweets. Featured talks led to side conversations and emails.
One high-schooler reached out to Allison Martens, a rising fourth-year biomedical engineering student, seeking help connecting with a faculty member on her interests; Martens was more than happy to make introductions.
Tech-Girls founder Kim Wilkens, an educator and tech accessibility advocate who earned her doctorate from the UVA School of Education in 2023, said she’s happy to hand off administration of the program she ran for over a decade because she knows it is in good hands. She’s now off to improve tech equity in South America with a company she co-founded, Roversa Robotics.
