Talking to students about engineering: Q&A with Heidi Cressman, Director of Diversity and Inclusion in the College of Engineering

Cressman coordinates events for the College’s Women in Engineering and Increasing Diversity and Engineering Academics (IDEAs) programs where she introduces science, technology, engineering, and math concepts to high school students through fun workshops and activities. She also supports current engineering students while they are in school. She has a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering, a B.S. in Applied Mathematics, and an MBA.

What do high school students need to know about engineering?    

Engineering is about solving problems creatively. Most engineering problems include some sort of constraint, whether it is money or the availability of materials or time. You have to be able to accept that no design that you work on will ever be perfect and then work within the parameters that are set. This is generally a fun challenge.

Also, engineering is all about making things around us safer and easier to use and improving communities and quality of life.

Think about all the engineering involved in building a self-driving vehicle  that will revolutionize the transportation sector and the impact on the elderly who will now have the freedom to travel safely. They will not have to rely on others to get to their doctor’s appointments resulting in significant health implications. This is engineering!

How do certain skills or interests lead to different engineering paths?

Any interests that you currently have can lead you to an engineering path. Take art, for example. The ability to visualize something in three dimensions is a great gift to have when you need to figure out how to fix something or how to put parts together.

If you are interested in sustainability, there are a ton of interesting opportunities in that sector. At UA, you can become a member of Engineers for a Sustainable World club on campus and develop methods that lead to zero waste for on-campus operations.

If you enjoy cars, then mechanical engineering is a good option. At UA, you might join the SAE Formula Race team and work on cars in your spare time. If you like giving back to the community, you can solve engineering problems as a member of the Engineering Service Design Team.

Or you can be like my daughter, a chemical engineer, who wanted to learn computer programming and take electrical engineering courses because she liked robotics in high school. Lucky for her, these varied interests perfectly positioned her for a career in process controls at Smuckers. Whatever you like to do, engineering can be a way to get there. 

What is potentially hurting the pipeline for developing future engineers?

The best ideas are generated by diverse teams with varied professional and life experiences. More and more, companies are getting behind this philosophy after witnessing increased levels of success in companies with more diverse executive boards – boards where women and underrepresented groups are finally starting to earn a seat at the table. 

In other professional areas, the societal shifts have already started to play out and have allowed more women to enter medicine, veterinary medicine, and the dental fields. Engineering and computer science are moving in the right direction, just more slowly.

It is important to keep the momentum going. While like-minded groups will produce like-minded results, diversity generates ingenious thinking which lead to innovation and profit for companies. One of the things that hurts us the most is the fact that, as a nation, we shy away from intellectual pursuits when we should be doing much more to encourage “nerds” to do their thing.

Fun fact: At The University of Akron, female engineering students outperform the men in their coursework and are graduating at higher and higher rates. Our female engineers are awesome!

What are some light bulb moments you have had when talking to high school students who may be undecided about their future?    

If they can, high school students should complete the highest level of math possible while in high school. Math is a necessary skill in the "real world" and students need to learn it to do well as engineers. Learn it while your education is free. It is important to realize that tiny changes in your college path, like not passing a class or switching majors, can have a very small effect in the short term but will impact how much you spend on college and how long you are there.    

I want to stress that it is OK to be undecided about what you want to do. Your career is a huge part of life.  But, the more that you can pin down about yourself and your interests earlier in life, the easier it becomes to make changes later.  I switched my major two times and double majored because I wanted to have a back up to my back up plan.  Although I am very happy with the final outcome, it cost me more money and time that I originally planned on.   

The best thing that freshman can do for themselves is to be prepared and be willing to work hard.  There are only a few things that you can invest in that will last your lifetime: education and relationships. 

What are the best parts about being an engineer?  

In my current role, I am a resource for students should they experience stumbles along their college career path. This is incredibly meaningful to me. I am even lucky enough to volunteer as an orator at graduation so I can see all their hard work pay off. When I worked in industry, I loved working with customers to fulfill a need that they had – it was often extremely challenging but immensely rewarding. In my role as an engineer, every day was different, which was great.

Learn more about the Women in Engineering Program and IDEAs Program.