ISSUE NO. 15 | JULY 2021
WiE - UC Newsletter IEEE Student Branch of the UC - Women in Engineering Affinity Group
ISSUE NO. 15 | JULY 2021
IEEE WiE interviews Sandra Sequeira Dr. Sandra Sequeira started her academic path in Portugal with a Licenciatura in Economics from the Nova University of Lisbon, followed by a Masters Degree from the Fletcher School, and a PhD from Harvard University. Sandra is now an associate professor at the London School of Economics and is linked to several research groups, like CEPR, the International Growth Centre, Nova Africa, JPAL and STICERD. Her research is mainly focused on key issues in development economics, political economy, trade and consumer behaviour. 1. Dr. Sandra, we know some aspects about your career path, but I would like to begin this interview by asking about your early years and where you came from? I was born in Amherst, a small town in Massachusetts while my parents were completing their post-graduate studies. I moved to Portugal when I was 5. I lived in Braga for 12 years and then attended college in Lisbon before moving back to the United States for another 10 years, and then relocating to London. I lived in Northern Portugal but most of my family was from the South, and that is where I spent most of my holidays. I feel I had a great set of experiences across the whole country! 2. Now that we know more about you, can you share with us why you decided to start your path as a student of Economics in the Nova University of Lisbon? Was something that you always knew you wanted, or did you have some doubts about it? In high school I loved both Math and History, and economics was the only field that allowed me to continue to study both! In fact, I knew little about economics but once I started studying it, I began to appreciate how relevant it is to understand how people behave and how the aggregation of such behaviours leads to important economic and social phenomena. However, once in college, I questioned whether I should pursue an academic career in economics. At the time I felt the study of economics was still a bit too removed from the core questions and challenges that the world faced. As a result, I enrolled in a Masters degree that allowed me to study Law and International Relations alongside Economics, with a view to pursuing a diplomatic career with the United Nations. I thoroughly enjoyed my time learning to look at world problems through the lenses of different fields but a summer .
experience working in Peru for a UN agency brought me back to academia and to economics. At the time I was tasked with writing reports about the impact of Hernando de Soto’s revolutionary project to try to provide formal titles to those living in informal shantytowns in the outskirts of Lima. I spent most of my summer outside the office, conducting fieldwork in the informal settlements with other researchers, and soon realized that this is where my true passion lied and that most of my questions required deeper research methods. I returned to graduate school committed to learn how to use the power of statistics and economic analysis to help identify and design better public policies that can improve our lives. I was fortunate to be in graduate school when the credibility revolution took place across development economics, and mentors were encouraging their students to conduct thorough fieldwork and to apply rigorous methods to understanding the causes of . .
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problems and to creatively design solutions to them. 3. We know that nowadays you work as an associate professor at the London School of Economics. What part of your job do you love the most? I love the research process. Even though I cannot travel as frequently to the field to monitor projects, I rely on teams and partnership with local actors to implement my current research projects. The process of identifying an interesting question, strategizing on how to gather evidence to shed light on a possible answer and then uncovering that answer in the data is extremely exciting. Writing papers and disseminating them across a range of actors in academia and policy to get feedback and improve your work is also a wonderful part of the experience. I also enjoy teaching the value of economic analysis and statistics to solve pressing public policy problems to a range of students at the Masters level and to Executive Education students. 4. Dr. Sandra was involved in the making of many researches, articles and has participated in several conferences and talks. Therefore, we would like to ask you within all of these achievements, which was the most challenging? The most challenging part of my job is to set up and manage large research projects from afar. At the moment, I have several projects running in the US, in Mozambique, in Uganda and in Kenya. This requires a lot of patience and perseverance, as working with a multitude of partners – donors, governments, NGOs, etc- can slow down the research project and introduce several obstacles along the way. Many of these obstacles are political or result from organizational inefficiencies that are most of the time hard to predict and outside of my control. It is a very entrepreneurial part of the job, which makes it both exhilarating and frustrating at the same time. 5. As a woman, have you ever felt any type of discrimination, either in your academic or professional career? I think we could surely do a better job in academia, particularly in economics, to .
make it a more welcoming field for women or for any other type of minority group. Significant strides in that direction have been taken in recent years, which I think is very encouraging. It is important to continue to invest in mentorship networks and change some of the norms for professional interactions such as conduct in seminars, among others. 6. What advice would you give for a young woman who wants to pursue a path in economic research? I would encourage young researchers to be confident and assertive in establishing their networks and following their own ideas from early on in their careers. Opportunities multiply as you seize them so do not selfcensor and aim for excellence each time. 7. Is there someone who inspires you in all the work you do? Why? In academia, I am inspired by many of my former teachers and colleagues in development such as Abhijit Banerjee, Esther Duflo and Nathan Nunn, just to name a few. They share a love for bold ideas and research excellence, which has been pushing research in economics forward for the past 20 years. But I am equally inspired by many of the people I have met in the field through my research projects – from the slums of Lima and New Delhi to the refugee camps of Mozambique, they are living examples of resilience, fortitude, and hope in the face of much adversity.
Finally, as a bit of humor… 8. Would you rather always be 10 minutes late or always be 20 minutes early? When heading to the airport, 10 minutes late, 20 minutes early for everything else! George Stigler, a 1982 nobel prize winner in economics used to say: “if you never miss the plane, you are spending too much time in airports.” My husband, who is also an economist, thinks the opposite so our travel experiences are always a big adventure!
Margarida Gomes
ISSUE NO. 15 | JULY 2021
Biography MARIA DA GRAÇA CARVALHO
Presently one of the members of the European Parliament, Maria da Graça Carvalho was born on April 9th, 1955. She graduated as a mechanical engineer from IST (technical institute) where she was one of the two girls in her class. After that, she proceeded with her academic path, earning a PhD from the Imperial College of Science, Technology and Medicine in the United Kingdom. Lately, she took part in the Portuguese constitutional government as a Minister of Science, Innovation, and Higher Education twice, as well as the International Relations Office for Science and Higher Education where she was the general director. SOURCE: WWW.PSD.PT
Between 2014 and 2015, she was a senior advisor to the Commissioner for Research, Science and Innovation. Moreover, she was the Principal Adviser to the European Commission President in the fields of Science, Higher Education, Innovation, Research Policy, Energy, Environment and Climate Change from 2006 to 2009.
Leadership and Service" award. Unquestionably a reference in education and empowerment of women in the branch of engineering and technology, Maria da Graça received the title of "Grand-Officer of the order of Public instruction" by the president of the Portuguese republic.
Graça Carvalho published more than 100 articles in international scientific journals and about 200 articles in annal's conferences. In addition to that, founded and was the first editor-in-chief of "Clean Air Magazine - International Journal on Energy for a Clean Environment".
Currently, Graça is not only an actual member of the FEMM, Committee on Women's Rights and Gender Equality, but also a member of AIDA, Special Commission on Artificial Intelligence in the Digital Age, and others.
The very first award "Maria de Lourdes Pintasilgo" was given to Graça Carvalho in order to honour her career as a scientist and women engineer. By 2016, she received the "IUMRS (International Union of Materials Research Societies) Global . cc .
Curiously, this MEP (member of the European Parliament) not only works as a university teacher but also is the founder of a scientific research group with 50 people in the same institute where she took her degree, entitled Energy and Sustainable Development.
Catarina Camacho
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Achievement KATHRYN GUARIN
In March 2021, Kathryn Guarini assumed the role of Chief Information Officer (CIO) at IBM. This position involves leading a team of more than 12,000 people, with the mission to create a productive environment for all of IBM's employees worldwide. Kathryn holds a Ph.D. in Applied Physics from Stanford University, and more than 65 U.S. patents. She has authored more than 60 technical publications, and her research has been recognised with several awards. She began her career at IBM Research as a technical contributor in transistor fabrication and semiconductor applications. In Overall, Kathryn has been working at IBM for over 20 years, where she has held different technical, management and executive positions, notably Chief Operations Officer (COO) and Vice-President of Impact Science at IBM Research. Kathryn is passionate about mentoring and recruiting scientists and engineers, and an advocate for diversity in the industry. She is the author of the blog mother-of-invention.net.
SOURCE: CHANNELPOSTMEA.COM
Ana Nunes
ISSUE NO. 15 | JULY 2021
WiE Recommend... Hi! My name is Ema Macedo and I'm a second year Biomedical Engineering student at University of Coimbra. I'm also one of the Project Managers of WiE's Videos. As a fun fact, I love reading thriller books! Here are my recommendations!
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Hi there! My name is Mariana Moreira. I'm in my last year of my master's degree in Biomedical Engineering, specializing in Biomaterials. I'm also part of the communication team of WiE-UC. Random fact about me: I always eat mashed potatoes with rice. You should give it a try. Take a look at my recommendations!
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ISSUE NO. 15 | JULY 2021
Curiosity of the month... Rosie the Riveter is a fictitious character that became the face of the feminist movement. She was the star of a government campaign for recruiting female workers to join the munitions industry during the Second World War and later became the most iconic symbol for women in the workforce and for women’s independence. As men left their positions to enlist in the army, hundreds of thousands of women took their places in many industries in order to fill the void in the job market. Although women did not assume a role in the frontline of the war, their enormous contribution by working in factories and producing vast amounts of material needed by the soldiers were crucial to the Allied victory. Despite this, their pay continued to lag far behind their male counterparts since they rarely earned SOURCE: LIBERATIONROUTE.COM more than 50% of male wages. In 1942 Redd Evans and John Jacob Loeb wrote the song “Rosie the Riveter” which became a national hit in the United States. In 1943, in order to match a face to the name, Norman Rockwell drew a picture of a female riveter whose lunchbox read ‘’Rosie’’. Although Rockwell’s picture showed a very muscular woman who did not wear any makeup, the image that is nowadays mostly associated with Rosie the Riveter was created by the Westinghouse Company, also in 1943, where she is represented as a woman flexing her arm in a blue overall and red bandana. Today, Rosie continues to be referenced by feminist groups as a symbol of persistence, challenge and strength, the essence of empowerment.
Rita Mendes
DOWN 1. Current President of the European Commission (first name). 2. Last Empowierment Club suggestion (june). 4. International Women in Engineering Day (month). 5. First portuguese female engineer (last name).
ACROSS 3. First female student at University of Coimbra (last name). 6. First woman to vote in Portugal (last name). 7. First woman to go to space (first name). 8. SB-UC WiE Vice-Chair (first name). 9. May 2021 interviewee, current Professor at University of Coimbra (first name).
ISSUE NO. 15 | JULY 2021
WiE - UC Newsletter IEEE Student Branch of the UC - Women in Engineering Affinity Group