WiE-UC June Newsletter

ISSUE NO. 2 | JUNE 2020

WiE - UC Newsletter IEEE Student Branch of the UC - Women in Engineering Affinity Group

ISSUE NO. 2 | JUNE. 2020

IEEE Interviews Prof. Anikó Costa Anikó Costa was born in Budapest, Hungary, received the M.Sc. degree in Informatics, and the Ph.D. degree in Electrical Engineering from the Nova University of Lisbon, in 2003 and 2010 respectively. She is currently an Assistant Professor at the Faculty of Science and Technology, Nova University of Lisbon, and since January, the chair of IEEE WiE Portugal. Her main research interests are focused on model-based development of embedded systems using Petri nets and statecharts, digital system design, and hardware-software co-design.

1. You started your career path as an Electrical Engineering student at Czech Technical University (Prague).

What sparked your interest in engineering? Did you ever experience any uncertainty that this was the path for you?

I always had a curiosity about how things work. When I was a child, I always tried to fix a broken electrical or mechanical home appliance. My father was a welder, and I spent many hours with him in his workshop.

However, at that time, I also liked to teach, helping/couching my colleagues who had some difficulties at school, mostly with math. Mathematics was always my most preferred subject at school. So my dream profession was to be a math teacher. But when at the age of 18 I had to choose what to do next, I preferred to choose to follow engineering, namely electrical (computer) engineering, because I knew that is in continuous evolution and I wanted to be part of it.

2. How and when did you start at IEEE? Have you also been a member of an affinity group? What would you say to encourage young students to ingress in IEEE as student members?

I started to be an IEEE member as a Ph.D. student encouraged by my supervisor. At the time, I only knew a bit about IEEE and almost nothing about affinity groups. Today, I'm also a member of the Industrial Electronics and Education Society, as well as the affinity group WiE. Being a member of the IEEE and associated societies, offers a whole new world; from knowing people from all of the world, to making new friends and so on. As a student member you also have some benefits such as, a significant discount on the membership fee, and the enrolment in some affinity groups being free of charge.

3. While pursuing your M.Sc. and Ph.D. degrees, did you ever felt that engineering was sort of a “boys club”?

What challenges do women face in academia?

I would say working with men never was a problem for me. Maybe I’m fortunate; I have never felt that any of my issues or difficulties I had to solve were because I’m a woman.

4. Why did you choose to become a Professor? Was it a natural step after your Ph.D. or was it always a passion of yours?

As I mention before, when I was a child, my dream profession was to be a teacher. So my life journey gave me the best, I can teach, and be a scientist.

5. What was the most gratifying paper you have ever written, and why?

It is a difficult question. I would say it is always the one I’m working on.

ISSUE NO. 2 | JUNE 2020

6. What is the ratio of female to male Professors in your faculty? As a Professor, do you get many female Ph.D. students knocking on your door? Is there more that universities could do to get more female students engaged in pursuing higher academic degrees?

In my faculty, around 45 % of Professors are women. However, when we are looking at each department, this ratio can be very different. For example, in departments such as Conservation-Restauration, Social Science, or Life Science, are more female professors than male professors. On the other hand, in engineering departments such as Civil, Mechanical, or Informatics, less than 30% are female professors. The worst case is in my department, Electrical and Computer Engineering, where the ratio is around 10%.

Regarding the number of students (undergraduate or graduate), the ratio is very similar. However, in the last years, the number of female students is slowly growing, but enrolled in the Electrical and Computer Engineering integrated master course is still less than 15%.

Sincerely I don’t know what universities could/should do to increase female Ph.D. students. I think deciding to enroll in a Ph.D. is a very personal matter. What we can do is to encourage female students, when they evidence their desire to continue their education.

7. What’s the most important piece of advice you would give to a woman thinking of starting a career in engineering/academia?

I would give the same advice to anyone. To choose what one likes most. In my opinion, it is very important to enroll in a course which we love most. Even that we will study some subjects that we don’t like, but hopefully it would be only a few. When we are doing something joyfully, our life will be much better; we will live much happier.

Work on your self-confidence and selfesteem, be assertive and don’t be afraid of expressing your opinion.

8. In your opinion, what could be the role of WiE affinity groups in inspiring more young girls to take up STEM disciplines in the near future?

In my opinion, the most effective is demonstrating that a female engineer can have success in her carrier. Perhaps through organizing some workshops or lectures or even summer schools where girls could experience an exciting experiment.

Finally, as a bit of humor: If you had to be shipwrecked on a deserted island, but all your human needs—such as food and water—were taken care of, what two items would you want to have with you and why?

I would like to have a book, for example, “Os Maias” with some extra free pages and a pencil. The book could give me the company that is missing, the pencil for drawing the plan before executing any critical task.

WiE-UC wishes Professor Anikó the best of luck for this new challenge.

Curiosity of the month...

Irène Joliot-Curie: You know Marie Curie, but her daughter Irène also won a Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1935. With her husband Frédéric, she discovered artificial radioactivity, making she and Marie Curie the first mother-daughter pair to separately win Nobel Prizes.

ISSUE NO. 2 | JUNE. 2020

Biography MARIE CURIE

interests. However, as soon as Marie did a breakthrough on radioactivity, Pierre joined her in the study of this field SOURCE: HISTORY.COM

Marie Skłodowska Curie was born on November 7th 1867, in Warsaw. Her parents were teachers and she was one of five siblings.

Her father was a mathematics and physics teacher, having passed on his admiration and curiosity for the sciences to his daughter.

Although she was the best student in her school, she couldn’t ingress into college for only men were allowed, as was the norm back then. Instead, she attended a “clandestine university”, where women could have lessons and develop their scientific knowledge and skills.

Albeit all the limitations that poverty brought to her life, in 1891 she joined the Université de Sorbonne, where she completed her masters in physics in 1893, and, one year later, her masters in mathematics.

Marie met Pierre Curie after finishing her studies, and got married in 1895. Both had a strong love and respect for the sciences, and each progressed on their own researchk kkkkkkk

Unfortunately, Marie became a widow in 1906, keeping her husband’s teaching position in Sorbonne, becoming the first female professor in this institution. After her husband’s death, she helped develop the X-Ray technology.

Marie Curie received the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1903, and the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1911, being the only person to have been awarded a Nobel Prize in different areas of knowledge. She was the first woman to receive this prestigious award, the first person to win it twice.

Marie Skłodowska Curie passed away on July the 4th 1934, due to aplastic anaemia caused by her prolonged exposure to ionizing radiation.

She was one of the greatest scientific minds that ever existed, and a major reference for women in science, technology and mathematics.

Her legacy, now more than ever, will forever be cherished.

Achievement ELLY MARGARET TANAKA Elly Tanaka is a senior scientist at the Research Institute of Molecular Pathology in Vienna, Austria. Born in 1965 in Boston, Massachusetts, she studied biochemistry at Harvard University and completed her PhD at the University of California. She worked in some of the most renowned institutions: University College London, Max Planck Institute of Molecular Cell Biology and Genetics, Germany, and Technische Universität Dresden, Germany. Her research focuses on limb and spinal cord regeneration, for which she developed innovative methods that allowed the study of these complex processes. For this pioneering work she received the Ernst Schering Prize (2017), the Erwin Schrödinger Prize (2018) and she will receive the FEBS|EMBO Women in Science Award in July 2020.

FORSCHUNGSINSTITUT FÜR MOLEKULARE PATHOLOGIE (IMP), WIEN