L/C
1
2
Round 3
4
5
6
B
A
100
100 100 60 100 100
100 60
FACULTY PERSPECTIVE
70
70 70
STRENGTH IN NUMBERS
30 30
30
Majority of department chairs in College of Science and Engineering are women
100 100
30 30
30
100 40
100 40
100 40
40 100
40 100
40 100
10 40 40
40 70 40
20 70 70
70 40 40
70 70 40
40 70 40
70 40 40
40 70 40
0000
70 40 40 10 25
3.1 2.2 2.2 10.2 7.4 7.4 25 19 19
3
50 40 40
50 90 100
75 66 66 100 100 100 80 70 70 100
75
Color OK_____ Layout OK_____
70 70
70
Page 25
100 100 60 100 100
100 60
ICS# 160125 • Seattle University 2016 Spring Seattle U Magazine - 44 pg. 9” x 11” • 175 lpi • PDFX1a • G7_GRACoL
30 30
30
SU Magazine Spring 2016 / 25
70 70
70
“You can’t design a product with input from just one gender. You need both points of view just as you need age and racial diversity, too, to capture different ideas. You’re not designing for one person.”
100 100 60 100 100
100 60
W
hen you discover that seven of the nine department chairs in Seattle University’s College of Science and Engineering are women—including all four department heads in engineering and computer science—you start to wonder why there’s such a gender gap in tech industries. Associate Professor Roshanak Roshandel was named the first woman chair of the Computer Science and Software Engineering department at the start of spring quarter Roshanak Roshandel, Associate Professor and this year. A faculty member since 2005, Roshandel says the Chair, Computer Science and Software Engineering computer science freshman class last fall was 29 percent female, the highest percentage in university history. Of the 93 graduate students in computer science and software engineering, 42 percent are female. Five of the full-time faculty are women. Roshandel says the downward spiral of women in tech careers that began in the mid-1980s is changing, albeit slowly. Associate Professor Agnieszka Miguel, who chairs Seattle U’s Electrical and Computer Engineering Department, agrees. Miguel says she noticed an uptick in female enrollment about five years ago. In her department, 23 percent of students are women, compared to the national average of 13 percent; and three of the six full-time faculty in electrical and computer engineering are women. “Once you have a critical mass of women students who are willing to share their experience, others will come,” says Miguel, who came to the university in 2004 and has chaired her department since 2011. Recently, Miguel was elected as Chair of the Professional Interest Council I of the American Society for Engineering Education. Both women department heads say a big factor in retention of female tech students is mentoring. Agnieszka Miguel, Associate Professor and Chair, Electrical and Computer Engineering “We want to encourage women to see themselves fitting right in so we try to create a challenging yet supportive and collaborative environment for our students,” says Miguel. Roshandel says welcoming and inclusive classes are key in supporting women to choose computer science. “You can’t design a product with input from just one gender. You need both points of view just as you need age and racial diversity, too, to capture different ideas,” Miguel says. “You’re not designing for one person.” Adds Roshandel, “We have fantastic students and great AGNIESZKA MIGUEL, PROFESSOR/CHAIR, faculty and curriculum. It is now time to expand on our success ELECTRICAL AND COMPUTER ENGINEERING and focus on building a stronger community.”