Journeys: Teenage Women Embracing Science and Engineering

By IEEE Computer Society Team on

May 30, 2024

Teenage Women Embracing Science and Engineering Webpage design

App development

Computer drawing

Learning with Arduino

Programming with Code.org

Virtual reality

Automatic wood carving

Actuators

Electronic measurements

Experiments with chemistry

Orthomosaics with drones

A crucial part of the event centered on highlighting CUValles as a good place to study. Domínguez shared that key factors include the convenience of the university’s location to the Valles, Lagunas, and Sierra Oeste regions and the free transportation to classes provided to students. As CUValles is a public university, students pay about $55 per semester.

By breaking down financial barriers and providing guidance from trained professionals, these initiatives have helped young women excel academically and pursue STEM options. In addition, as more students seek engineering degrees, the university has been increasing its faculty, including hiring more full-time professors with doctorates and integrating members of the national system of researchers into their teaching staff. “The University of Guadalajara has an excellent prestige at the national level, so there are students from all over the country,” adds Domínguez.

Next steps

By all accounts, the Journeys program was a success—and one Domínguez would like to continue. Future changes to the Journeys program might include modifying next year’s workshops based on the popularity of this year’s, creating activities for the teachers who accompany the students, and offering prizes, such as tablets, to encourage participation. Hopefully, additional financial resources can make this happen for subsequent events, says Domínguez.

“This type of project has the importance of making more women, especially from the Valles, Lagunas, and Sierra Oeste regions of the State of Jalisco, aware of the existence of the University of Guadalajara, the careers that are offered there, as well as the need that the country has for more male and female engineers, and the opportunity that they have to apply their talents in these areas. They should feel like they have the same or greater capabilities than their male counterparts. By targeting high school students, this type of project impacts young women earlier in their decisions to pursue a STEM career,” he adds.

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