Women in Engineering Luncheon at 2015 IFCS

At the 2015 Joint Conference of the IEEE International Frequency Control Symposium & European Frequency and Time Forum, Colorado Convention Center, Denver, Colorado April 14, 2015

The WIE event for IFCS this year was a luncheon held in room 201 at the Colorado Convention Center in Denver, Colorado on Tuesday, April 14, 2015. The invited speaker for this event was Dr. Patricia Rankin, Associate Vice Chancellor for Research at the University of Colorado Boulder.

The event was very much a success, even though our numbers were somewhat smaller than expected due to some conflicts with other meetings, we did have about fifteen people in attendance. Most of the attendees were students which was very appropriate since Dr. Rankin is a professor with her PhD in Physics so she had some very good words of wisdom for them.

Dr. Rankin recently finished her work as PI of an NSF ADVANCE Institutional Transformation Award - The Leadership Education for Advancement and Promotion (LEAP) program which is now fully institutionalized. LEAP had a research component that established baselines for the status of women at the university and also funded studies probing how career decisions are made. As well as supporting the development of a series of well received workshops that are continuing, LEAP spurred research into issues such as demographic inertia and the types of networks most effective at promoting institutional change. She is now using this expertise nationally and internationally to promote faculty development and help further the advancement of women in science and engineering.

Dr. Rankin shared some very useful tools for women to use as they develop their careers in the fields of science and engineering. Some of these tools related to learning what our natural talents and personality traits are and using this information to help develop our career paths. She talked about specific situational and relational aspects of the workplace and laboratory environments, she gave specific insights into what "to do" and what "not to do" in handling workplace issues that come up. She also shared several resources for networking and mentoring programs that would apply especially to the students who are just beginning their careers.

The time with Dr. Rankin was very interactive, lots of questions from the audience and communication with each other at the different tables. Many stayed after the lunchtime was over, just to glean more insight from her and each other. It was a very enjoyable time and also quite useful to those who attended.

The 2016 WIE event which will be held in New Orleans in May is currently being organized, more information will available soon.