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WE-Bridge-Program Mission

To bridge the gender gap in the field of electronic engineering by early intervention, leading to an engineering world with higher representation of women.

WE-Bridge@UU

The enrolment of female students in Electronics Engineering in Ulster University is very low ranging from 0 to 11% in the past five years. In the past decade, several successful initiatives such as “Girls in STEM” have been taken to reduce the gender disparity in engineering, but electronic engineering lags other engineering disciplines when compared on gender grounds.

The number of women taking STEM courses is slowly increasing around the world. However, there is still a need to accelerate this further. Figure below shows the vicious cycle that is formed due to the unconscious bias that electronics engineering is only for males.

Vicious cycle hindering change

Students’ biases and perceived barriers leads to reduced number of students opting subjects like physics, electronics and digital technology closing the pathways for students to join Electronics Engineering courses.

This leads to shortage of workforce and hence indirectly affects economic and industrial development.

The vicious circle created inherently reduces the number of students opting to take science subjects. This has a huge impact on the workforce in industry and also on the qualified teachers. This vicious circle also creates a lack of role-models required for inspiring students. Breaking the cycle is essential for having a positive impact on economic and industrial development.

WE-BRIDGE SURVEY AND ESSAY COMPETITION

** DEADLINE EXTENDED TO 13th DECEMBER **

Please help with the WE-Bridge-Program@UU research project by sharing the attached documents  with contacts in your network, with Heads of Department/STEM teachers being a key target group.  These provide information about a survey (with 5 prizes x £20 (digital gift card) and an Essay Competition (with 10 prizes x £50 (digital gift card)) for post-primary school pupils in Northern Ireland.

The survey and essay competition are part of our research project: WE-Bridge-Program@UU: Women in Electronics Bridge Program @ Ulster University. They will explore barriers and facilitators to STEM education. The project is funded by the Royal Academy of Engineering’s Diversity and Impact Program. It seeks to educate and enthuse female post-primary school aged pupils around the benefits to society should more young women choose to study electronics engineering at university, and ideally at Ulster University.

The deadline for survey responses and essays is 23:59 GMT on Monday 2 December 2024 extended to 23:59 GMT on Friday 13th December 2024 It is anticipated that prize-winners will be announced in early January 2025. The names of the prize-winners’ schools will be published on our website.

If you have any questions, please contact Margaret Morgan (m.morgan@ulster.ac.uk) or Rosalind Henry (r.henry@ulster.ac.uk) in the first instance.

RAEng. WE-Bridge Women in Stem Talks

Dr Min Jing Healthcare Data Analytics

Funding

WE-Bridge-Program@UU is funded by Royal Academy of Engineering Diversity Impact Programme.

Further information

For more information please contact the School of Engineering: