Women in Engineering News

Carol E. Reiley '04 (computer engineering), serial entrepreneur, shares advice and thoughts for founders in VC Sequoia Capitol's "Seven Questions" series. Carol is founder and CEO of a stealth health care startup and co-founder and former president of the autonomous car company, drive.ai. Find her interview here.

Last quarter, 39 undergraduates from bioengineering, civil, environmental and sustainable engineering, computer science and engineering, and mechanical engineering fulfilled their dreams and expanded their horizons through Study Abroad. Here, two of our students share their experiences.

Civil engineering seniors Sedona Leza, Karin Komshian, and Brianna Eremita were moved by the devastation caused by the firestorm that besieged Paradise, California, last winter. After meeting with townsfolk and studying the landscape, the team researched home design, construction techniques, and municipal strategies to minimize future loss, and will present their findings to the Paradise City Council this spring.

Starting from a position of customer empathy, bioengineering seniors are collaborating with teammates from SCU’s public health science program to create a low-cost, non-invasive detection system for cervical cancer for use by women in developing countries.

A shared desire to contribute to a better world through humanitarian engineering drove two civil engineering seniors to design a sustainable farming system that capitalizes on the symbiotic relationship between plants and fish for the benefit of women in Uganda.

Bioengineering undergraduate Grace Ling and Assistant Professor Bill Lu, M.D., Ph.D., are testing a new method of gene therapy that safely delivers DNA to mutated cells without using viruses for transport, as is the current norm.

Computer engineering Assistant Professor Behnam Dezfouli and senior Angelina Poole are working to enable existing WiFi infrastructures for medical applications, such as an in-home medical monitoring systems, to collect and transmit data in an energy-efficient and timely manner. And Kaiser is interested.

Senior Audrey Gozali '18 has been named one of ten 2018 New Faces of Civil Engineering, Collegiate Edition by the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE). This program recognizes student civil engineers for their academic accomplishments and commitment to serving others. 

With nearly $330,000 in funding from NSF, mechanical engineering Assistant Professor Panthea Sepehrband and a group of undergraduate, master's, and Ph.D. students have teamed up with K&S, a leading provider of wire bonding machines, to find out exactly how ultrasonic vibration enables solid-state bonding.

It's no secret that land in California is expensive. Or that buying a home here is out of reach for many. So Habitat for Humanity, known for helping families achieve homeownership, has gotten creative by expanding on its model of building single-family homes. Construction will begin in Fremont this fall on a new three-story, multiple-family complex comprised of 30 two- three- and four-bedroom units. Plans were underway to replicate that structure in neighboring Walnut Creek. But a snag popped up. Differing city building codes required a redesign.

As co-founder and CEO of Agrilyst, a company deemed the "Google Analytics for Greenhouses," Allison Kopf ’11 hopes to alleviate pain points for farmers by introducing them to software that helps make sense of mounds of data. The indomitable New Yorker knows something about overcoming her own pain points—last fall when she took the stage as a finalist vying for a $50,000 grand prize in the prestigious TechCrunch Disrupt’s Startup Battlefield, she was battling the flu and a 102-degree fever.

The 5-year-old sitting at the keyboard leaned in close to the monitor, concentrating intently while her pink Converse-clad feet swung wildly below her tiny chair. "I did it!" she squealed, eliciting cheers and applause from Yan Long and Sonam Rudraraju, computer engineering graduate students who took her success to heart. The two were testing some very special software they had designed and produced along with classmates in adjunct lecturer Radhika Grover's COEN 275 course, Object-Oriented Analysis, Design, and Programming.

Sometimes, it's all about connections. For civil engineering seniors Ellen McKay and Kaelynn Willey, connections to faculty advisors, a fellow Bronco engineer, a local developer, and yes, even sewer lines, became paramount as they set out to plan and design a low environmental impact neighborhood district.

Maybe you're one of the lucky ones who plops your head on the pillow each night and immediately conks out for a great eight hours of uninterrupted shut-eye, but for the estimated one in five adults who suffer from the serious disorder Obstructive Sleep Apnea (OSA), bedtime might not be such a bed of roses. A nighttime slumber for these nearly 18 million afflicted American adults can include repeated bouts of breathlessness for up to a minute at a time when the tongue becomes relaxed and falls back, blocking the airway. The malady can lead to side effects—memory problems, high blood pressure, depression and even death.

As a Hawaiian, Brie Goo ’19 grew up with a deep respect for the ocean. Last summer, she had the opportunity to work on a novel research project developing a plastics-eating bacteria that could be a solution to plastics pollution.

Computer Engineering Assistant Professor Yuhong Liu and undergraduate Louise Li are working with colleagues from California State University, East Bay, to improve cloud security using an algorithm based on the behavior of ants.

Electrical Engineering Professor Sarah Kate Wilson was recently honored with the prestigious Harriett B. Rigas Award for significant contributions to engineering education. Read more about this defender of student learning, champion of diversity and inclusion, acclaimed international researcher, and professional activist.

After graduating with a B.S. in civil engineering, Marissa Pimentel ’10 took a job with SCU’s Department of Planning and Projects. Here, we catch up with the busy Bronco, getting a peek into her career path and what keeps her at SCU.

Women in Engineering at Santa Clara University

Dr. Tonya Nilsson, Department of Civil Engineering
Cynthia Le, ‘17, Computer Science and Engineering

As we look with fresh eyes at how we nurture gender bias and the barriers women face in education and beyond, we are now able to consider new possibilities and solutions already in action. In this episode, we invite you to imagine what it’s like to learn in an environment with one of the highest percentages of female engineering faculty in the country. Listen in as we chat with Dr. Tonya Nilsson and 2017 graduate Cynthia Le, two women who are here to share their experience as Women in Engineering at Santa Clara University.