Gender stereotypes often deter women from pursuing STEM-related studies at secondary and tertiary levels of education. Control engineering in particular is an example of a discipline where women are underrepresented in all stages of academia; from undergraduate students through to faculty and technical board members. The Girls in Control workshop targets 10-to-15-year-old girls and aims to educate them about control engineering at a level that is understandable and engaging to stimulate an interest in STEM. Moreover, the worldwide COVID-19 pandemic resulted in new and innovative ways of collaborating and designing outreach programs. The Girls in Control workshop uses online platforms to provide accessibility to girls worldwide by removing language barriers. The workshop runs in almost 20 different languages and the materials are openly available online. The Girls in Control workshop ran successfully at the 21st World Congress of the International Federation of Automatic Control 2020, the IEEE Conference on Decision and Control 2020, the 2021 American control conference, and the 29th Mediterranean Conference on Control and Automation 2021; all of which ran on virtual platforms. Overall, over 500 girls have participated in the Girls in Control workshops in 19 languages with a large amount of positive feedback. A more advanced, follow-up workshop is being tested where girls are challenged further by tackling problems with disturbances and requiring complex control solutions.
An outline of the story of girls in control and its success in motivating girls internationally
Varagnolo D.
2021
Abstract
Gender stereotypes often deter women from pursuing STEM-related studies at secondary and tertiary levels of education. Control engineering in particular is an example of a discipline where women are underrepresented in all stages of academia; from undergraduate students through to faculty and technical board members. The Girls in Control workshop targets 10-to-15-year-old girls and aims to educate them about control engineering at a level that is understandable and engaging to stimulate an interest in STEM. Moreover, the worldwide COVID-19 pandemic resulted in new and innovative ways of collaborating and designing outreach programs. The Girls in Control workshop uses online platforms to provide accessibility to girls worldwide by removing language barriers. The workshop runs in almost 20 different languages and the materials are openly available online. The Girls in Control workshop ran successfully at the 21st World Congress of the International Federation of Automatic Control 2020, the IEEE Conference on Decision and Control 2020, the 2021 American control conference, and the 29th Mediterranean Conference on Control and Automation 2021; all of which ran on virtual platforms. Overall, over 500 girls have participated in the Girls in Control workshops in 19 languages with a large amount of positive feedback. A more advanced, follow-up workshop is being tested where girls are challenged further by tackling problems with disturbances and requiring complex control solutions.
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