Last March, the Makerspace held the first-ever UW-Madison Women in Engineering Conference (UWMWEC) on campus.
With the goal of educating and inspiring many generations of engineers, the event included hands-on workshops, seminars, speakers, and more, on topics such as new research and technologies, motivational beliefs, workplace equality, and the celebration of women as engineers and leaders.
The Makerspace welcomed Kathryn Clouse, Sr. Staff Engineering with KOHLER Co., as our morning address and Beth Kolko, Professor with the Department of Human-Centered Design & Engineering at the University of Washington, as our keynote address. Both speakers spoke during our expert panel discussion, alongside UW-Madison Biomedical Engineering Professor, Beth Meyerand, Mechanical Engineer with Sierra Nevada Corporation (ORBITEC), Marissa Pinnola, and Panel Moderator, Sue Babcock, from the UW-Madison Department of Material Science and Engineering. The panel discussed their experiences being women in engineering, their successes, advice, and more!
The rest of the day included small seminars hosted by the Women in Science and Engineering Learning Community (WISE), Environmental and Sustainability Engineers from KOHLER Co., the Society of Women Engineers at UW-Madison, Makerspace Student Staff, and more! We’d like to thank all of our speakers for volunteering their time and knowledge and thank our Student Staff for their involvement as volunteers and workshop hosts.
To be inclusive of attendees from differing socioeconomic statuses, the conference was free to attend. And to align with UW-Madison’s high regard for sustainability, the official conference program was paperless and available only online.
Learn more about our sponsors and read the official program of the UW-Madison Women in Engineering Conference!