Women in EECS@UCF Lunch with Female Faculty

Friday, the 31st of August 2007, was an exciting day for EECS female professors and graduate students as they had decided to meet at Giovanni’s for their first-ever lunch date. The aim was to give opportunity to the female-folk of EECS to bond and network with their peers in an informal setting. About 35 people managed to take time out of their busy schedules to grace the event. These included four EECS professors: Dr. Parveen Wahid, Dr. Annie Wu, Dr. Damla Turgut and our new faculty member Dr. Gita Sukthankar who had joined UCF in Fall 2007. We were seated in two big groups; interestingly with two professors per table seating! For most of us, it was the first time that we had a one-to-many chat with other female researchers in the department.

The event was a huge success with students and professors alike. We got to talk with these accomplished ladies and ask questions about research and career in general, and about women in computer science and engineering in particular. The professors were very encouraging. They related their experiences, candidly answered our queries and appeased our concerns by giving us most helpful advice.

After the luncheon, the girls left in groups, some off to give or take classes, others to their research labs, each with a feel-good positivism of being a female engineer/scientist and confident about her abilities to contribute to her field.

Author: Shafaq Chaudhry

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Female Graduate Students Lunch with Female Faculty...