Breaking the silicon ceiling: women in engineering freshmen seminar

In this paper we describe a pilot study for freshmen women engineering students we launched at the College of Engineering at UMass Amherst in the fall of 2002. This pilot study, which targeted increased retention of women in engineering, was comprised of the following three main elements: a weekly seminar, use of Pocket PCs and a web-based information and exchange center. The students´ feedback to our seminar was very positive. The students noted that the seminar allayed their fears and concerns about pursuing engineering, provided a (classroom and online) forum for networking with their peers and other women engineers. This pilot study is the first step in a longitudinal study that includes a series of such seminars as well as follow up assessment provided by the seminar participants throughput the engineering program. We hope that this seminar can serve as a model for women in engineering retention programs and can be deployed tit other universities.