Abstract:

Many female high school students hesitate to get in contact with a typically “male” field of study, even if they have good grades in mathematics or physics. The Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Technische Universität München (TUM) designed in 2012 a new program to get in contact with those girls. The aim is to inspire female high school students and to acquaint them with the engineering profession and the academic life at TUM. The participation is free of charge.

The TUM Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering offers about ten workshops with different topics per year. One is for example about solar energy or another about electric motors. Each workshop takes about 4 hours.

A female student in the master’s program of Electrical and Computer Engineering guides the visiting girls through TUM and introduces them to their practical project. The advisor is only a few years older than the high-school students and all can talk to each other on eye level, ask questions about the project and talk as well about their feelings or doubts. The positive feedback inspires TUM to offer 2015 as well about 10 workshops.

Keywords:

Gender in engineering, female high school students.