IEEE Women in Engineering Magazine - June 2019 - 2

Letter From the Editor

Setting the World
on Fire
Through Innovation

Being part of IEEE Women in Engineering (WIE), we get the opportunity to
travel around the world, meet inspiring people, learn more about our own
disciplines, and grow as professionals.
It has been many years since I earned my
undergraduate degree in computer engineering, but I vividly recall the narrow and
naïve perspective of what I thought computer engineers could do with it. I believed
that computer engineers designed new
computers to run faster and cheaper, and,
thus, that's the role I assumed in my first
professional position.
When I returned to school to pursue
my graduate degrees and began attending
more IEEE conferences, I was surrounded by brilliant engineers from myriad
companies who were designing new products and solving problems that society
thought were insuperable. I finally felt
that I was among kindred spirits. At the
same time, this sparked a flashback to
the days of my computer programming
class in high school.
Back then, we wrote our programs in
the BASIC programming language, and
the Internet, as we know it today, did not
yet exist. During this class, we had to write
an essay on what the future of computing

Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/MWIE.2019.2902993
Date of publication: 8 May 2019

IEEE WOMEN IN ENGINEERING MAGAZINE

unconstrained thinkers who have taken
their passion to new levels to solve problems or design new methodologies to
help understand the world around us.
Dr. Fiona Edwards Murphy used her
education to pursue a topic that set her
"world on fire." She created technology
to help beekeepers understand the complexities of maintaining healthy beehives for robust pollination. She utilized
her electrical engineering competencies
to help with declines in biodiversity.
Dr. Emily Lindemer, who is a human
health advocate by passion, takes on the
would look like 20 years in the future. Being
painful social issue of drug addiction as
an innovative and unconstrained thinker, I
a disease and created technology to help
wrote about how someday we would be able
abusers who are trying to recover, proto make purchases, and even
viding them with tools to stay
airline reservations, through the
on track and get support. Her
computer. Finally, I proposed
Hey, Charlie app is a testathat computers would allow
ment to her commitment
us talk to people all around the
to help those we care about
world and enable robots to
who are caught in the grip
take on roles that were too
of substance dependence.
dangerous for humans, such
Lindemer is setting the
as space exploration. For all
world on fire to help combat
these great ideas, I received a
a social and health plague
Karen Panetta
grade of C. This was my lowest
for a population that has
mark ever in high school. I was devastated.
traditionally not had strong advocacy or
The teacher wrote a single comment next to
received great empathy. For the untold
the offensive grade. It said, "None of this will
millions of victims affected, including the
ever happen."
children and family members of loved ones
Now, I could have abandoned my love
snared by addiction, Lindemer's technolfor computers because someone I looked
ogy gives families hope and a proactive,
up to as an authority in the field told me
positive way to help their struggling kin.
my ideas were outrageous. However, it has
Over the years, IEEE Women in Engialways been my instinct to never give up
neering Magazine has published numerand never lose my motivation over negaous articles showing the wonderful
tive influences or what I call "noise." This
outreach and volunteer activities that
reflection made me think of how many
our members and IEEE Student Memother young students have experienced
bers are conducting. We have been
similar events that have dissuaded them
proud to showcase the impact WIE
from pursuing engineering.
members are making in changing the
world. It is now time to formally celebrate and recognize our volunteers.
Benefiting Humankind
IEEE Eta Kappa Nu (IEEE-HKN) is
In this issue of IEEE Women in Engione of the greatest ways to honor these
neering Magazine, we introduce other

JUNE 2019

IEEE Women in Engineering Magazine - June 2019

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of IEEE Women in Engineering Magazine - June 2019