IEEE Women in Engineering Magazine - December 2007 - 42

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full-time for Aastra Technologies designing and creating Internet telephony
products. He and Colombo met while
working together at Nortel in 1999.

Page 42

ing with Tufts. "I like working with people, and it's rewarding when you see that
look on their faces that things are starting to make sense," explains Colombo.

In conjunction with
the nonprofit
organization Helping
Hands: Monkey
Helpers, students
helped to create a
voice recognition
Web site system that
allows patients to
free professionally
trained monkeys so
that they may receive
assistance with their
daily tasks.
PHOTO COURTESY OF TUFTS UNIVERSITY

"It was my first job out of college, and
Rick was very good to me," recalls Heller.
"He took the time to show me the ropes.
So I wanted to get him involved in working with the students."
"When Matthew asked me to help, I
thought it would be a great idea," confirms Colombo. A graduate of the University of Massachusetts, Colombo lives in
Gardner, Massachusetts, and works in
defense technology at Impact Science
and Technology.
Both men cite the ability to work with
the students as the reward for participat-

"I learn from the students as much as
they learn from me," adds Heller. "And
the projects are fun. I get a budget to
work on things that I wouldn't normally
get to do through my work."
Having helped approximately 150
participants over the last five years,
Heller and Colombo have honed the
mentoring process. While students
often have difficulty originating project ideas, Heller and Colombo can
come up with the mission and structure in such a way that the students
can then do the work.

Career Advisor
(continued from page 31)
"Build technical and professional
strengths. Professionally, continue to
build relationships, collaborate with others in the field and network," she says.
"On the technical side, keep reading, stay
abreast of new technologies, and stay
engaged in the field. Stay connected.
Connection is key," she says.
Jamieson herself will be going
through a career transition when her
term ends in December. What will she
take on next?
"I will stay deeply engaged with the
IEEE. I will continue to work on strategic planning initiatives-the perception
of disability among the public and how
to improve this perception is one initia-

IEEE WOMEN IN ENGINEERING MAGAZINE

tive I am working on. I will continue to
work on issues related to IEEE WIE as
well as explore the future of engineering careers."
Most importantly, Jamieson says she
plans on looking at how the IEEE can
play a larger role in society and around
the world.
"Many problems locally and globally can be solved by engineering,"
she says. "Engineers can make a difference in the quality of life for people around the world. We will find
more ways for the IEEE to help make
this difference."
-Nancy Salim

WINTER 2007/2008

"We don't actually teach classes, but
we do spend small-group time with each
student going over how the project is
progressing," clarifies Heller. "We'll give
suggestions for an alternative course of
action or guidance on how to proceed."
Thompson maintains that she "cannot say enough" about the value of having instructors who hold jobs outside of
the classroom. "The learning is different
with tutoring by professionals like
Matthew and Rick," she describes. "They
work with you to make you understand
what the theoretical aspects you learn in
a classroom really mean, and how you
can apply those lessons to produce solutions like a solar energy system or a
monkey door. It would have been hard to
accomplish what we did without them."
A 2007 graduate of Tufts with a
degree in electrical and biomedical engineering, Thompson is now a systems
engineer with Raytheon. She looks back
fondly on her experiences with Heller
and Colombo, citing her interaction and
work with them as the highlight of her
college experience at Tufts.
Worthy of note is the fact that about
80% of the students who work with
Heller and Colombo have been women.
Observes Heller: "The women have all
kinds of varied interests and backgrounds. They tend to work best in
groups, whereas the male students seem
to prefer working individually."
However a student chooses to work, it
all comes down to the opportunity to do
something innovative and tangible.
"All of these projects are to get the students involved with design," says Colombo.
"It is just a lot of hands-on work, so the student will be able to go out in the real world
and say 'I've actually touched this stuff'."
Siebeking agrees, confirming that,
"this is an awesome opportunity for the
students. It's something for which they
can really see results."
With all of the creative projects being
dreamed up by Heller and Colombo, who
knows what these students will get their
hands on next?
-Karen Panetta is the editor-inchief of IEEE Women in Engineering
Magazine.

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of IEEE Women in Engineering Magazine - December 2007