IEEE Women in Engineering Magazine - December 2007 - 47

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ing, National Cheng Kung University in
1996. She was the vice director in 2001
and currently serves as the director of
the Center for Research of E-life Digital Technology, National Cheng Kung
University. She was selected as a distinguished professor of National Cheng
Kung University in 2005. She is also
currently serving as the director of
electrical laboratory, National Cheng
Kung University.
At National Cheng Kung University,
Chung works with the university's medical school and hospital by applying her
doctoral work in neural network modeling to medical image analysis. Recently,
she has been working on applying image
analysis techniques and neural network
models to medical image analysis. She is
conducting research in applications of
video analysis for home care.
Chung hesitated about whether she
should attend a teacher's college or an
engineering college. "My instinct told me
that I am a person who loves to think, do
analysis, and discover things, so I pursued engineering," she says.
Engineering gave her an area where
she could come up with new ideas, thereby bringing variation and excitement to
her life. Chung has one son and one
daughter, with whom she loves to play
logic games and puzzles. She advises
young girls considering engineering,
math or science fields to "always give
yourself a chance to explore and do not
underestimate your abilities."

Cotorogea:
Engineering Shapes the World
Maria Cotorogea, an IEEE Senior Member, is the 2007 IEEE Power Electronics
Society (PELS) liaison to WIE. She
received the Dipl.-Ing. degree in electrical engineering from the Technical University of Dresden, Germany, in 1990 and
her Ph.D. in electrical engineering from
the Technical University of Berlin, Germany, in 1993.
Cotorogea has been with the National
Center of Research and Technological
Development (CENIDET) in Cuernavaca,
Mexico, where she has been an associate
professor in the Electronics Department
since 1996. Currently, Cotorogea is on

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her sabbatical stay at Infineon Technologies in Munich, Germany. She has published more than 40 papers in
international journals and prestigious
conferences. Her research interests
include modeling and simulation of
power systems, physical modeling, simulation and characterization of power
semiconductor devices, as well as power
quality and power converters for wind
energy conversion systems.
Although, Cotorogea says that she
had no special interest in technical
issues, she felt it was natural to pursue
engineering since her father, uncle, and
cousins were engineers. She decided to
pursue the same field as her father,
electrical engineering, and became fascinated in semiconductor manufacturing and devices.
Cotorogea encourages young adults
to pursue engineering because no other
profession has impacted or shaped the
world in which we live as much as the
engineering profession. She says that to
understand how much engineering
impacts the world, you have to experience it first hand.
Cotorogea is proud to be a woman in
the field of engineering and to have been
a part of the technical revolution that
has affected the world around us. She
encourages girls to pursue engineering
to contribute to the diversity and plurality necessary for evolution and progress
in all fields.
"Being a woman in engineering is
different from being a man in engineering," she says. "Not better, not worse,
just different. For this reason, women
have very much to contribute to engineering, their under-representation
means a huge potential that has to be
exploited in the future."

Hirt Helps Women Contribute
Evelyn Hirt, an IEEE Senior Member, is
the 2007 Region 6 WIE Coordinator. Evelyn received a bachelor of electrical engineering degree, cum laude, from the
University of Detroit and a master's in
engineering management from Washington State University (WSU) in Pullman,
Washington. She was awarded a certificate
in project management from WSU and

WINTER 2007/2008

has completed the Pacific Northwest
National Laboratory (PNNL) three-year
management skills development program.
Hirt is currently the principal professional and engineer at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, which is
operated by Battelle for the U.S. Department of Energy in Richland, Washington. She has published works in the
application of laser ablation, test program requirements management, faulttree-generation methodology, and time
dissemination using the global positioning system (GPS). Although her career
in engineering has been multidisciplinary, bridging the technical, government and academic communities, her
interests center on systems and controls
and engineering management.
Even though Hirt was interested in
math, science, and creating things, she
initially planned to go into a skilled trade
since her family did not have a tradition
of attending college. However, with the
encouragement of her secondary school
counselors, her mother and a wonderful
university advisor, Dr. Wayne Panyan,
she became the first family member to
obtain a university degree. At that time,
she was one of only ten women to graduate from the University of Detroit with an
engineering degree in the university's
nearly 100-year history.
Hirt encourages all young adults,
with an inquisitive mind to pursue engineering even if they may not completely
understand it. She strongly recommends that everyone seek out a mentor
to help better understand different
aspects of engineering and to act as a
guide through the education process.

Jessop Leads Through
IEEE Membership
Jennifer Jessop is the 2007 Region 7
WIE Coordinator and an engineer at
Manitoba Hydro. In October 2006, Jessop joined the Project Support Section,
in Manitoba Hydro's Power Supply Business Unit, where she is responsible for
project management services related to
new hydroelectric development. Jessop
says that, "the support of her company,
and the IEEE, continue to encourage me
to develop to my full potential."

IEEE WOMEN IN ENGINEERING MAGAZINE

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