Introduce a Girl to Engineering Day is being recognized on February 24 as part of 2022’s Engineers Week. The purpose of this day is to encourage and inspire girls to consider a future in engineering. Who better to mentor and inspire a young woman to pursue engineering than a mom who is an engineer?! At Civiltech, we’ve enjoyed some recent examples of young daughters of Civiltech moms exhibiting a propensity for engineering and innovation.
Eight-year-old Lexie, daughter of Kristin Kalitowski, P.E., recently observed her mom’s frustrations over a temporary stoplight near their home that has seemingly poor signal timing. Lexie diagrammed the cause of the offending stoplight explaining that evil traffic fairies paint the stop lights with the goal of throwing a wrench in their family’s daily travels. She also pointed out the electric boxes on the light poles in which the fairies reside. We at Civiltech are grateful to this Traffic Engineer in the making and promise that our specifications will never include evil traffic fairies!
We all know that self-driving cars already navigate our roads and flying cars are in our near future. Annabelle, age 5 and daughter of Maddie Johnson, P.E., is already engineering this next technological frontier. Recently, Annabelle designed and built a prototype of a high-tech flying vehicle. This vehicle, not only provides transportation, but can be used in public safety and public works capacities. The spider web on the front of the vehicle serves to frighten away bad guys and the wrecking ball on the rear can be used if anything needs to be knocked down. The aerodynamic design includes a controller on each wing to adjust for wind and weather. The vehicle features comfortable ergonomics with space for both a dog and water bottles. And, in case of emergency, the vehicle has a slide for a quick and easy exit.
Roller coaster design is perhaps one of the most exciting examples of engineering and innovation. Seven-year-old Hailey, daughter of Jen Hyman, P.E., is pioneering future thrills with roller coaster design! With her KNECTs, Hailey has created a heart-stopping thrill ride loaded with airtime. Hailey will tell you though that the rollercoaster design is the fun part – the challenge is adding a toddler proof factor of safety to protect her creations from her younger sisters. Kelsey and Macey, Hailey’s 2- and 4-year-old sisters, while not yet engineering structures, exercise their mathematical and engineering skills with sorting, logging, and sequencing.
We are all counting on future innovators to lead us into a more energy efficient and sustainable future. Alyssa, Kaylee, and Sarah – ages 18, 16, and 13, daughters of Shirley Choi, P.E. – celebrated a recent Earth Day designing and building energy efficient houses with random household items. Their designs included elements of water conservancy, green roofs, and solar panels. These LEED professionals in the making show us what can result from out-of-the-box thinking and creativity.
Here at Civiltech, we celebrate Introduce a Girl to Engineering Day. We enjoy seeing the vision and innovation of the young people in the Civiltech family and encourage everyone to inspire girls to consider an exciting future in engineering.