Most significant accomplishment in 2011

The extraordinary outcome of the 1st WIE Research Presentation arranged at BUET, Dhaka on December 31, 2011, organized by IEEE Women in Engineering (WIE) Affinity Group, Bangladesh Section is the most significant accomplishment the Affinity Group achieved in 2011. Although IEEE Bangladesh Section was established in 1993, for the first time in the Section, the WIE Affinity group invited women in engineering to submit a scientific abstract for poster/oral presentation. Original contributions were invited having 50% and more participation of women including the first author of the article. In response, 19 groups from 12 different public and private engineering universities and also from industry in whole Bangladesh participated.

The research presentations and poster competitions were aimed to increase and change the public’s perception of women in engineering education. The WIE wanted to provide a unique research environment for the women in engineering education and profession to exchange their engineering knowledge, experience and research exposure. This was a great learning opportunity to overcome the challenges in technical presentations in a large crowd, and that in handling question-answer sessions administered by the experienced judges.

The first authorship of the women was an effort to showcase unnoticed young engineering women’s achievements in Male-dominated engineering profession. It created a wide interdisciplinary, interuniversity platform which definitely helped them in streamlining their role in the development of the technical society around. Also, the lesson that engineers can “benefit humanity and make a difference” was focused. There were different prizes in recognition to some of the works performed with endless dedication to achieve outstanding quality. This helped to motivate the young women for engaging in insightful efforts and performing good quality research thus enabling them to contribute significantly in the progress of the modern research.