University President Kristina M. Johnson and Dean of the College of Engineering Ayanna Howard said women and minorities are underrepresented in engineering, though the field is evolving to become more inclusive. Credit: Amal Saeed | Lantern File Photo
After sharing challenges they faced as women in engineering, University President Kristina M. Johnson and Dean of the College of Engineering Ayanna Howard shared ambitions to increase diversity in the field Wednesday.
The discussion, which took place on International Women in Engineering Day, previewed the women’s ideas to increase women and minority representation in the College of Engineering at Ohio State through the RAISE initiative. They also discussed rethinking the curriculum to reflect more real-world experiences and providing more equal opportunities for students.
Johnson, who came from a family of engineers and worked in the field before serving as president, said she was the first woman in every position she held before coming to the university. She wants to increase diversity in the field, starting at Ohio State through its RAISE initiative, which aims to hire 150 diverse tenure-track faculty in the coming years.
“I’m such an engineering chauvinist, but I want everybody to have an opportunity and a shot,” Johnson said. “That’s where I think, again, The Ohio State University can be the leader.
Johnson said through the RAISE initiative, she hopes to attract more students to engineering at the university. She said by students seeing themselves represented in teaching, they may be more inclined to enter the field themselves.
“I really am a strong believer: It helps to see it to be it,” Johnson said.
Howard, a roboticist and the first female dean of engineering at the university, said while diversity in engineering is increasing, many Ohio State students are still the first minorities in their fields. Women and racial minorities, in particular, are more underrepresented in engineering than other fields and may often find themselves comparing the higher diversity rates in other colleges to their own.
“Here at the College of Engineering at Ohio State, we’re going to change that perception because we have to,” Howard said. “A lot of times some of the students come in and don’t realize they want to be engineers until they get here, and we do not have the structure yet to ensure that they can enroll and be successful because they didn’t take the right classes in high school.”
Howard said the college has to rethink how its curriculum can train students with more real-world experience.
“The fact that some of it’s the same curriculum as when I graduated so many years ago — it’s actually a shame because the world has changed and things have evolved,” Howard said. “Why is it that we don’t teach artificial intelligence and computer science from freshmen [year]?”
Both Howard and Johnson said their families influenced their passions for engineering from a young age and provided them with resources. But they recognized that not everyone has the same opportunities.
Howard said a lack of access to resources from an early age should not impact students at the college level. She said the College of Engineering needs to reevaluate its curriculum and resources in order to provide equal opportunity for all students.
Johnson said Ohio State can start to be a leader in diversity in engineering to give more students a shot at success.
“All of us started that journey decades ago, and we’ve made an impact,” Johnson said. “We have, and I think we need to change the trajectory, which we can by coming together.”
