Trinity College Dublin welcomed group of secondary school girls for its 7th annual two-week eye-opener into the wonderful world of engineering

The programme is facilitated by staff members and graduate students and by a team of undergraduate summer interns. Some of this year’s interns had participated in the programme when they were in school, and as such were in a special position of having been on ‘both sides of the table.’

Katie Petherbridge, a second-year student in the Engineering with Management degree at Trinity, said:  “I initially had my heart set on nursing and didn’t really have much of an interest in engineering. But when I participated in the summer programme I realised that there was so much more to engineering than I had thought. I couldn’t wait to come back for a second year, and by then I was pretty sure of what I wanted to do! I really enjoy what I’m doing now, even though it is pretty hard work at times, and being able to talk to the girls as someone who was recently in their shoes was really fun too. I loved designing activities for them to do, to show them what engineering can be like, and also talking about my own experiences in my course – such as showing them the resonator guitars that we designed and built for our second year project.”

Kirsty Monaghan, a third-year student in the Electrical and Electronic Engineering programme at Trinity, added: “This was my first time working on this programme and I was struck by how much I would have enjoyed this when I was their age. I also really enjoyed listening to the academic staff talk about what they do, and to some of the guests, such as Aoife Wilson from Engineers Without Borders, and Gill Pierse from Google. It showed the girls just how varied the options are with an engineering career. I really believe in what this short programme is doing for future of engineering and I hope to stay involved in it.”

Professor Kelly hopes the course will increase the visible options for female students, by raising awareness of what an engineering programme can offer. There have been many ‘top-down’ approaches to encouraging girls in engineering, but the numbers are stubbornly low – and not just in Ireland. The key to change may lie in engaging bottom-up approaches, as we know that role models are important in precipitating long-term change.

He added: “With what we’re doing here, we are reaching potential students directly, but more importantly we’re also disseminating a key message through what we know are the key information channels: parents, teachers and peers. Things like the posters and videos we make for each school – showing that their students engaged in the summer programme – and the conversations and experiences of the girls, their parents and teachers, can have a significantly larger and longer-lasting impact than other types of outreach.”