Engineering Outreach Plays Key Role in Increasing Diversity

A recent article published in The Globe and Mail highlights the important role U of T’s Engineering Outreach programs play in increasing diversity in the field.

Excerpt:

While female students are now the majority in medical and law schools, engineering programs are still dominated by men. In 2010, women accounted for only 17.7 per cent of engineering undergraduates and 10.5 per cent of registered professional engineers in Canada.

“This is an issue because engineers are trying to solve complex, difficult and important problems,” says Susan McCahan, the University of Toronto’s vice-dean undergraduate for the faculty of applied science and engineering. “If we can increase the diversity of engineers, we’ll have greater potential to develop better solutions – ones that would not emerge if only one sort of person was addressing the problem.”