WIE Japan
IEEE
Japan Council Women in Engineering Affinity Group
Past Events
2006 Events
2005 Events
The Second Lecture Meeting in the "Lecture Series of Female Researchers"
Prof. Nadia Magnenat-Thalmann of University of Geneva gave a talk
on A life as a Computer Science Canadian and Swiss female Professor at
Korakuen Campus, Chuo University, on Tuesday, September 25, 2007.
"As a woman, she did not follow the streamline. She tried to do what she liked
all the time and was not part of any usual old boys club or whatever.
She is just willing to go ahead and do things she likes. She does not know where she goes but she knows her internal way."
The First Leture Meeting in the "Lecture Series of Female Researchers"
Dr. Tuptim Angkaew of Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok, Thailand, gave us a talk
on "Women Engineers in Electromagnetics and Related Technology", based on her own
experience as a female student and then a researcher. Thai proverb says that the
role of men is like front legs, and the role of women is like rear legs of an elephant,
so that women should always follow men.
Based on her strong wish, however, she chose to study electromagnetics in Japan.
By the help of many people such as her advisers, she was granted PhD, and joined
EE Department of Chulalongkorn University. In the end of her talk, she showed 7 rules
for success as follows;
- Be passionate about what you do
- Establish goals
- Set priorities
- Network up and down
- Communicate well and often
- Hone your skills
- Get a life
After the lecture, we had a poster session, where 5 members presented their
work in front of their posters, while enjoying good foods and drinks.
One member brought demonstration equipment and showed her real working system.
Her presentation material
Lecture and Networking in Hokkaido
"Girls, Harbor a Dream!"
On Saturday, May 18, 2007, lectures, free discussion, and free
consultation were held in Hokkaido University. Dr. Miki Haseyama,
Professor, Hokkaido University, first talked about present situation and
future of human resource development with emphasis on female
researchers. Dr. Sanae M. M. Iguchi-Ariga, Vice Executive / Head
of Support Office for Femail Researchers / Professor, Hokkaido
University, explained support of female researchers in Hokkaido
University. Dr. Michiko Kuroda, Chair of WIE Japan, introdued
activities of IEEE WIE Japan and stressed the importance of those
activities. Finally, Dr. Mihoko Otake, Chief Secretary of WIE Japan,
introduced interactive activities among female students and female
researchers in Women in Robotics and IEEE WIE.
In the free discussion and free consultation, many male and female
participants exchanged their views with nice drinks and foods.
The lecture was held at Tokyo University of Sciences, Kagurazaka Campus
on November 11, 2006. Dr. Rowena Cristina L. Guevara, Dean of
Engineering, University of Philippines lectured her research work and
activities of female researchers in the Philippines.
Title: Women Engineers as Academic Leaders
Read report in Japanese.
Prof. Guevara graduated from the University of the Philippines for her
BS and MS Electrical Engineering degrees in 1985 and 1990 respectively,
and University of Michigan, Ann Arbor in 1997. She did post-doctoral
studies in speech signal processing at the Tokyo Inst. of Technology and
as the first Banatao Fellow at the University of California,
Berkeley.
After graduation in 1985, she joined the faculty of the Dept. of
Electrical Engineering and now holds a Professor position. She was the
Chairman of the EEE Dept. from 1997 - 2003
In July 2004, she became the youngest and first woman Dean of the
College of Engineering, and concurrent Executive Director of the
National Engineering Center.
Her research interests are speech, audio, image and music signal
processing. She is a member of professional societies like the National
Research Council of the Philippines, the Institute of Integrated
Electrical Engineers and IEEE.
In the lecture, first, she mentioned the proportion of female student
and female faculty of universities in the Philippines. By international
standards, the rate of both female students and female faculty are very
high in the Philippines. Especially, in industrial engineering, chemical
engineering, and material engineering, female students outnumber male
students. Even in mechanical engineering, about 20 % of students are
female. When Prof. Guevara was a student, there are only a few female
students per grade. In the past two decades, the rate of female students
increased.
Next, Prof. Guevara's own personal history was shown. From her
childhood, she likes music. Especially, she has great practice in
piano. The talent aids in charity concert to collect donations for
constructing new building in the university.
About research, she told that the selection of research theme is
important. In the beginning, her specialty was electrical power
engineering. Then, she changed her research area to signal processing
in order to respond to the demonds of the modern society. Her research
interests are speech, audio, image and music signal processing.
Lastly, she talked about leadership. After she became the dean, she
modernized university system. For example, she built new university
buildings, introduced remote lecture with concerted efforts of the
University of California at Berkeley. She collected donations for
university from governments and a number of companies and equipped with
new facilities. Students are given practical education that they become
adaptable fighting potential in companies.
Read her presentation material.
Q and A
- : How do you explain significant number of women in both the student
population and in the faculty in the Philippines, as compared to
significantly lower numbers in other countries?
- :
- Don't look at gender during the selection process - but selection
process includes both high school grades and an entrance
exam. Women tend to do worse on the entrance exam, but tend to have
better high school grades, so they still enter university in
significant numbers.
- No special government programs such as affirmative action or
preferential hiring.
- Matriarchal society - women are respected as the head of the family
and the chief manager and decision maker.
- Women don't face the same negative stereotypes - for example, as a
child, she never heard that math is more difficult for girls.
- : How did you invite donations for university?
- : We described industry that if students get good education at
universities, students become adaptable fighting potential for
companies. In negotiations, logical thinking is important.
- : In Japan, women tend to give up her job on marriage or having a
child. How about in the Philippines?
- : Women don't face the same family and childcare responsibilities and
stereotypes - having a nanny (or several) is seen as acceptable and
affordable for a working woman, so that women don't have to choose the
career vs. family.
Reported by Mihoko Otake, Translated by Mariko Aoki
Special Lecture and Party to celebrate the First Anniversary of WIE Japan
The lecture meeting was held on 22 July 2006 in the lecture hall of
Ookayama Campus, Tokyo Institute of Technology. Prof. Miki Haseyama and
Prof. Yong-Jin Park gave us their lectures.
Prof. Miki Haseyama (Hokkaido University, IEEE Region 10 WIE Coordinator)
Title: How to enjoy being a woman researcher in Engineering
The first half of the talk was on the current state of gender equality
in the field of science and technology based on the data such as EPMEWSE
- Japan Inter-Society Liaison Association Committee for Promoting Equal
Participation of Men and Women in Science and Engineering. The last half
of the talk was on her carrier development and her research named
"Friendly model". Her talk was full of humor and encouragement.
This report and discussion after the lectures are summerized in Japanese.
Prof. Yong-Jin Park (Hanyang University, IEEE Region 10 Conference Coordinator)
Title: Recent IT Situation in Korea
This talk covered the recent IT industries and Internet situation in
Korea. Firstly, rapid growth of electric Industry, mobile service
providers, broadband services was shown with statistical data. Then, he
described the secret of Samsung Group realized by achievement-oriented
system and human resource development. He also outlined the dramatic
change of social system caused by ICT, such as e-government, game
industry, e-politics, and e-banking.
The rapid growth of Korea gives us tips for increasing the share of
women in engineering by competitive power.
There were about 30 participants to the party and their background was
diverse including artificial intelligence, software engineering,
electrical engineering, robotics, medical engineering, mechanical
engineering, foreign language and sociology. Prof. Hideki Hashimoto, the
IEEE Japan Council Treasurer congratulated the first anniversary of this
IEEE Japan Council WIE Affinity Group, and all the participants briefly
introduced themselves.
Both the lectures and the party were so successful. We would like to
thank all the speakers and participants. We are looking forward to
meeting you in the future.
(reported by Mihoko Otake)
This report and discussion after the lectures are summerized in Japanese.
Lecture by Dr. Lemonia Ragia
In the evening of Thursday, March 16, 2006, there was a lecture meeting at
the Center for the Advancement of Working Women in Tokyo. The
speaker was Dr. Lemonia Ragia, Informatik V (Information Systems), RWTH
Aachen, Germany, and the title of her talk was
"Handicaps to success for women engineers".
Her presentation material is available here.
Women in Robotics, Human Science and Society
Read a report of Panel
Discussion held on March 8 (in Japanese).
Lecture by Dr. Sandra Zilles
In the evening of 20 Feb. 2006, a lecture by Dr. Sandra Zilles from DFKI (German Research
Center for Artificial Intelligence) was held at the Collaboration Room, Tokyo Institute
of Technology, as the fourth public lecture of WIE Japan. As a computer scientist, she
focused her topic on women in computer science in Germany. Based on the hard data, she gave an
overview of the situation of woman in computer science in German firstly, and then discussed
on why there is few women in computer science based on her original analysis and experiences.
Even it was a heavy rainy day, almost packed audience participated the lecture and
questionnaire survey shows many audience were very interested in her analysis and got a lot of
hint from her talk.
The lecture was co-sponsored by the IEICE Committee for Promoting
Equal Participation of Men and Women, and IEEE Student Branch at Tokyo Institute of
Technology.
(Reported by Xiaowei Kan and Akinori Nishihara)
Presentation Material by Dr. Zilles
We can lend a CD-ROM of her presentation video.
In the evening of December 1, 2005, a lecture by Ms. Noriko Shiomitsu,
Director of Research Division, Gender Equality Bureau, Cabinet
Office, Government of Japan, was held at the Center for the
Advancement of Working Women in Tokyo. This lecture was the third public
event held by IEEE JC WIE. The title was Gender Equality in the Field of
Science and Technology - Activities of the Government. She explained the
Science and Technology Basic Plan in plain words. Her lecture was so
clear and she described the government plan in detail so that we could
easily understand what policies the Japanese government were and will be
made to realize a gender equality in science and technology field. She
also told us how to appeal our needs to the government to improve our
situations surrounding women engineers. Her lecture was very impressive,
informative and useful for the audience, and many discussions were made
after her talk.
(Reported by Masumi Shibata)
Lecture by Prof. Janina Mazierska
In the evening of 10 November 2005, a lecture by Prof. Janina Mazierska,
Professor and Head of Institute of Information Sciences and Technology,
Massey University, New Zealand was held at the Annex Hall Room F203,
Pacifico Yokohama, as the second public event of WIE Japan. She gave a
talk on `Why I have chosen to study Electronic Engineering - A story of
a women Engineer from Warsaw' by revealing on how she got attracted to
study in engineering and struggling doing her PhD meanwhile managing her
family. Her talk is very attention-grabbing, didactic and encouraging
for women in engineering in Japan itself. The room is crowded with
audience and a lot of participants asked questions and bestow
comments. The discussion was still unrelenting even after the convention
is closed. Questionnaires surveys prove that the speech was strongly
recommended and the members looking forward to the future WIE events.
The lecture was co-sponsored by IEICE Committee for Promoting Equal
Participation of Men and Women.
The organizing committee members thank Prof. Mazierska and all the
attendees, both men and women, for their support and cooperation.
(Reported by Michiko Kuroda)
Her presentation material is available here.
We can lend a CD-ROM of her presentation video.
Lecture by Dr. Claudia Eckert
In the evening of 15 September 2005 a lecture by Dr. Claudia Eckert,
Director of Fraunhofer SIT (Institute for Secure Information Technology)
was held at the Centenial Memorial Hall, Tokyo Institute of Technology,
as the first public event of WIE Japan. She gave an overview of
the situation of woman engineers in Germany in general using actual
examples in the Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft by showing a lot
of statistical data. Her talk was very interesting and informative.
She also encouraged woman engineers in Japan.
Almost packed audience raised many questions and
comments. Discussion continued even after the close of the meeting.
Questionnaire survey shows that the lecture was satisfactory and people
expect other WIE events.
The lecture was co-sponsored by the IEICE.
The organizing committee thanks Dr. Eckert and all the attendees, both
men and women, for their cooperation.
(Reported by Xiaowei Kan and Akinori Nishihara)
Her presentation material is
available here.
We can lend a CD-ROM of her presentation video.
Kickoff Meeting
The kickoff meeting was held on 8 July 2005 and officers
were elected there.
Read the minutes of the meeting
for more detail.
