Dec 6, 2013 - be one of the judges at a Maker ... Xiaorui Zhu presents the first-place award to Maker Marathon ... Shen is in charge of the database and.
WOMEN IN ENGINEERING
Novel Techniques toOur Solve Engineering Makes Life Better Space-Exploration Problems By Xiaorui Zhu and Jiaotou Lin By Name name, affliation; Name name, affliation;
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his August, Zhu was invited to be one of the judges at a Maker Marathon Competition organized by Lei Feng, a Chinese high-tech Internet media network (www.leiphone.com), to encourage young people to take utmost advantage of engineering techniques to solve dayto-day problems (Figure 1). The theme of this competition was “Make Life Better.” To my surprise, my seven-year-old daughter insisted on accompanying me to this event after hearing a brief introduction. She was very much excited to see the various prototypes designed by the young participants on site in only one and a half days. While the organizers provided the necessary tools and parts, such as three-dimensional printer kits, microchips, wires, resistors, etc., each team had to propose an idea and realize it by creating a prototype. The prototypes were displayed and presented to the audience and the judges. The judges then rated each team. As I was judging the prototypes, my daughter tried to lobby me for the ones she favored, as she could understand the details and seemed to be interested in them. She expressed interest in the competition and was flooded with creative ideas that would make our family’s life easier. Her ideas were really surprising. I was even more surprised at seeing only one female participant in the competition, Liting Liao. Liao was the leader of a three-member team (Figure 2) and Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/MRA.2013.2283187 Date of publication: 6 December 2013
Figure 1. Xiaorui Zhu presents the first-place award to Maker Marathon Competition winners.
Figure 2. Liting Liao (center) and her teammates.
Figure 3. Liao (right) making her presentation in the competition.
gave her team’s presentation about its prototype (Figure 3). The prototype was a near-field communication (NFC)based voice reminder (Figure 4). Liao’s team programmed the target information to an NFC card. When the card approached the reminder, the reminder would read the information in the voice. The daily life scenario was the ability to read medicine instructions, which can be difficult for many people, especially those having weak vision or
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Figure 4. The prototype NFC-based voice reminder can provide assistance with reading medicine dosage instructions.
senior citizens, because medicine instructions are printed with small font. This scenario reminded me of my parents, who take different types of capsules each day. Many times, they have been confused with the instructions, not knowing the quantity and the frequency to consume the medicines. Additionally, they face difficulties with the font size printed in the instruction manual. The voice reminder presented by Liao’s team was an attempt to provide assistance to people like my parents. The important content of the medicine instructions can be programmed to the NFC card, so when the user needs to confirm the instructions, the voice reminder would be able to repeat them in the form of a voice. While it was a simple prototype, it was a nice idea! The three team members spent just one and a half days making their idea a reality. Later, I asked my friend, Jiaotou Lin, a reporter, to interview Liao. Through
Figure 5. The “painful foot” is another of Liao’s creations.
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the interview, we started to learn more about this female “maker geek.” Liao is 25 years old and has a baby girl. She received her bachelor’s degree with two majors, marketing and electrical engineering. Although Liao currently works in the marketing department of a hightech company, she just could not give up engineering. Taking every opportunity to learn how the new products from her company work and how they were made, these efforts have helped Liao to do a great job in marketing the products. But this alone does not satisfy her, so Liao spends her spare time making different and interesting gadgets using open-source hardware. She even
able tech products and health service. Shen is in charge of the database and product department. While interested in engineering as a child, Shen was most affected by the rapid rise of Google, as the database created was so full of challenges. She has been obsessed with data mining since then. Several years ago, Shen learned more about sensors and became involved in the development of health-care products. Her excitement was expressed when she discussed “Latin,” an intelligent scale (Figure 7). Shen worked with Chen Chao in the Conte Center at University of Chicago to develop this product. Latin not only measures the weight, body fat percentage, body mass index, body moisture, and other indexes of the human body but also sets up a comprehensive health-evaluation system—the PICOOC Health Measurement System. All of the measured and analyzed data in Latin is automatically sent to the smartphone of the user via Bluetooth. Shen also designs the algorithms for some wearable technology products. After meeting such talented women in the field of engineering, I could not help but think that this generation is the
Figure 6. Chen Shen is the cofounder of PICOOC.
joined a local maker geek club. Her two teammates in this event are members of the same club. Liao showed us a “painful foot” that she made for fun (Figure 5). If the big toe on the foot is pressed too hard, the foot automatically flashes a blue light and roars, trembling. Liao said that engineering makes her life “colorful and full of fun.” Her role model is Limor Fried (also known as ladyada), an American electrical engineer who is known for her participation in the open-source movement. A few days after meeting Liao, I was introduced to another female maker geek. Chen Shen, an electrical engineer, (Figure 6) is the cofounder of PICOOC, a Chinese company that provides wear-
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Figure 7. Latin is an intelligent scale.
right time for women to be involved in engineering. Nowadays, engineering enters and impacts our life in many ways. According to my observation, girls are usually more sensitive to the happenings in our daily lives. Hence, I believe that female engineers can make more contributions in this field, as it is deeply impacting our lives.
