Engaging High School Women in Engineering Design Using Cyberinfrastructure

Without a doubt, the current generation of secondary school students is very familiar with information technology. Text messaging, e-mail, and social networking websites are a normal means of communication. There is also increasing recognition of the need for diversification the engineering workforce and increasing the number of graduating engineers in the United States. This has created an opportunity to leverage leading edge Cyberinfrastructure in an outreach program targeting secondary school students. This paper demonstrates the implementation of a targeted outreach program that engages high school students in engineering design over a two-week period using state-of-the-art digital design repositories and motion simulation equipment.