Diversifying the science, technology, engineering and math fields has long been a top priority of many universities and tech companies. It’s also a goal of the National Science Foundation, the biggest funder of university-led research and development in the U.S. But in the field of engineering, at least, there hasn’t been a lot of progress in diversifying the academic pipeline beyond white men. The share of engineering bachelor’s degrees awarded to Black students has barely budged over the past decade. Women and Hispanic students fared better, but their respective percentages are still well below their shares of the population as a whole. The shares of engineering professors who are Black or Hispanic are also little changed and remain in the low single digits. Many reasons have been cited for this lack of progress, including stereotypes, lack of exposure, limited role models and the recent backlash against so-called woke policies that emphasize diverse hiring policies. But, as a scholar of STEM education accessibility, I believe there’s another culprit: poorly prepared professors. Unlike the other challenges, it happens to be a much easier problem for universities themselves to remedy.

In this episode of the Getting Smart Podcast, host Rebecca Midles is joined by Laurie Gagnon, CompetencyWorks Program Director at the Aurora Institute, to explore the transformative power of Competency-Based Education (CBE). Laurie explains how CBE shifts the focus from traditional seat-time requirements to mastering skills and knowledge at an individualized pace. This approach personalizes learning, promotes equity, and empowers students to take charge of their educational journeys. Laurie shares inspiring examples of districts successfully implementing CBE and discusses the systemic changes needed to support this innovative model. The conversation highlights the critical role of equity in CBE frameworks. Laurie addresses misconceptions and emphasizes how thoughtfully designed CBE systems can reduce opportunity gaps while fostering a shared language for clarity in educational transformation. Her insights illuminate the potential of CBE to prepare all learners for future challenges and opportunities.

The world of AI is evolving at breakneck speed, and Lica World is at the forefront, redefining how video content is created. This innovative platform leverages artificial intelligence to generate high-quality videos, offering an accessible solution for content creators, marketers, and businesses alike. But behind this groundbreaking technology is a story of perseverance, grit, and the unique challenges faced by women of color in the tech industry. Lica World started with a vision: to democratize video production. "We wanted to create a tool that would allow anyone, regardless of technical expertise, to produce stunning videos," Mehta explained. The platform uses cutting-edge AI to simplify and accelerate the video creation process, making it ideal for small businesses and creators on a budget. But turning this vision into reality required more than innovation; it required funding, a significant challenge for many startups, especially those led by women of color.

Stories are inspirational. Jamie Zvirzdin shares her story of learning to take herself and her career seriously as a woman. We need stories like these, stories of people who act with courage to overcome challenges. She researches ultrahigh-energy cosmic rays with the Telescope Array Project at the University of Utah. She is the author of Subatomic Writing: Six Fundamental Lessons to Make Language Matter (2023) and writes a monthly science column for newspapers in Central New York. Her science essays have appeared in The Atlantic, Orion Magazine, Brevity Magazine, The Kenyon Review, and others.

Human beings have looked at the stars for tens of thousands of years. Indigenous people have nurtured critical relationships with the stars, from keen observation and sustainable engineering to place-based ceremony, navigation, and celestial architecture. Our relationship with the sky is a deeply rooted part of who we are as a species. The Indigenous relationship and knowledge of the sky is exceptional in that it encompasses mind, body, heart, and spirit. Native Skywatchers Daniella Scalice uses her background in science and the arts to “dance with the stars” via a NASA partnership she has cultivated with members of the Navajo Nation and other partnerships with Indigenous communities across the US and internationally. Her journey from her farming and factory hometown of Torrington, Connecticut, to NASA took many turns to land her as a practitioner of STEAM and an advocate for equity in Indigenous education, by bringing together Indigenous knowledge and astrobiology. As she acknowledges, Torrington is town that sits on land taken from the Mohicans.

The Fall AWIS Magazine is here! This issue of AWIS Magazine spotlights thought leaders and innovators in women’s health equity, like Dr. Carolina Amador, Dr. Joyvina Evans, and Kathryn Schubert.

Welcome to Diverse, a podcast by the Society of Women Engineers. SWE gives women engineers a unique place and voice within the engineering community. On Diverse, they highlight incredible thought leaders and personalities in the STEM community and discover who they are at home, at work, and in between. You can stream episodes online or wherever you listen to your favorite podcasts.

The Academy for Creative Media at the University of Hawai‘i–West O‘ahu (ACMWO) created a plan to use Creative Media as a gateway to engage underrepresented students in STEM concepts — a significant step toward supporting the National Science Foundation’s Broadening Participation in Computing (BPC) initiative. BPC, funded under NSF’s Directorate for Computer and Information Science and Engineering, brings together various stakeholders in the computer science and engineering communities to work toward increasing diversity and inclusion in the fields. The BPCnet Resource Portal provides an opportunity for universities nationwide to submit a Departmental BPC Plan - a document that serves to coordinate BPC activities within a college - and have it read and verified by a BPC Consultant. The ACMWO Departmental BPC Plan was verified on June 3 by BPCnet.

Working from both sides of the camera lens, innovative women seized new technologies and transformed how movies look, feel, and entertain. When STEM and the arts collide, creative disruption can change everything. Film is a prime example - constantly reinventing itself with new technology and using it to tell human stories. Though the film industry has largely been male dominated (except for a brief period in the 1920s and early 1930s), women have always found ways to use and even invent technology to make art. Alice Guy-Blaché loved books, theater, and science and was a natural storyteller. In 1895, she attended a Paris demonstration of the Lumière brothers’ newly invented Cinématographe camera. The Lumières’ short actualité film showed a group of factory workers leaving a plant. Guy-Blaché immediately saw film’s potential for creating entertaining stories and was convinced she could do better.

In this video and transcript, NASA astronauts Tracy Dyson and Suni Williams discuss their life and work during an in-flight interview with two leaders from the Society of Women Engineers. On Aug. 6, FY25 SWE President Karen Roth and SWE Past President Heather Doty had a special opportunity to speak with two female astronauts from NASA who are in the midst of missions on the International Space Station. In this conversation, Astronaut Tracy Dyson and Astronaut Suni Williams share their biggest role models, the lessons from engineering school that they still apply today, and how being in space has affected their perspectives about living on earth.