Engineering All Around

How does your artwork depict the contribution of engineers to a better world?

My artwork depicts the contribution of engineers, especially girls, to a better world by showing how engineering touches every aspect of our lives to keep us healthy, mobile, connected, and curious. 

• Healthy: I drew corn, the recycling symbol, a microscope, an atom, a DNA double helix, a heart monitor, and glasses to depict how agricultural and biomedical engineers advance microscopic to industrial scale technologies to better feed and keep our world healthy. 
• Mobile: I drew gears, a wrench, a bridge, and a pyramid to depict how, from ancient to modern times, civil, mechanical, and structural engineers design and maintain better ways for our world to be mobile. 
• Connected: I drew a cellphone, a wind turbine, a laptop, a calculator, and a lightbulb to depict how communications, energy, computer, security, and electrical engineers imagine and design mathematically precise ways for our world to be better connected. 
• Curious: I drew the sun, Saturn, a rocket, and a robot to depict how aerospace, robotics, and artificial intelligence engineers enable space exploration to reward our curiosity about the universe and help our world better understand and extend the lifespan of our limited natural resources.

To emphasize the role of EngineerGirl in inspiring girls like me, I drew girls from around the world from multiple perspectives using each of the engineering marvels to make the world better. My goal was to show how universal engineering is in all areas of our lives, no matter who or where we are.

Describe how you think viewers from at least two different audiences might view or interpret your work.

Keeping in mind that EngineerGirl has a worldwide audience that spans students, teachers, parents, the engineering community, and others, the two different audiences of viewers I had in mind were adults and kids when creating my work. I think adults might view and interpret my work as well-researched and thoughtful and appreciate the careful selection of the twenty engineering marvels I depicted showing how engineers make the world better through science, technology, math, and design applications. I think kids, especially girls, might view and interpret my work as inspiring a sense of curiosity and interest to learn more about engineering and maybe hopefully see themselves in the “engineering girls” I depicted to make the world better. For both audiences, I wanted my work to convey the message that in every aspect of our lives all around the world engineering makes everything better.

Briefly describe the materials you used and the process you went through to create your piece.

To create my piece, the materials I used were paper, poster board, pencil with eraser, pen, tape, markers, and scissors. The process I used was the Engineering Design Process:

• First, I defined the problem by reading over the EngineerGirl: The Art of Engineering requirements to understand what I needed to achieve and I consulted the sample engineering design project that was posted. 
• Second, I evaluated the constraints I had.  This included submitting a two-dimensional image suitable for the website, which has a central EngineerGirl content panel. This became one of the main controlling variables in developing my design. Using math, I created an aspect ratio analysis of the EngineerGirl website and viewed the site on differently sized phone and computer screens to see how my artwork would potentially be displayed.
• Third, I brainstormed. I went to the library and read books on engineering to learn more about the mechanical, design, material, construction, and digital aspects of engineering to be informed when brainstorming creative ideas that would reflect an understanding of how engineers make the world better.  
• Fourth, I selected my most promising solution. I initially thought this might be a short graphic novel depicting the lives of historic and living engineers like Ada Lovelace and Radia Perlman. But after prototyping and then testing and evaluating this, I iterated and pivoted to a more broadly appealing art panel focused on the EngineerGirl target audience of middle and high school girls around the world who see themselves as current and future engineers. 
• Fifth, I created a prototype of my solution, which I did with pencil and paper while consulting background materials on engineering.
• Sixth, I tested and evaluated my prototype against feedback from my peers. This was when I encountered my biggest initial failure as some of the feedback was that I needed to make my design more personal and appealing to girls like me.
• Seventh, I iterated and selected a different design output, transitioning from a short graphic novel to an art panel.
• Eighth and finally, I communicated my final product, including through this write-up!

Explain anything you learned from the process. Ideally include any failures you experienced along the way. Failure and subsequent improvement are critical to engineering design, so please tell us how you failed, how you dealt with it, and how that influenced your submission.

I learned from the Engineering Design Process that my biggest failure was proceeding too far with my prototype of a graphic novel based on biographies of specific female engineers before seeking feedback from my peers. That feedback steered me towards a different final result that connects more personally with target EngineerGirl audiences. I had invested so much into the first prototype that I did not feel motivated to go back to the drawing board after receiving feedback that the first prototype was scoped too narrowly and, as a technical matter, might not work for the way the EngineerGirl website is laid out. I almost thought that I would give up entirely. However, because I had begun my research and effort early enough, I thankfully had some time to pause, review my materials and concept, and redo my aspect ratio analysis of the EngineerGirl website. I was then able to persist through the failure and take what I had learned about engineering making the world better and apply it to a different concept. I even decided to take a risk and have both a general central panel of engineering symbols and a border composed of girls from around the world engaged in specific engineering activities from a variety of perspectives. 
Given my lessons learned, I sought feedback along the way on the second iteration. I learned that initial prototypes don’t have to go all the way to final to be valuable, and that even an imperfect prototype can positively influence an even better end result. I learned that, where possible, it is a good idea to budget time and resources so if you have to change course, there is enough leeway to pivot. I also learned that in any engineering design effort, it is important to understand requirements, background information, what success should look like, and the intended audience. All of these are very valuable student and life lessons that I will carry with me in any project I undertake going forward.