With just a year old, IEEE WIE USICT, under the aegis of IEEE Delhi Section, has taken in its stride to empower IEEE USICT as a woman led society. The formation of IEEE WIE Affinity Group (AG), created an outburst of energy. With this the student branch conducted its first Outreach Program ‘UMANG’. The vision of ‘Umang’ is to break the first barriers experienced by the youngest of children, especially girls who might get drawn into social or psychological barriers and to help bridge the gap between science, education and gender roles.

Being students of engineering, we ourselves have witnessed the lack of a proper gender ratio in our field. In the modern 21st Century, we still haven’t been able to bridge this gap. The curriculum for the activities in Umang were designed in a manner to not just teach the students about science, but overcome social barriers as well. Umang targeted two primary girl’s school and one boy’s school. The sessions hosted included basic breadboard activities, Q&A sessions based on the experiments, interactive sessions to generate awareness, sharing of personal experiences and stories as well as providing real and tangible role models in science.

The interaction sessions, which were pre-dominantly held by the female volunteers themselves, were so designed and executed as to provide the young girls with a real-time science figure who they could relate to and imitate. The Outreach program moderated by the Chair, Sanna Nazir and Vice-Chair, Varun Panthri, led to a positive feedback by students, teachers and volunteers alike. IEEE WIE USICT has given me an opportunity to lead the IEEE WIE programs and has instilled in me a sense to inspire the young children who thought of us as real-time ‘Science Rockstars’.

Leadership is not about the title but about the satisfaction of inspiring and influencing others – currently chairing IEEE WIE USICT and being appointed as the Graphic lead of project IEEE WIE Stand, it has been a wonderful experience encouraging and interacting with these young women engineers. Together facing all the challenges, we have the strength to change the face of women engineers and encourage these young smart-heads to take up challenging roles.