Women in Engineering - The IEEE Oceanic Engineering Society

Women in Engineering (WIE)

IEEE Women in Engineering is an organization within the IEEE to facilitate the global recruitment and retention of women in technical disciplines. The Oceanic Engineering Society (OES) is just one of many IEEE Societies that designates a member to lead their WIE Affinity Group and OES has been exploring how it can help WIE achieve its mission < https://wie.ieee.org/about/>. Activities of the OES Group include encouraging women to participate in IEEE OES meetings, conferences and events. The OES has several programs to help students and young professionals to attend its premier OCEANS conferences and other events. One of these programs is the WIE-Propel program, described below. Keep an eye on this web page and Facebook stream for future opportunities. For more information about WIE, visit https://beacon.ieeeoes.org/member-communities/women-in-engineering/.

WIE Propel

The IEEE OES Women in Engineering (OES WIE) Coordinator invites members of IEEE OES who are also WIE affiliate members to participate in the leadership of the society by applying for induction as an OES WIE Propel Laureate. Being a Laureate leads to becoming involved in the broad range of Society committees, and helping to promote women engineers and scientists at the OCEANS conferences and other OES events. The program will provide an opportunity for OES WIE Propel Laureates to gain leadership, communication and organizational skills, and expand their network for career advancement.

The IEEE OES “WIE-PROPEL” program consists of recruiting a new OES WIE affinity member every year, for a two-year term. This means there are normally two representatives for a given year. The Call for Nominations opens on 15 September and closes on 31 October each year and the term of the successful candidate will commence on 1 January of the following year. In the first year of the appointment, the chosen candidate will be encouraged to attend the Women in Engineering International Leadership Conference to develop leadership skills to aid them in the remainder of their term.

The two-year duration of this program for each selected candidate corresponds to 4 OCEANS conferences, with travel and registration completely covered financially by OES when funding is available. Management of the IEEE OES WIE-PROPEL program is a duty of the OES WIE Coordinator, with oversight by the OES Vice-President for Professional Activities.

Expectations

The selected candidates to this program will develop their relationship with the WIE Coordinator, Executive and Administrative committee members, and other professional and student members, expanding their network and providing an opportunity for mentorship and career growth while increasing support of all Women in Engineering within the Oceanic Engineering Society. OES WIE-PROPEL Laureates are expected to:

Maintain their IEEE and OES memberships for the duration of their term.

actively work towards gender-diversified panels at all IEEE OES meetings, conferences and events;
participate in all aspects of IEEE OES events (including technical presentations);
actively participate in each OCEANS including working with the WIE Coordinator to plan a WIE panel and networking event;
maintain a list of existing resources for planning inclusive scientific meetings for use by IEEE OES volunteers when organizing conferences, workshops and symposia;
proactively promote women’s participation in Ocean Engineering;
give at least two talks a year in a geographic region of the candidate’s choice promoting WIE;
submit at least one article per year to either the Beacon, Earthzine or an IEEE publication where they highlight their experience as an OES WIE-PROPEL Laureate.

How to Apply

Applications open on 15 September and close on 31 October for the two-year term commencing 1 January of the following year. To apply, please submit a Curriculum Vitae and letter of application [https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdX8Zg9cYdROfhHjZMoGOYsFfycjrJ6t8-QjN6T3HbckEEwRQ/viewform] (word document or pdf) showing your motivation and describing how and where you propose to be involved in supporting OES WIE (2 pages max.), including previous experience working to support women in engineering/STEM, existing committees and events you propose to be involved in, and ideas for new ways to support women in OES and at OCEANS. For that, you can study the organization of the society to select one or several committees you are interested in working with or the OES WIE Coordinator at https://beacon.ieeeoes.org/contact-us/ for additional information on OES WIE activities.

OES WIE Coordinators

Farheen Fauziya (2018-present)

Brandy Armstrong (2015-2018)

Marinna Martini (2013-2015)

Barbara Fletcher (Foundation Coordinator)

Dr. Farheen Fauziya as the WIE Liaison for WIE-Propel program

Dr. Fauziya finished her PhD in “Vector sensor based Underwater Acoustic Communications” at IIT Delhi in February 2020. Her specialty is in Signal Processing, Haptic communication, and the theoretical aspects of wireless communications. Currently, she works at ECTL, where she designs an architecture to smoothly incorporate haptics into a unified communications platform. She has published three journal papers and ten conference papers, nine of which are in the respected IEEE/MTS OCEANS conferences. In addition, one was even accepted as a student poster competition in OCEANS’17 Aberdeen.

She has been an active member of IEEE OES, presenting her work at conferences and increasing her participation at each event. On top of that, she has chaired sessions, judged student poster completion, and reported on social media. During her graduation, she established three student branch chapters at her institute (IEEE OES, MTS, and IEEE WIE affinity group student chapter) and served as chapter chair. For the past five years, she has been the IEEE OES WIE liaison, contributing to the cause of women in STEM. She is a part of the governance committee of IEEE WIE leadership committee and IEEE corporate innovation award committee. She has been an associate editor for Earthzine and is currently the co-chair of IEEE OES student branch chapter chair. She has organized and moderated WIE breakfast panels at IEEE OCEANS Conference and is also part of IEEE OES WIE Propel program. In her free time, she likes to read, travel, and explore new places. She keeps up with the latest developments in her field, believing in the power of education and loves to share her knowledge with her peers. She is passionate about mentoring and helping young minds in their career and educational goals.

Dr. Fauziya is also on the IEEE WIE Committee, and is also a member of the OES AdCom and the IEEE Innovation Award Committee.