Hillman's seed grant focuses on women in engineering
Published Feb 09, 2020
Assistant professor Dr. Sara Hillman is the first Liberal Arts faculty member to win a Texas A&M University at Qatar Responsive Research Seed Grant and will investigate the question, “How attractive is the engineering profession for females in Qatar?”
Hillman is collaborating with Dr. Annie Ruimi, associate professor of mechanical engineering, and Sara Amani (pictured above right with Hillman), a Texas A&M interdisciplinary engineering Ph.D. candidate.
While attracting women to STEM fields has been a concern in Western countries, female students across the Arab/Muslim world are dominating most STEM educational programs. At Texas A&M at Qatar, females now make up approximately 49% percent of the student population. Despite a high number of female engineering graduates in Qatar, though, this does not always translate to representation and job satisfaction upon entering the workplace.
“Given Qatar’s significant focus on enhancing women’s role and empowerment, we hope to bring to light some of the issues faced by our female engineering students as they go on the job market in Qatar, as well as our alumnae already working in engineering professions in Qatar,” Hillman said.