Speaker Series - Engineering for Health in a Pandemic
March 31st, 2021
The Women in Engineering (WIE) Society hosted their third 'Women of Today' Panel Event Series. This event discussed Engineering for Health in a Pandemic.
The Event:
In this one of a kind virtual event, attendees heard from three incredible women in engineering: Dr. Amina Stoddart, Phd, is a phenomenal leader in the field of engineering whose research interests lie in wastewater treatment. Jade Farr is an engineering student graduating with a certificate in biomedical engineering. Tyra Obadan is a grade school student whose student research presentation focused on “Radical Disparities in the Detection of Breast Cancer”.
In this moderated panel discussion, we had an open and meaningful conversation around how the pandemic has changed the profession of engineering and what this looks like in our own professional and educational lives.
Amina Stoddart (she/her) is an Engineer and Assistant Professor in the Centre for Water Resources at Dalhousie University. Her research seeks to improve contaminant removal from water and wastewater through the development of detection methods, application of novel treatment technologies, and advancement of process optimization approaches.
Recently, Amina’s team has focused research efforts on the detection and surveillance of SARS-CoV-2 in wastewater to support pandemic response measures.
Jade Farr is a fourth year engineering student graduating in December of 2022 with a Bachelors of Electrical Engineering and a Certificate in Biomedical Engineering. She has been recognized for her leadership abilities as one of the founding students to receive the Dean's Leadership List. Jade has had a variety of industry experience in the Renewable Energy sector as well as the Telematics and Defence & Security industry.
Jade has recognized the impact the pandemic has made in the engineering industry. Furthermore, she is particularly interested in the opportunities this pandemic has presented to biomedical engineers. What can we do as engineers to improve the lives of our first responders or patients?
Tyra Obadan is a high school student at Sydney Academy in Cape Breton, Nova Scotia who participated in Imhotep’s Young, Gifted & Black Science Fair and whose research presentation focused on “Radical Disparities in the Detection of Breast Cancer”. Tyra is part of a Women’s group at her school where they discuss many important subjects such as women in STEM and was a finalist at the ConnectHER international film festival for her film about girls in Tech and Sciences.
Tyra is excited to be a part of this engineering panel, which she thinks is very important for girls her age to know about, because there is a lack of career paths presented to young girls, especially in engineering.
