Cory Hall has a renovated new showcase in the second floor hall (across from room 278), thanks to Lisa Buckman, Jennie Chen, and others who were instrumental in getting the project underway. The case, Lisa said, is intended to "inspire undergraduates and graduates based on a sampling of women from UC Berkeley's engineering program." The project, which started two years ago, was funded by a proposal Lisa Buckman wrote to the Graduate Assembly under the Educational Improvements Grant Program. Further funding was provided by TCSI Corporation and the EECS Department's Excellence and Diversity Program.
In a short speech explaining the history of the project, Lisa thanked the Graduate Assembly, TCSI, and the EECS Excellence and Diversity Program for funding the project. The project was supported by many faculty, including the current and last EECS chairs, Dave Messerschmitt and Randy Katz, the new EE chair, Andy Neureuther, the vice chair of graduate student affairs, and the new dean of the college, Paul Gray.
There are three panels in the case. One displays the history of women in engineering from 1876 until now. The case displays good historical information. Although the university was chartered in 1868, the first woman graduate at Berkeley in engineering was in 1886, when Elizabeth Bragg graduated from the College of Mechanics and Civil Engineering. In 1894, Julia Morgan earned a degree. Between 1900 and 1940, only two women earned engineering degrees. In 1931, the original college was changed to the College of Engineering, with civil, electrical, and mechanical engineering departments. From 1950-1960, 14 women earned engineering degrees. Since 1980, there has been a steady increase in the number of women earning engineering degrees. In fact, the number of women attaining doctorates doubled in the two years Lisa and Jennie worked on the display case. Today, the COE has seven departments and several interdisciplinary areas. This information is in a chart in the case that was compiled by Dr. Sheila Humphreys.
Another panel has photos and biographies, a sampling of women who earned their doctorates here and are now at high-profile universities and in industry positions. The third panel shows all of the women who have obtained Ph.D.s from EECS and where they are located on a US map. Lisa said that, including 1996, there are over 90 women in EECS who have received doctoral degrees from EECS.
The unveiling of the display case took place during the annual WICSE celebration of women graduating from EECS with master's and doctoral degrees. So far, the case contains graduates up to spring 1995. Lisa said that a new Web page will soon be available that will be updated continually to show the achievements of EECS women.
For the year 1995-96, 27 women are earning their M.S. or Ph.D.s in EECS. They are: Lisa Anne Buckman, Lisa Guerra, Mor Harchol, Diane Hernek, Ivy Hsu, Melody Ivory, Margret Jacoby, Erin Catherine Jones, Asawaree Kalavade, Linda Argon Kamas, Men-Hsiung Kiang, Xiaoye Sherry Li, Li Lin, Sara Anne McMains, Nikki Mirghafori, Rebbie Moon, Mariam Motamed, Marylou S. Orayami, Sunita Sarawagi, Ekta Singh, Gilanjali Swamy, Elizabeth Sweedyk, Kim Beng Teo, Angela Kuo Wang, Denise Wolf, Mei Xiao, and Junjing Yang.