By Lenka Kollar

One of my classmates from INSEAD recently launched a Kickstarter campaign for Cannybots, toy robots designed to teach kids how to program and tinker in a playful way.

I'm really excited for Cannybots to make their way to schools and students' homes to inspire young kids to to be creative while building and playing with something. By making programming and tinkering fun, kids will develop their analytical capabilities without even realizing it, and maybe even be inspired to study and pursue careers in STEM!

As a child, I loved to play with Legos and puzzles, and I think those early days of building and solving things led me to be interested in engineering.  Back then, all of the Legos and other building toys were "boy oriented" so it's very valuable that Cannybots is unisex and appealing to all kids. 

To see how Cannybots work and to contribute to their campaign, check out the Kickstarter page!

Nuclear Undone's very own expert Mark Reed speaks out about being a nuclear engineer, being different, and inspiring others.

By Lenka Kollar

During my MBA at INSEAD, I've had the chance to take classes at the Abu Dhabi campus and do projects related to the UAE's move towards a knowledge-based economy. In order to have a sustainable industry based on technology and innovation, a trained workforce is needed to feed it. Science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) education is crucial to foster a culture of innovation. Students have to gain interest in STEM at an early level to then choose to study it at university and form a career in STEM.

While in Abu Dhabi last week, I participated in the Google STEM Forum, also hosted by the Al Bayt Mitwahid Association. The was event aimed at bringing policymakers, technology companies, educators and non-profits together to promote innovation in science and technology through partnerships in education, programs, and research. (Read more about the event here.)

My INSEAD classmate, David Nothacker, and I had the opportunity to present our class project on STEM, in which we analyzed the culture, education, infrastructure, incentives, industry, and governance of STEM in different countries. We derived best practices from each of these levers to gain insights for Abu Dhabi and the UAE in transitioning towards a knowledge-based economy.

We also learned about the STEM education initiatives of Google in the region. In particular, they established an innovation hub in partnership with Al Bayt Mitwahid that gives students an opportunity to gain hands-on experience with robotics. This fosters a culture of innovation and gets kids excited about studying science and technology and pursuing careers in these fields. The video below sends a very inspiring message.

This was a very exciting project and experience for me because I'm very passionate about revitalizing STEM education and I've worked on nuclear science outreach to students in the U.S. I'm primarily concerned about the diversity of students in STEM, especially women. It's great to see that the government, industry, and schools are working together to get kids excited about science.

The Women Matter report focusing on women in the GCC (Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the UAE) found that a few key women have made it top leadership roles in companies and that it needs to go "from the first to the norm."

An action plan for doing this includes:

• Top management commitment to gender diversity by making it a strategic priority
• Leadership development programs that support women in finding their path towards leadership
• Providing training in recognizing and overcoming biases
• Collective enablers and policies that formally reinforce this change

While the path to changing women's influence and status in the workplace is long and difficult, we are well on the way and need to keep building the momentum to facilitate change. We recognize the need and now we need to implement concrete steps within organizations and make sure that they are fully realized.

By Lenka Kollar

I first heard about science communicator Emily Graslie when her Where My Ladies At? video went viral last year. I immediately became a fan of her awesome YouTube channel, The Brain Scoop, which takes you inside of the amazing scientific research going on at the Field Museum in Chicago. Emily was the guest speaker at the monthly meeting of the Field Museum Women In Science group open to the public so I was sure to attend!

Emily began her talk on "The Importance of Science Role Models in the Media" with a discussion of her female science role models growing up. The first being her mom, a successful medical doctor, and the second, Ms. Frizzle from the book series and animated show, The Magic School Bus. I was also a big fan of Ms. Frizzle and her class, along with other science shows, such as Bill Nye the Science Guy. But Emily made an excellent point, that there really were not any real female science role models in the media when we were growing up and that they are still scarce.

The problem is that the scientist stereotype is a guy with crazy eyes wearing a lab coat staring at a bubbling chemical inside of a laboratory (as illustrated above). In reality, scientists also work outside in the field and analyze data on computers. They are not crazy, but rather curious. They also wear normal clothes and have families and lives outside of the laboratory. They work at universities, research institutions, large and small companies, and even independently. But the media portrays scientists in a certain way that they think the public wants to see.

Stereotyping inhibits science communication because diversity is lacking. A diverse population wants to get information from diverse sources. More female science role models would also encourage more young women to pursue science. 

Emily Graslie suggests that we do the following to help:

By Lenka Kollar

If you're looking for a reason to watch the newest season of Survivor, which premiers tonight at 8/7c on CBS, meet my colleague and friend, Dr. J'Tia Taylor! J’Tia received her PhD in Nuclear Engineering from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and was the first black female to successfully defend and receive a Ph.D. from the department. She now works at Argonne National Laboratory in the area of nuclear nonproliferation policy - learn more about J’Tia’s work at Argonne here.

J'Tia took a sabbatical from Argonne last summer to compete as a contestant on this season of Survivor, which is set in the Philippines province of Cagayan. The eighteen contestants are split into three tribes according to their skills: Brawn, Brains, and Beauty. Although J’Tia could easily qualify for the Beauty group, she is obviously on the Brains Tribe. 

I worked closely with J'Tia while I was at Argonne and I can vouch that she is strategic and competitive, so I am definitely rooting for her to be the "Sole Survivor" and win that million dollar prize! I took over some of her work when she was gone last summer so she at least owes me dinner if she wins! 

Read this article in full and learn more about J'Tia's involvement in the American Nuclear Society and work with STEM outreach to women on my post at the ANS Nuclear Cafe. And don't forget to tune into CBS tonight at 8/7c!

By Lenka Kollar

Happy Engineer's Week! Here at Nuclear Undone, we encourage women to pursue science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) fields and other careers that are traditionally male-dominted. The stigma against women as engineers is slowly changing and this recent commercial from General Electric is evidence. GE's motivation behind this commercial was to "celebrate the childlike wonder in all of us." But actually, they are also portraying that women can be engineers and change the world for the better and also be moms and inspire their kids. This commercial is really encouraging and I hope that it shows young women that they can have a positive impact on the world by designing technologies that help humankind.

Another initiative changing the way women are portrayed is the Lean In Collection on Getty Images. Lean In is the nonprofit organization founded by Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg to empower all women to achieve their ambitions. The goal of the new image collection is to change the way women are portrayed in the work place from the traditional stock photos that feature women in heels climbing a ladder or a baby in briefcase. These photos show all types of women doing all kinds of jobs, including being mothers. Being a proponent of women in technology, the image below is one of my favorites. Let's add some women in nuclear to the collection!

By Lenka Kollar

Meet a young engineer who helps design and regulate the fleet of nuclear-powered submarines and aircraft carriers in the U.S. Navy. She got a mechanical engineering degree from MIT and then signed up as a Navy nuclear officer. She goes out to ships and makes sure that the crew is ready to operate. Learn more about her job in the video below.

Learn more about Navy nuclear careers here.

By Lenka Kollar

In today's economy, it is easy to convince someone to become an engineer just by telling them that they will find a stable job and make a good income. However, this argument does not work for everyone, particularly women. Most women are not motivated by their paycheck, but rather by their accomplishments and the people they help along the way. Women are much more likely to choose careers in which they are directly helping people, such as nursing, teaching, and social work. While these are good and important careers, the science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) fields are missing out on the talents of women and their motivation to help people.

I've organized and participated in many nuclear science and STEM outreach events to young students, including female-only events such as "Introduce a Girl to Engineering Day" and Girls Scouts nuclear science badge events. In our career presentations we always make the point of the stable and high-paying jobs that the STEM fields can provide, but we miss making the connection to the huge humanitarian and social impact that an engineer or scientist can make. 

One of my friends recently told me a story of a brother and a sister who wanted the same goal of impacting the world in a positive way. The sister was concerned about the impact of oil drilling on the environment and studied policy in college and then worked for a think tank trying to change the policies for oil drilling. She worked hard but was only mildly successful. Her brother, on the other hand, studied engineering in college and ended up working for an oil company where he developed a tool that allowed oil to be more efficiently extracted with less environmental impact. Inadvertently, he had a much bigger influence on the very problems his sister was trying to solve with policy. His sister could have easily also used her talents and motivation to solve environmental problems technically instead of with policy. 

This story is a perfect example of how women do not realize that they can impact people's lives in a positive way with a technical degree and job. This is probably due to the fact that the creators of a technology do not usually experience the impact of their technology on people's lives as you do in a career where are are directly working with the customer, such as in nursing. But the problems that engineers solve and the things that they create help people everyday. Bridges, planes, medicine, computers, electricity all improve people's lives. But the connection between the actual people (not company) that made the technology and the users of the technology is missing, which is why women don't realize how much they can help humanity in the STEM fields.

This connection of helping people needs to be made in order to convince girls to become engineers. The propaganda above is taken from the front page of the White House initiative for Women in STEM. Salary should not be a focus for getting more women into STEM. It's not that women don't care about money, it's that salary isn't their number one motivator for picking a career. Women want to have careers in which they can improve people's lives. We need to show young girls just how much you can change the world for the better as an engineer or scientist.

I chose to be a nuclear engineer because I wanted to impact the world in a positive way by solving our energy needs. Why did you chose your current career?

Written by Lenka Kollar

Emily Graslie is a science communicator and the Chief Curiosity Correspondent at The Field Museum. In her YouTube channel, The Brain Scoop, Emily explores everything fascinating at the museum and even dissects things! Her episodes are interesting, fun, and educational. She was recently asked about Women in STEM and made a video responding to abusive comments that she's received, including comments about her body and appearance. Comments like these discourage women from being in situations in which they can be scrutinized, especially in a male-dominated field. We want people to focus on our content and not looks. However, it is ingrained in our society that women are supposed to be attractive. 

Although women's rights have made major strides in the last century, sexism still exists, and men feel like they have nothing to contribute to this conversation. But as Emily says, "it starts with an acknowledgement from both men and women that these are serious issues that need to be discussed." Women in STEM are are a minority and technical women in the public setting are an even greater minority. How can we start the discussion of encouraging more women to study science and also educate the public?

Follow Emily Graslie and The Brain Scoop on Facebook and Twitter.