The National Academy of Engineering has announced the winners of its 2023 EngineerGirl Writing Contest. Seventh grader Benjamin Wu from Narrows View Intermediate in University Place won first place among entries from 6th-8th grade students for his essay exploring “Diversity and Inclusion in Engineering: The Impact of Dr. Patricia Bath’s Legacy.” Wu was also the inaugural winner in Washington state’s first ever Civic Bee on June 1.
This year’s writing competition asked students in grades 3 through 12 to write an essay on how female and/or non-white engineers have contributed to or can enhance engineering’s greatest achievements. Specifically, this year’s contest prompt asked students to choose one of the greatest engineering achievements of the 20th century and explore how these innovations developed in the last century compare to new technologies being developed today. More than 700 submissions were received and prizes were awarded to students based on grade level.
“Congratulations to all 2023 EngineerGirl Writing Contest winners for their captivating stories and essays that truly demonstrate how diverse perspectives enhance the work we do as engineers,” said NAE President John L. Anderson. “These students not only showcased how diversity has greatly contributed to technological innovations in the 20th century, but also showcased how their diverse perspectives will shape the future of engineering.”
Awards for contest winners are $500 for first place, $250 for second place, and $100 for third place. Students awarded an honorable mention receive an EngineerGirl sweatshirt, and all winners receive a certificate.
EngineerGirl is designed for girls in elementary through high school and offers information about various engineering fields and careers, answers to questions, interviews of engineers, and other resources on engineering. Surveys of contest participants indicate that 40 percent of girls say they are more likely to consider an engineering career after writing their essay. EngineerGirl is part of the NAE’s ongoing effort to increase the diversity of the engineering workforce.
Benjamin’s full award-winning essay follows.
By Benjamin Wu
Dr. Patricia Bath is a true trailblazer. Born in a poor Harlem neighborhood in 1942, she went on to become the first woman chair of an ophthalmology residency program, creator of a new medical discipline, “community ophthalmology”, and the first African American woman to receive a patent for a medical device – the Laserphaco Probe.
Her invention stemmed from her keen observations. As an intern shuttling between Harlem Hospital and Columbia University, she found that blindness among African Americans was double that among whites due to lack of ophthalmology care wrought by economic hardship. There was an urgent need for cheaper and easier-to-use cataract removal devices.
First pioneered by Dr. Francis L’Esperance in the 1960s, laser technology was already used in ophthalmology practice, but those equipment were bulky, clumsy, and expensive, with less-than-desired accuracy. Dr. Bath first conceived her new device in 1981, and was met with widespread doubt, even ridicule, particularly because she was an African American woman and her concept was “too advanced for the technology at that time”. Determined to break the “glass ceilings”, she took her laser research to Europe. After five years of research, development, and testing, she finally turned the idea into reality, and received her first patent in 1988.
Many common designs for modern laser-based eye devices derive from that patent; for example, a flexible laser tube integrated with irrigation and aspiration sleeves for simultaneous laser radiation, liquid irrigation, and ablated material aspiration. Coupled with optimized energy density and laser wavelength to break crystalline lens material into particles less than 1mm in diameter, the device achieved miniature design, but with much better accuracy. With the device, Dr. Bath was able to recover sight for numerous patients, including several who had been blind for over 30 years. Today the device is in use worldwide and is hailed as a milestone for laser ophthalmology engineering.
This engineering marvel is the result of a combination of a doctor’s training with an engineering mind; keen observation for people’s suffering, and their need for solutions; and, a great heart: gentle for humanity but tough for the fight for diversity, inclusiveness, and the rights of the underprivileged. Dr. Bath’s background as an African American girl growing up in Harlem gave her “unique perspective” and “strong resolve.”
I personally experienced how diversity and inclusiveness benefit all in a science camp last summer, where a diverse group of a Sri-Lankan girl, an African American boy and I worked together to build a small “solar house model”. When the set came, the instructions were hard to understand, and the pieces were small and easily lost. We were befuddled about what to do when the Sri-Lankan girl spoke up. She often helped her family repair things. She showed us how to use the box and tools, and with her encouragement we completed the model together. Everyone was proud of our accomplishment and the diversity that enabled it.
Almost 300 years after the first Industrial Revolution, our society and economy are more and more technology-driven, but key technical break-through is increasingly hard to come by. It is no longer feasible for innovative endeavors to be only for the privileged few. Females are half the human capital already, and minorities as a whole are hardly less than whites. With their hearts already aching for success and feeling for human desires and sufferings, and their eyes wide-open looking for needs, minorities and females can help the society achieve great things with better and more engineering education, training, development, and dedication, just as Dr. Bath showed half a century ago.
Dr. Bath once told the story that she found her mentor and inspiration from reading about Dr. Albert Schweitzer, who volunteered in Africa to help treat lepers. This act of humanity and devotion left a lasting impression on Dr. Bath, and inspired her to follow a similar path. As time flows on, the new generation of diversified engineering talents will look up to Dr. Bath and travel the path she first blazed. Generation by generation, mentor by mentor, this trail of diversity and inclusiveness will lead to innovation marvels and a society more diverse, equitable and beneficial for all.