Grade 8 Girls Learn about Quanser at Electronics Workshop

Every year, Blair McKay, the electronics teacher at Listowel District Secondary School, invites Grade 8 students to his custom-designed electronics lab - eLab. During the eDays - Electronics Days - the students can find out more about electronics and robotics and engage in hands-on activities.

The eDays are held separately for boys and girls. For the girls' eDay, the guest speakers are all women who have exciting careers in electrical engineering, computer engineering and mechatronics. I have been a guest speaker at eDays since 2004. This year, I talked to the girls about how much fun I have working at Quanser, and showed them videos of our control experiments and research equipment. This video of teleoperation on a banana was a real hit!

The workshops are clearly successful at attracting young women to take electronics in high school. Listowel District Secondary School typically has several full classes of girls in Grade 9 electronics!