When Theresa Erskine studied in the Engineering program at U of G in the late 1970s, she was one of only two women to graduate out of a class of 40.
Erskine is now VP of Infrastructure at local engineering firm RWDI Consulting Engineers and Scientists, which held its third annual Girls Engineering Day on Wednesday at its Southgate Drive location.
“These events say to young women that they can be an engineer, they can be a very good engineer, you can work at fun places like this and have a rewarding career,” said Erskine.
With two huge wind tunnels and a water flume used to test models of buildings and other structures, RWDI is not your average engineering firm. Earlier this year, RWDI was featured on the second last episode of the Rick Mercer Report.
“Most engineering offices are not this interesting,” said Erskine. “Kids relate to (models). You can’t relate to equations and analysis of data.”
The children participating in the day were given a tour of the facility, and given a number of tasks to complete, including building models and measuring sound and vibration. All of the stations the girls visited in the building were being led by women engineers who work at RWDI.
“We are not lecturing them, we want them to come and do things because that’s what engineering is — you do things,” said Erskine.
The Girls Engineering Day is open to school-age daughters and friends of employees. Erskine said she would like to see it opened up to more girls in the community in the future.
RWDI does offer school tours and in 2017 was one of the locations for Doors Open Guelph, said Sharon Schajnoha, head of communications for RWDI.
Most people had no idea RWDI was literally in the city’s backyard. Some on the tour called it Guelph's best-kept secret.
“We had 300 people through that day and I kept hearing, ‘wow, we had no idea this place existed.’” Said Schajnoha.
A lot of major buildings in the world have been tested in the wind tunnels at RWDI, said Erskine, including the current world’s tallest building in Dubai.
“People wouldn’t think Guelph, Ontario is where they did all of that. We are the place they call when they have a real challenge,” said Erskine.
Although more women are represented in the engineering industry today than when she graduated, Erskine said there are still far fewer in the profession than men.
“The more women we get into these various areas where there aren’t a lot of women, the better the climate becomes for women and the more likely women are going to advance in them, because they feel comfortable,” said Erskine.
One of the intentions of Wednesday’s event was to show the girls there are possibilities for women in engineering.
“They see other young women who are engineers, so they have role models and can see someone they want to be like,” said Erskine. “When I was a little girl, I didn’t know that I would be an engineer. I had no idea and no aspirations to do that, I just liked to figure out how things worked.”
