Program teaches girls engineering via apparel design
Description
Smart Clothing, Smart Girls: Engineering via Apparel Design is a weeklong course designed and hosted by faculty, staff and students in Cornell’s Department of Fiber Science & Apparel Design (FSAD) with collaborators at the University of Minnesota. As part of this ITEST project, girls, from 4-H programs in Livingston, Ontario and Wyoming counties and the Syracuse chapter of Girls Inc., participate in four modules: advanced materials, wearable electronics, design technology and the engineering design process. The girls participated in hands-on laboratory and design activities, such as fiber burn tests, sewing and draping, and working with circuits and switches. They also observed such state-of-the-art equipment as a laser cutter, thermal manikin and 3-D body scanner – and worked alongside Cornell and industry experts, mostly women, (including a teleconference with a spacesuit designer at NASA).