
Any female engineers in San Diego interested in showing my daughter their work? - niels_olson
My daughter is 12 and has expressed for years that she wants to be an architect or engineer. She&#x27;s also interested in medicine. She knows some Python and likes building things. She is also in need of some inspiration. I can show her medicine but I need some help on the engineering side. As it happens, her spring break is next week, so it would be good timing about now. PM me if you are interested. I would really appreciate it. We could probably work something out, maybe meet at lunch or something.  I&#x27;ll buy.<p>Edit: SD = San Diego. And for those recommending FIRST: our challenge with FIRST is that she has 16 hours of gymnastics practice every week, which markedly improves the report from school and now she&#x27;s in love with it so I can&#x27;t talk her out of it. I&#x27;ve tried. So spring break would be ideal.
======
apaprocki
I'm not in SD, but I'd highly recommend seeing if she's interested in FIRST
and also definitely get her hooked on Sylvia's Super-Awesome Maker Show:
[http://sylviashow.com/](http://sylviashow.com/)

She presented at the first RobotsConf and it was really compelling and could
inspire other kids to start building things:
[http://teamtreehouse.com/library/robotsconf-2013/super-
aweso...](http://teamtreehouse.com/library/robotsconf-2013/super-awesome-
maker-sylvia-show)

------
avani
I'm a computer science postdoc at the Salk Institute. We're having a big
public event next Saturday (Walk for Salk) where we're also doing lab tours.
Bring your daughter there and I'll give her an extra tour of the computational
areas.

(find me at avani@salk.edu)

~~~
31reasons
Love Salk institute! very spiritual architecture too. I am not 12 year old but
do you think i can get the tour ? :)

~~~
jonahx
Indeed. In case you've never seen it, there is a great documentary on Louis
Kahn, the architect, with beautiful footage of his works:
[http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0373175/](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0373175/)

~~~
31reasons
Yes I have, Thank you. I love Louis Kahn and his work.

------
dang
Hi Niels! If you end up finding something interesting for your daughter, I
think HN would love to hear about it. I know I would. Consider this an
invitation for her to write something about it and post it here and/or for you
to write something about it and post it here.

I have to say I envied you for a moment. My daughter once enjoyed an afternoon
with me at the REPL, but then politely made it clear that we wouldn't need to
do it again.

~~~
d0m
Did you show cool visual stuff like in SICP where you could make images and
move them around? Or animate a story of some kind?

I'm asking because my younger cousin definitely enjoyed looking and playing
with a Mario-like game where we would loop-back and have fun within the REPL.
However, I don't think she would have enjoyed mathematical additions or
learning about while loop for the fun of learning-about-while-looping.

~~~
dang
No, I did a much shoddier job. I should have strategized it better.

------
robomartin
Get in touch with your local FIRST robotics team.

[http://www.usfirst.org/roboticsprograms/frc](http://www.usfirst.org/roboticsprograms/frc)

I am a mentor for my local team. The program is absolutlely wonderful. It
inspires and drives kids at many levels. Mentors run a huge range, from
scientists amd engineers to welders, makers and really driven Mom's and Dad's.
The common thread, among other things, is to inpire the kids to learn and
apply technologyy to solve problems. Highhly recommended.

~~~
jblz
Along these lines, the Botball program is a pretty amazing way to teach hands
on engineering.

Bummer the OP just missed the 2014 Greater San Diego Tournament by a few days

[http://www.botball.org/sca/2014/tournament](http://www.botball.org/sca/2014/tournament)

------
KimberlyGrommes
Can you give a little more information about what you're really hoping your
daughter will see and get out of the experience? What type of engineer are you
looking for? I'm a software engineer in SD with a 12 year old daughter of my
own.

~~~
niels_olson
I think she's a little young to specify which branch of engineering (medicine
and architecture are also on the list) but exposure to any and all would be
good. She worked through a fair chunk of Python for Kids last summer. I feel a
little bad that I'm not a great teacher, but she's proud of what she learned
(as evidenced by the fact that they had an intro to python in school and she
housed everybody).

Really, I just want her to come home with a new appreciation for the technical
ability of women, and insight that learning math and science leads to
something other than doing more long division by hand.

And to go and make a friend would be awesome!

~~~
kbar13
damn, intro to python at 12? I wish my grade school taught me cs :(

------
wehadfun
Would like an update about this. Wondered how I would handle such a request.
12 year old would not have much inspiration watching me fix bugs and read
hacker news

~~~
civilian
Don't forget alternating between standing a sitting a few times a day and
going to planning meetings. "Okay, the next hour is when I say 'No' to
marketing a bunch of times. Aren't you excited??"

------
ertemplin
Qualcomm is up in the Mira Mesa area and has a really cool museum of the
history of CDMA and cell phones in their headquarters building (Building N).
They've got big tubes of chips showing how they have decreased in size over
time, a van that they used to demo CDMA to investors 20+ years ago, demo
Android devices, a cool Mirasol display, some parts of their truck tracking
system, and a bunch of stuff about the history of the company.

You do need to have an employee ID badge to get into the area that the museum
is in, but I bet if you called them or know someone who currently works there
they could show you around.

Source: I was an intern there last summer.
[http://www.qualcomm.com/about/buildings/museum](http://www.qualcomm.com/about/buildings/museum)

------
chacha102
Hey. I'm in San Diego, Del Mar area. I mentor a FRC FIRST team that is going
to be putting on a number of Robotics Camps over the summer. If you
interested, send me a message tyler@team3128.org.

Totally get if gymanstics is taking a priority though :). Running and jumping
and doing cool tricks is a ton of fun.

------
kimcoop
You may also try showing her some Ted talks - lots of really inspiring things
to watch there concerning tech, for sure.

It doesn't seem like there's a Girl Develop It chapter in San Diego yet, but a
quick Google search shows a few meetup options nearby:

\- [http://www.meetup.com/Teach-Yourself-Programming-A-Womens-
Co...](http://www.meetup.com/Teach-Yourself-Programming-A-Womens-
Collaboration/) \- [http://www.meetup.com/IEEE-Women-in-Tech-
Meetup/](http://www.meetup.com/IEEE-Women-in-Tech-Meetup/)

I bet you could reach out to the group members/founders and they would be more
than happy to speak with you and your daughter about tech things! It's really
wonderful you're encouraging her passion too, btw. Good luck!

------
xrange
Is SD a neighborhood, city, state, country?

South Dakota? Sudan? Santo Domingo? San Diego?

~~~
unreal37
I assume it stands for San Diego unless otherwise specified.

~~~
duaneb
Really? I would have guessed South Dakota.

~~~
happyscrappy
Fun fact. There are more people in City of San Diego than the entire state of
South Dakota.

------
mintykeen
Good for you for helping her find her calling! Maybe you can meet someone
through this! [http://www.meetup.com/Geek-Girl-San-
Diego/](http://www.meetup.com/Geek-Girl-San-Diego/)

------
mellery451
maybe get in-touch with the SWE chapter at UCSD
([http://swe.ucsd.edu/home.html](http://swe.ucsd.edu/home.html)). I'll bet
they will have some events or could arrange some informal tours of interesting
facilities on campus.

~~~
niels_olson
Someone sent me an email about SWE, thanks!

------
dmpayton
Do you know about PythonSD? I'm sure they could get you in touch with a female
engineer.

[http://pythonsd.org/](http://pythonsd.org/)

(I used to work at Cuker, and all the PythonSD guys are pretty great.)

~~~
niels_olson
I do now! I'll see what I can do.

~~~
britta
There is also a PyLadies meetup group in San Diego: [http://www.meetup.com/sd-
pyladies/](http://www.meetup.com/sd-pyladies/) \- I know one of the organizers
and she's great.

------
simpsond
Girl Scouts have various camps focused on STEM. You can search here:
[http://www.sdgirlscouts.org/camp-
descriptions](http://www.sdgirlscouts.org/camp-descriptions)

------
raven105x
Hey hey, fellow San Diegan here! I've been seeing the comments about FIRST and
it seems like you're not interested due to your little one's scheduling - but
if that changes, let me know; my friend teaches FIRST (also saw post from
Tyler here)

In the meantime, let me know if you want to grab lunch in SD - it's on me.
yreztsov@gmail.com

------
gexla
She wants to be an engineer, let her pick out something to tinker with.
Anything really. It doesn't have to be code. Look through maker kits that you
can buy online. Or if there is a physical store you can get to, that might be
even better.

Personally, I learned how to do web programming because I had something in
mind that I wanted to build. I learned while building that thing. If I had to
go through a book, course or tutorial first, I would have never been
interested. I also wouldn't ever be inspired by going to work with someone
unless that person is Elon Musk.

Your daughter might be the same. Let her interest guide her. I remember all
the things I said I wanted to be when I was a kid. It was all just kid talk. I
don't think I really ever cared to be any of those things.

Or maybe just leave her be. 16 hours of gymnastics plus school is a lot. Maybe
she simply doesn't have time for anything else. Don't force it.

------
bluenose69
I'm many timezones out from there and wrong gender etc., but I have some
advice that may be of use.

Since (as I understand it) the idea of same-gender is to make the connection
more straightforward, I would further suggest that you prefer a graduate
student to an actual "worker".

At my university there is a grad-student scholarship that requires fieldwork
to be done in a certain place (first nations community). The grad student has
to involve a local high-school student in the fieldwork. When I first heard of
this I thought it was wonky social engineering, but apparently it's a great
success: fun and educational for both.

------
cloudwizard
Maybe HS First requires a lot of programming, the regular FIRST for 9-14 does
not require any programming to advance. It is mainly focussed on presentation
skills rather than technical skills.

~~~
MattGrommes
That's not specifically true, especially on a team level. Some of your team
members might not have to program but you do have to get the robot to do stuff
well in order to advance.

~~~
cloudwizard
You can win the robot game and it has no bearing on advancement. The key is
the 3 interviews. In the robot design interview, the number of points for
quality of engineering is low. Most of the points are in the show your work
category. A better presentation of a poor design will score better than a poor
presentation of a quality result.

------
grinich
You should reach out to Otherlab.
[https://otherlab.com/](https://otherlab.com/)

------
applecore
Check out iD Tech Camps. They're all over California, including at UC San
Diego.

[http://www.idtech.com/locations/california-summer-
camps/la-j...](http://www.idtech.com/locations/california-summer-camps/la-
jolla/id-tech-uc-san-diego/)

------
voicereasonish

      > she's in love with it
      > I can't talk her out of it. I've tried.
    

Why would you try and talk her out of something she's in love with?

If she "knows some python", is she in love with it? Is she actively learning
more on the web?

~~~
heartbreak
Because 16 hours a week of gymnastics costs quite a bit of money, and if she
does meets then it probably costs a fortune. So money, money would be why a
parent might try to edge a daughter out of gymnastics.

Or the injuries. They suck too.

~~~
mrtron
I did this level of gymnastics as a kid. It taught me many things in life.

How to work hard and improve at something through many small iterations.

Learning multiple events is tricky and useful.

Dealing with injuries is an important part of life. Nobody goes through their
day to day at 100% all the time. Working through the challenges is part of
life.

I think gymnastics is one of those 'learning to learn' activities like chess.

I would strongly recommend looking into BJJ when she wants to move on from
gymnastics. It has very similar benefits and is substantially cheaper. It can
also be done at a slower pace than gymnastics, you could take a few classes a
week instead of 4 x 4 hours.

------
thawkins
Buy her a 3d printer kit, something she will have to assemble herself. Its the
bigest, most enjoyable engineering puzzle I have ever had to deal with. A
printrbot simple is $299 in kit form. Once she gets it to work she will have a
tool that will enable her to build almost anything in plastic. She will learn,
engineering, 3d modeling, electronics and operating complex manufacturing
processes, materials and thier strength, product design.

------
unk
Also check out Wintress Technical School in SD.

[http://wintrisstech.org/workshops.html](http://wintrisstech.org/workshops.html)

------
SloughFeg
San Diego or South Dakota?

~~~
niels_olson
San Diego

------
abdophoto
I live in San Diego and reading this brings me joy.

------
dnautics
There's a program here called "thought stem" which is aimed at children her
age and run by some wonderful friends of mine.

------
sedds
It's great that you see your daughter's interest in engineering and are
encouraging her to pursue this passion.

------
JohnHaugeland
Why do you need a woman?

I don't understand why we all talk about the gender problem in engineering,
then continue it by isolating female students from male teachers. There is no
isolation between male students and female teachers, or same gender students
and teachers.

If we want to move towards equality, why carefully structure inequality in?

~~~
mynameisasdf
Exactly what I was thinking. Its quite insulting to suggest that girls are so
myopic they can't possibly be inspired unless they meet someone of the same
gender.

For the record, I'm a female engineer who moved to the USA from Ghana when I
was a smaller. I can't stand this ridiculous patronizing attitude there is
towards female engineers, as if we need "extra help" or something. Even worse
are the feminists creating us-vs-them politicization of the issue.

When I was learning to code, ride a bike, tie my shoes or something, I never
thought "gosh I can't do that since none of the role models are female". In
fact, if there are no role models of the same gender or race, its usually even
more inspiring as you want to be the first one.

~~~
king_jester
> I can't stand this ridiculous patronizing attitude there is towards female
> engineers, as if we need "extra help" or something. Even worse are the
> feminists creating us-vs-them politicization of the issue.

Nobody is saying women engineers need extra help. Wanting to meet someone who
you identify with as a woman in STEM is not necessarily easy and it is totally
legitimate to seek someone out. As for feminists and feminism, I don't know of
anything that would suggest an us vs. them attitude, generally feminist
leaning groups look to increase participation of women in STEM through a
variety of ways.

> When I was learning to code, ride a bike, tie my shoes or something, I never
> thought "gosh I can't do that since none of the role models are female". In
> fact, if there are no role models of the same gender or race, its usually
> even more inspiring as you want to be the first one.

This may be true for yourself and others, but we know that this is not true on
a larger scale. People can and do internalize messages about the kind of
people that exist in certain professions and this can be self limiting in both
conscious and unconscious ways. I'm not speaking for any one person about
that, but it is legitimate to find a role model that you identify with esp.
when you are a minority status in a group.

You can read more about stereotype threat here:
[http://www.reducingstereotypethreat.org/definition.html](http://www.reducingstereotypethreat.org/definition.html)

~~~
niels_olson
> People can and do internalize messages

Thanks for this. That's why I said she could use some inspiration. And not all
the messages come from men. Women and friends provide powerful messages as
well.

------
arnklint
If I had a daughter, I'd focus on supporting _her_ decisions rather than my
own interest. But I might be wrong.

------
MarlonPro
I'm sending this link to Lynn Langit

------
wonkus
You sound sexist. Are you sexist? Why female engineers? Are male engineers not
up to the challenge of instructing your offspring?

~~~
dang
Thanks to the fair-minded users of Hacker News for downvoting this bullshit.
When I encounter a comment like this, it's a relief to discover that the
community immune system already rejected it.

When you see a comment that is truly toxic for HN, flag it by clicking "link"
to go to the item page and then "flag" at the top.

Edit: Since I know some people have concerns about unpopular opinions being
suppressed, perhaps I should add that it's not an unpopular opinion which is
the problem here. It's the trollish content and vicious tone.

~~~
rayiner
He's not just trolling and vicious, but he's wrong too. The other day, I
brought up the fact that Michael Bay had gotten the design of the ninja
turtles totally wrong in the new movie. And she said: "I always kinda liked
TMNT, but it was a 'boy' thing so I never really got into it a kid. I mean, I
guess they had April."

So yes, gender matters. Kids want to be able to relate to their heroes, and
gender is a deep part of identity. And admitting that gender matters isn't
sexist.

~~~
dang
Being wrong is not a crime on Hacker News; trolling and viciousness are.

------
larrys
"she has 16 hours of gymnastics practice every week, which markedly improves
the report from school and now she's in love with it so I can't talk her out
of it. I've tried. So spring break would be ideal."

This is going to sound harsh. So, essentially even though you have an
available resource (FIRST) since your daughter would rather take gymnastics
you are then going to push off this responsibility to a complete stranger and
buy them lunch as a thank you? (Recognizing that that person of course will
gain some karma by helping you out..) Why not just have your daughter learn a
lesson early on about priorities in life?

Gymnastics, nice, leads to ? Inspiration to be an engineer that gives a child
career direction leads to...

~~~
tinco
Teaching your kid that work and obligations of life are more important than
pursuing the things that make you happy leads to...

~~~
philwelch
Not being broke makes me pretty fucking happy. "Do what makes you happy and
don't worry about money" is a platitude for the privileged and not actually
life advice. "Do what you enjoy well enough to spend 40 hours a week on if
someone is paying you for it" is a better goal.

~~~
tinco
I agree, but the world is not absolutes. You can be a programmer that makes a
fine living _and_ do gymnastics 16 hours per week.

Do what you enjoy enough that you don't mind doing it 30 hours per week, and
do what you love the rest of the time is pretty solid as well.

