Engineering school forges bond with Smith
The University announced the creation of a student engineering exchange program with all-female Smith College on Wednesday.The program, slated to start in 2006, will afford both male and female students the opportunity to study at the other college for a semester.The program has been in development since last year when University professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering Barrie Royce became the interim dean of graduate affairs for the engineering school.During his yearlong tenure, Royce said he wanted to start a project that would encourage women to pursue graduate engineering degrees because men outnumber women in the field.Royce chose Smith College as the partner for the exchange program because he had colleagues who had recently launched an engineering program there.Maria Klawe, dean of Princeton's School of Engineering and Applied Science, said she believes the program will encourage women to try engineering by giving them a chance to experience a different academic environment in which they will be in the gender majority."The percentage of women in engineering is overall only 15 to 20 percent," she said.