Why did you first choose engineering?

Engineering was not something I thought about doing when I was growing up. During high school, I was very fixated on studying law. Down the road, I actually had some opportunities to go into law, but decided not to.

Towards the end of my junior year in high school, people started to talk about college majors. My close friend mentioned that she wanted to study mechanical engineering because she liked math and science. I also liked math and science, so I looked into different kinds of engineering and found electrical engineering. I'd been doing an extracurricular activity building circuits since middle school. I thought, this is perfect. I've done it before; I know what to expect. I applied to UIUC, my dream school, and I got in. I was very excited. 

You're an ECE alumna, and after receiving your Ph.D., you worked at IBM for several years as a software engineer. What made you come back to Grainger Engineering?

As an undergrad, I worked as a summer camp counselor for the WYSE Camp, where I learned how to do Lego Mindstorms, a programmable robotics kit. When I joined IBM, a senior colleague told me he coached a middle school FIRST Lego League team performing similar tasks. He asked if I wanted to help and I volunteer coached for four years.

Working with middle school students prompted me to think about a different career path. I saw the job posting for the teaching position here. I didn’t want to regret not trying it, so I put in my application, and everything fell into place. I came back to UIUC in 2015. I didn’t know how long I would stay, but I love my job here as a faculty member in ECE, being in a classroom with students and talking to them, not just about the course, but about their futures.

“You can always go to WIE if you need help, or if you want to connect with others. That’s my ultimate goal, to serve as a connection point.”

— Yuting Wu Chen

What's the mission of Women in Engineering?

WIE is an academic support program aimed at creating a supportive and welcoming environment for everyone. We have specific programming for women, but we're not exclusively for women – we welcome everybody who wants to participate. We need both men and women to support women.

We host three big events annually: a fall Women in Engineering orientation, a spring banquet to celebrate our graduating seniors and a Women in Engineering Ambassador Program, where current students meet with admitted students. This year, we had over 400 new students join us for orientation, with 70 mentors – current students who volunteer to help with the event. Aside from these big events, we run workshops and coffee hours for our students.

What are your plans as the new director?

Besides starting the spring banquet, the other thing on the top of my to-do list is to get college and departmental support to send students to the upcoming Society of Women Engineers national conference. In 2024, this conference will be in Chicago, so I want to have a good-sized delegation from Grainger Engineering there. We have a lot of alumni in the Chicago area, so it would be nice to do an alumni event there to bring everyone together.

Why is Women in Engineering important?

It’s important to have a higher-level program like WIE that coordinates events and helps build networks of support for our female students, so that you don’t need to join a particular RSO to benefit from having a supportive group. You can always go to WIE if you need help, or if you want to connect with others. That’s my ultimate goal, to serve as a connection point.

What are you most excited about in your new role?

I enjoy talking to current students, prospective students and their families about where Grainger Engineering can take them. This semester, we hosted a big group of visitors and had some very engaging conversations on things like AI and how it’s impacting education. There's also questions from prospective students and their families about what it’s like being a student here, and what made me come back. These kinds of questions are always a good entry point to talk about the Grainger Engineering experience.

“I tell them you should always apply if it’s something that you are interested in. It’s other people's job to say no to you; it’s your job to say yes to yourself.”

— Yuting Wu Chen

Women in Engineering was established 30 years ago, in 1993. How can you adapt to meet the needs of new generations?

Our students are changing. Before, everything was on paper. You knew about an event because you saw the flyer. Later on, it shifted to emails and newsletters. Now you reach the younger generation of students through Slack or social media. 

We’ll continue to see new platforms emerge as new ways of engaging with our students. We can’t just say, this is how we've been doing things for the last 30 years, and nobody complained. Because by the time somebody complains, it's already too late.

Do you have any messages for current students?

When I was an undergrad, I did not enjoy programming at all, so I only took the required courses, no electives. In grad school, I ended up taking a few more programming courses, and in industry I worked as a software engineer. Now I'm back here teaching programming. You never know where life is going to take you, or when something could be useful in the future. Just be open minded and think about the different possibilities.

From time to time, I have students, often female, come up to me and say, I want to apply for this job, but I don't think I meet all of the requirements. I tell them you should always apply if it’s something that you are interested in. It’s other people's job to say no to you; it’s your job to say yes to yourself.