Red Dirt Diaries: Girl Power At OU's Engineering Department

The importance of a woman's perspective is being celebrated in Norman as OU’s Engineering Department holds their annual Women in Engineering week.

It’s a way to spotlight women in a field traditionally dominated by men.

“I definitely notice more in the grades behind me,” said sophomore Mechanical Engineering student, Sarah Ciccaglione about her fellow female students.

Ciccaglione is part the FSAE Sooner Racing Team. Using a manual lathe, she produces parts cut from cold steel for the school’s F1-style racecar.

“To see it beating other cars, it’s like a high like no other,” said Ciccaglione.

Close to the racecar, Aerospace Engineering senior Christine Greve leads the team designing a remote-controlled airplane. The aircraft weighs about a pound and half and competes and places at international competitions.

You can give her credit for the weight of the plane; making the wings and tail out of fabric was her idea.

“I don’t think we would have gone with fabric if I wasn’t there to say, ‘Wait, I’ve been sewing my whole life. I know how to do this with fabric,’” said Greve, who is pursuing her Master’s degree at Texas A&M in the fall.

Greve’s interned with NASA before and, like Ciccagilone, wants to work in Space Engineering.

Female students represent about one-fourth of the Engineering Department’s 3,500 undergrads.

“It just gives me a different outlook in life. And in engineering that's what you want,” said Greve.