By Jeanne Siler

Following the November 17 lecture co-sponsored by the Engineering School and the University of Virginia's Women's Center, an engineering student in the audience noted that she is working harder academically than friends in the College of Arts and Sciences. She asked speaker Jill Tietjen (Applied Math '76) what she should tell those who ask, "Why do it?"

Tietjen, a former national president of the Society of Women Engineers, told the young woman that she should tell her friends it's because of engineers that people can ride safely in planes. Because of engineers, people have reliable lighting and heating for class. "There is value that comes from the work that engineers do," declared the engineer and author. As for the extra work, the 2004 Distinguished Alumna of Tau Beta Pi told her audience, "There will be a payoff. You will make a difference in the world."

Tietjen believes that engineering is suffering from an image problem stemming partially from the rise of the environmental movement in the 1960s and Earth Day celebrations of all things natural over things technical and humanmade.

"But I have a reconstructed knee," she said. "That's not just medicine, you know? There's a lot of engineering in that. The screws weren't made by doctors; they were made by engineers."

Tietjen's own thesis at U.Va. had to do with the mechanical strength of dissolvable sutures. "There are a lot of fascinating things that engineers do," she emphasized, always trying to counter the popularized image of an engineer as a Dilbert type: a solitary, lonely, undervalued worker in a cubicle. "I have personally never worked in a cubicle," she stated firmly. Since graduating as one of six women in her engineering class, she has worked in the electrical utility industry, been an independent engineering consultant, served as an expert witness, earned an MBA, and become a motivational speaker on behalf of women in science and engineering.

In order to help remedy the engineering public-relations problem, Tietjen encourages fellow engineers - men and women - to become more visible in the community: "For example, run for school board, for city council. Run for Congress. Don't just join professional organizations. Join the Rotary Clubs, the Lion's Clubs. This is how engineers become real to others."

She laments the dearth of positive role models for scientists and engineers, noting how the medical and legal practices are celebrated in shows like "ER" and "L.A. Law." Citing estimates that three-quarters of the country's women and half the men don't even know what engineers do, Tietjen points out that it's also why many parents don't direct their children to engineering careers. Consider that among those same men and women are our children's schoolteachers, and the problem is compounded.

"I have a friend who owns a company that makes equipment that cleans water. That gives her great satisfaction," says Tietjen, noting that Americans enjoy long life expectancies in large part because of clean water. When engineers take technology skills to developing countries to improve water systems, she says, an important outcome is that "little girls no longer have to carry water for their families. They can go to school. They can become literate. That's how engineers add value to life."