IEEE Women in Engineering Magazine - December 2023 - 9

as director of the Institute for Computing,
Information and Cognitive Systems
and the coordinator of UBC Natural Sciences
and Engineering Research. She
achieved award-winning research excellence
and publication distinctions in
the field of signal processing, including
medical imaging, video signal and 1D
signal processing. In addition to the
many she taught and mentored, she
supervised 47 Ph.D. students and more
than 50 master's students, and she was
awarded a wide variety of awards and
honors, including the IEEE Fourier
Award for Signal Processing, a Wendy
McDonald Award for Outstanding Mentor/Sponsor,
the Norbert Wiener Society
Award (the highest award of the
IEEE Signal Processing Society), and
the McLachlan Award for Outstanding
Achievement in Engineering (the highest
award of the Association of Professional
Engineers in BC), just to name
a few.
" Though I'm fortunate to have had
several awards, the only one I cried when
I received it was the 2013 UBC Killam
Award for Excellence in Mentoring, "
shares Ward. " That meant a lot to me
because the people who nominated me
were prior students, and it is extremely
competitive. Eight
people needed to write
letters for you and all
eight were ex-students
of mine.
It showed me
that I meant a
lot to my students,
which
was touching because
they meant
a lot to me. "
Her approach to
Ward (right) and Ljiljana Trajkovic´ at the Vancouver Section Annual General Meeting
& Gala, March 2023.
with were international students, and so
I paid attention not only to their technical
progress but to their psychological.
I tried to show that I know it's not easy,
I'm not here to judge you, but I'm here
to help to the very end. "
Over the
She gained a reputation for supporting
the students who needed it the most, adding
that some of the students who sought
her out were really down or had been
rejected by other professors. They
all did very well in the end,
and some are now prolast
two years, EA
has been building a
teaching excellence hub for
professors and educators,
something Ward feels
especially attached to
and has continued to
champion.
mentoring is shaped
by her experiences being
the sole woman among men and
being counted out or rejected because of
her gender. " If a student was not doing
well, I never gave up on them. I tried to
understand why they were struggling
and, in many cases, it would be that
they could do well technically but there
was something else going on, " shares
Ward. " Most of the students I worked
fessors themselves.
" In education,
we are brain and
heart, " she continues.
" To mentor
you have to
use both, carefully.
You cannot
be too personal,
but students need to
trust that I am there
for them. " This is part
of why Ward believes female
professors are needed in engineering
departments: as the female student
population grows, these students need role
models who are women that they can look
to, but male students should also have
access to female advisors as well.
Without that access to female advisors
during her schooling and early
career days, Ward says she did not have
DECEMBER 2023
one mentor who stands out, but she
made a point of trying to learn from even
those who tried to hold her back. " When
I enter a new place, I make friends. Even
people who opposed me before, I make
them my friends and learn from them, "
she shares. " These were really my mentors;
I sought, always, people to listen to
and to understand how to progress and
how to be better. People when you seek
them, they really want to help. "
With that philosophy, she now aims
to support both students of all ages and
the community who educates them, via
her position as vice president of education
for " all " of IEEE. And she really
does mean " all. "
" I feel that what we're doing for
education in the developing world is
so important and just as much a priority
as the support we're giving to the
underrepresented groups in our part
of the world, " says Ward. She has a soft
spot for Africa because of how much
she enjoyed living in Zimbabwe, and
memories of her time there reinforce
the importance of helping students and
educators around the world to close
the gender, ethnic, and race gaps
in engineering.
Each initiative of the many EA committees
helps to get one step closer, and
we can't wait to see what Dr. Ward
does next!
-Leslie Zucker
IEEE WOMEN IN ENGINEERING MAGAZINE
9
IEEE Women in Engineering Magazine - December 2023

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of IEEE Women in Engineering Magazine - December 2023
