IEEE Women in Engineering Magazine - June 2021 - 20

Apple. They have great starting salaries.
They also start their own companies.
On a per capita basis, the entrepreneurs
Olin graduates are on par with Stanford.
As Barabino puts it, " Olin is a tiny little
school known for innovation, entrepreneurship, and doing good in the world. "
" Many of our students are attracted to
engineering because they want to make
a difference in the world, " Barabino says.
" They are attracted to schools and programs where they see the leadership is
similarly inclined, and that makes them
more interested in joining that community so they can make a difference during their education and while they are
out practicing. "

Adapting to a Pandemic
When Barabino started her new position as president on 1 July 2020, she met
faculty staff, students, alumni, and the
community virtually. She spent significant time just listening and being a part
of meetings. " You have to immerse yourself in the community you're leading,
and people have to get to know one another, " she explains. Today, her days are
still packed with virtual activities. On a
given day, Barabino might have meetings with members of the Olin community, kick off a community event, meet
up with students for a socially distanced
lunch, then present or moderate on a
national panel. " I've had days where I've
done that many things in one day. One
thing about being virtual is that I can do
it all in one day, " she adds, pointing out
one silver lining.
Like all colleges, Olin had to quickly
transform itself to keep students learning through the pandemic. Being a small,
suburban school gave it an advantage in
building its own bubble. At Olin, all students are tested twice a week. They're
in a hybrid model, although like many
schools, it's predominantly remote. The
dorm rooms are generally singles with
individual bathrooms, and students are
grouped in pods or families where they
can relax their mask wearing. Lab spaces

IEEE WOMEN IN ENGINEERING MAGAZINE

are bubble protected, and over the course
of the fall and winter, as public health
conditions continued to improve, the
college eased some restrictions on using
campus facilities, such as the workshop
and other academic spaces. The school
will continue adhering to this current
structure throughout the school year,
opening up as it can.
The big challenge for Olin has been
quickly adapting its greatest strength
to fit the restrictions. Education at Olin
is hands on and community and project
based-how do you transfer that to a virtual remote environment? How do you
transfer these quality interactions where
students and faculty work so closely together? How do you deliver these quality
student-faculty interactions? " Creating
and building virtual platforms for collaboration that can connect the students
whether they are on campus or 1,000
miles away was really important to us, "
Barabino admits. Barabino has participated in some of the classes herself, so she
has seen the results firsthand. Professors
maintained hands-on team learning by
packaging and sending kits to all of the
students. They made use of technology
and tools like virtual whiteboards. The
school held virtual community events to
bring everyone together.
It's been a real-world example of innovation and experimentation for the
college. " It's been fun to see how you
can creatively tackle this problem, "
Barabino says. " How are you going to
capture-to the extent that you can-
this hands-on, in-person experience in
a virtual setting? "

A Vision for Higher Education
A nimble and diverse workforce benefits
everyone, and leaders of higher education play such an important role. Solving
the challenges we face today will require
innovative thinkers with diverse perspectives, and Barabino believes that in
training engineers for a multidisciplinary
world where technology is advancing so
rapidly, institutions need to work around

JUNE 2021

traditional ways of thinking and become
even more adaptable and flexible.
As Barabino thinks about the direction
of higher education, she also reflects on
the racial reckoning the country is experiencing. " We should think about the social
justice side, " she says. " In our education,
we need to be able to train our students
so they graduate and they're prepared to
deal with global health and race relations
and inequality and economics. " Leaders
at engineering schools today need to have
a sense of being community oriented.
They need to be dedicated to the issues of
eliminating inequality and social justice.
" Frankly, students are clamoring for it, "
Barabino says.
Finally, engineering innovation drives
the economy, and it also makes sure that
we are secure, not just in terms of cybersecurity but in ensuring our health and
well-being. " The health and well-being
of people is inextricably linked to the
health and well-being of the planet, "
Barabino explains, " so how we care for
ourselves and the planet is really going
to make a difference in the future, and
I think we need engineers who are well
suited to do that. "
In the fall of 2020, one year after being elected to the National Academy of
Engineering, Barabino was elected to the
National Academy of Medicine for her
seminal discoveries in sickle cell research
and leadership in bioengineering research
and education. Her vision of higher education leadership has remained largely
unchanged since she first began her own
research as a graduate student at Rice.
" We make a difference, " she says. " We continue to redefine and reinvent engineering
education and we do it in such a way that
it is accessible and affordable and models
how to prepare students to do good in the
world and to be great global citizens. "
-Katianne Williams is a
freelance writer specializing
in the technology field.

IEEE Women in Engineering Magazine - June 2021

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of IEEE Women in Engineering Magazine - June 2021