News
At Portland State University’s June 2005 commencement ceremony, the Maseeh College of Engineering and Computer Science graduated its first female Ph.D. in Electrical and Computer Engineering in an area that has historically been male-dominated.
Wei Wang fulfilled the requirements for her Ph.D. in 2001 but waited until her parents could travel from China to attend the ceremony. She received her Ph.D. under the guidance of Malgorzata Chrzanowska-Jeske, the first female Chair of the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE) at PSU. Wei’s dissertation concentrated on new data structures for the synthesis of Very Large Scale Integrated (VLSI) circuits.
“By creating the right environment and broadening our recruitment, we will ensure that Wei Wang’s Ph.D. is the first of many awarded to female graduates of the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department,” said Dr. Chrzanowska-Jeske.
The ECE Ph.D. program was initiated in 1985 and has granted a total of 36 Ph.D.s. During Spring Term 2005, 43 women were enrolled in the ECE graduate program out of 207 graduate students, 38 in the master’s program and 5 in the Ph.D. program. In the 2004-2005 academic year, two additional female faculty members were hired in ECE.
