A decade ago, an event like this spring’s hugely successful WiE-RISE (Women in Engineering: Research Impact at Smith Engineering) Symposium couldn’t have happened at Queen’s.
“Prior to the positive new direction Smith Engineering has taken, we wouldn’t have had enough women faculty to run this!” says current Queen’s Chair for Women in Engineering (WiE) Heidi Ploeg, whose office, together with Vice Dean Amir Fam’s team, spearheaded the initiative in May.
“It required participation from nearly all our female faculty, and everyone contributed enthusiastically,” she continues. “I think the whole team would agree that the way it was executed and received went far beyond our expectations.”
The symposium location in Mitchell Hall was meaningful “because it’s Engineering space that is well designed to handle such an event,” Ploeg observes. “We had planned for 200 attendees and went over capacity with 220.”
While WiE-RISE sounds like an inspirational “We rise!,” Ploeg says that “impact” is the acronym’s operative word. A key aim of the symposium was “to highlight women’s impactful and inclusive research at Smith Engineering.”
Now entering her second five-year term as Chair for Women in Engineering, Ploeg’s mandate when she assumed the new position in 2020 included organizing “a special celebration of engineering women.” Since a number of existing conferences focus on women in engineering, “we wanted something different from what was already out there,” she says.
Unlike traditional research conferences, where participants present mostly to colleagues working in the same area, WiE-RISE presentations targeted researchers in different fields. “It enabled under-represented members of the research community to find each other, and share their research impact,” Ploeg explains.
By design, the event involved undergraduate, graduate, and post-doc researchers and faculty members. “Participants spanned the spectrum of career stages, from women just starting in research to CERCs (Canada Excellence Research Chairs),” she says. “This provided plenty of mentoring, networking and role-modelling opportunities.”
The symposium mapped Smith Engineering’s five research themes – Natural Resources & Environment; Intelligent Systems, Information & Communication Technology; Power, Energy & Fluid Systems; Biomedical, Biomechanical & Bioengineering; and Advanced Materials, Structures & Manufacturing – onto an ambitious programme, with multiple speakers per session. Women faculty representing each theme organized sessions in their own areas.
Ploeg credits Chair for Women in Engineering Program Manager, Caroline Baril, Sc’20, as well as staff from the office of Vice-Dean, Research (and symposium co-chair) Amir Fam, for “bringing it all together.” Plus the whole Smith Engineering Faculty office,” provided invaluable support, she adds. “I called them ‘the Dream Team!’ The organization of the entire event was top-notch.”
The day-long symposium began with administrative welcomes and a video address from Canada’s Chief Science Advisor to the Prime Minister and federal Cabinet, Mona Nemer. “We were delighted to attract such a prominent female politician associated with science and industry,” says Ploeg. The inspiring and authentic keynote address was delivered by McMaster University President and Queen’s alumna Susan Tighe, Sc’93.
Associate Dean of Graduate Studies Aris Docoslis organized and ran the poster sessions and highlighted research benchmarks by Smith Engineering women in his address. Former Dean Kim Woodhouse – “another example of high-profile female leadership in Smith Engineering,” says Ploeg – presented the poster awards.
Noting that the proportion of female engineering professors who identify as women at Queen’s has risen dramatically over the past decade (from 13% in 2016 to 23.6% today) – “as a direct result of Faculty hiring priorities” – the student population is a different story, says Ploeg.
After attracting only a handful of female students in the 1940s, ’50s and ’60s, enrolment rose steadily in the 1970s: from 2.3% at the beginning of the decade to 16.2% at the end. In the 1980s and ’90s growth continued, reaching 28.1% in 1994.
Since then, however, the percentage has remained virtually unchanged, with the most recent figures showing 28.3% female students in 2025. “At the same time, 8 out of 12 of the names on our Dean’s List of top scholars are women,” Ploeg points out. “There’s no reason why we shouldn’t accept 50% women – or more! – from the very qualified group applying each year.”
Whatever advances occur, however, they must remain Faculty priorities in order to be sustained, says Ploeg, who was named one of “Canada’s Most Powerful Women: Top 100” in 2024 by WXN: Women’s Executive Network and Fellow of the Canadian Academy of Engineering this year. “Equity and inclusion are essential to our vision of reimagining engineering education and research with positive societal impacts.”
Although no plans have been made for a follow-up symposium to WiE-RISE, “It was so well received and there was so much energy and enthusiasm, I think we should hold another WiE-RISE Symposium in a few years,” she declares. And for future events, Ploeg would like to see increased attendance by men.
“I would like all of our colleagues to know that they are welcome to come and join the celebration,” says the Women in Engineering Chair. “After all, the whole purpose of WiE-RISE is to shine a light on our research impact and grow our community!”
Photos from WiE-RISE by Garrett Elliott: