[Music]
I have these holes but I am a paradox
I’m a woman in stem a black engineer and
the Christian proponent of science now
you don’t have to tell a minority that
they’re a minority especially in my case
I knew I was I didn’t see people that
looked like me
in classes or labs but I was interested
to see the statistics for myself so I
turned to the National Center for
science and engineering statistics out
of all engineers hired in America 85%
are men and only 15% are women taking it
a step further out of all the engineers
in America only 3.4 percent are black
men and black women 0.9% we don’t get a
full percent so I guess it is unlikely
statistically that I would be an
engineer and perhaps because of Who I am
a human link of unlike things
I’m fascinated when I find things that
I’m able to connect that might not
ordinarily be connected and one of my
favorite examples of this is the golden
ratio now the golden ratio is the
approximate ratio between the numbers in
the Fibonacci sequence and the Fibonacci
sequence appears all over the place in
nature so through this ratio a pine comb
has something in common with an ancient
creature and the human ear has something
in common with a hurricane and the
golden ratio is not simply just this
spiral it can also be applied to not
only just physical nature that you know
we interact with every day but one of
the biggest things that we can visualize
the galaxy is in our universe and one of
the smallest things we can visualize
electrons and positrons moving and
colliding and hydrogen neon bubble
chamber both of these things on opposite
spectrums of science and zeis combines
by their spiral like tendencies
resembling the golden ratio and this
golden ratio while a spiral is also a
specifically proportioned rectangle
which allows it to be applied to other
things in nature including DNA
you know the proportions in your arm and
in your fingers but also to architecture
and art two cornerstones of the human
experience intertwined with math another
unlikely pair is music and neuroscience
after a quick google search of music and
the brain we can see the correlations
between studying music and studying its
effects on the human brain so on your
left you have a pair of images the first
being the brain at rest and the second
being the brain when stimulated by music
and you can see the increased activity
on the other side you can compare the
functional and structural differences
between the brains of musicians and
non-musicians so in this way music helps
us learn about how the brain was made
how it functions and how it processes
information and this somehow led me into
engineering so I didn’t want to be an
engineer my first passion was and is
music and while I liked tinkering with
things was good at problem-solving and
was always interested in little ways the
world works I was gonna choose one
passion and my passion was music then I
was exposed to the 14 grand challenges
of engineering released by the National
of engineering one of these challenges
was reverse engineering the brain but
the way that it was told to me was a way
to combine music and engineering because
studying music and its effects in the
brain tell us about the brain and being
told things I brought the brain will let
us be able to develop drugs to combat
the gender of brain diseases or drug
delivery systems or anything imaginable
so I could combine my two passions and I
was over the moon because this is my
dream but this is when I started to
realize the fact that I was a minority I
didn’t have peers walking alongside me
in my advanced classes I was discouraged
by people my own age not to pursue
scientific ventures because oh as a girl
you know I can’t be taking it seriously
this is for real scientists and Anna you
know I was told a woman belongs in the
home and not pursuing higher education
excuse me sir you’re a whole adult okay
okay but as an adult and me seventh
eighth grade what he said had to be
right and so I was fighting within
myself trying to choose the parts of me
that I subscribed to the most and I
found myself in a very dark place but in
the midst of discrimination and
self-doubt I turned to another passion
of mine my faith after some searching I
found over and over again my god being
displayed through weather through the
sky and the stars in nature as a whole I
have found a link between
and my faith well now I was all-in and
so instead of fighting within myself I
redirected the fight and fought against
the forces trying to stifle my
distinctive voice and the strength that
I used to fight this fight did not come
from me thinking oh you know I’m
brilliant so I’m gonna be an engineer
and I’m gonna be the best engineer and
yet no I don’t feel that way but the
conviction you have in your idea and the
yearning you have to solve the problems
faced by humanity will be your embolden
Engraving force necessary to go after
your passions and help solve those
challenges my conviction came from
seeing the combination of my passions
and seeing them come together in a
beautiful way and help me solve
challenges my conviction came from
seeing how my background as a young
black female engineer let me have a
unique perspective on solving problems
and addressing solutions and even
defining issues which actually made me
an asset in lab projects and teams and
I’m reconvince every time I walk in a
lab I feel the same flutter that I felt
that first day in sixth grade where my
dream began and the last day when the
final puzzle pieces combined and I saw
all of my passions linking together in
this one challenge so I am an
untraditional engineer who came to love
engineering in a non-traditional way and
although it is unlikely that I’d be an
engineer I don’t want to seem like a
contradiction but instead want to change
the definition of what an engineer
actually is so don’t view me
as a paradox but rather as an emerging
paradigm
[Applause]
I have these holes but I am a paradox
I’m a woman in stem a black engineer and
the Christian proponent of science now
you don’t have to tell a minority that
they’re a minority especially in my case
I knew I was I didn’t see people that
looked like me
in classes or labs but I was interested
to see the statistics for myself so I
turned to the National Center for
science and engineering statistics out
of all engineers hired in America 85%
are men and only 15% are women taking it
a step further out of all the engineers
in America only 3.4 percent are black
men and black women 0.9% we don’t get a
full percent so I guess it is unlikely
statistically that I would be an
engineer and perhaps because of Who I am
a human link of unlike things
I’m fascinated when I find things that
I’m able to connect that might not
ordinarily be connected and one of my
favorite examples of this is the golden
ratio now the golden ratio is the
approximate ratio between the numbers in
the Fibonacci sequence and the Fibonacci
sequence appears all over the place in
nature so through this ratio a pine comb
has something in common with an ancient
creature and the human ear has something
in common with a hurricane and the
golden ratio is not simply just this
spiral it can also be applied to not
only just physical nature that you know
we interact with every day but one of
the biggest things that we can visualize
the galaxy is in our universe and one of
the smallest things we can visualize
electrons and positrons moving and
colliding and hydrogen neon bubble
chamber both of these things on opposite
spectrums of science and zeis combines
by their spiral like tendencies
resembling the golden ratio and this
golden ratio while a spiral is also a
specifically proportioned rectangle
which allows it to be applied to other
things in nature including DNA
you know the proportions in your arm and
in your fingers but also to architecture
and art two cornerstones of the human
experience intertwined with math another
unlikely pair is music and neuroscience
after a quick google search of music and
the brain we can see the correlations
between studying music and studying its
effects on the human brain so on your
left you have a pair of images the first
being the brain at rest and the second
being the brain when stimulated by music
and you can see the increased activity
on the other side you can compare the
functional and structural differences
between the brains of musicians and
non-musicians so in this way music helps
us learn about how the brain was made
how it functions and how it processes
information and this somehow led me into
engineering so I didn’t want to be an
engineer my first passion was and is
music and while I liked tinkering with
things was good at problem-solving and
was always interested in little ways the
world works I was gonna choose one
passion and my passion was music then I
was exposed to the 14 grand challenges
of engineering released by the National
of engineering one of these challenges
was reverse engineering the brain but
the way that it was told to me was a way
to combine music and engineering because
studying music and its effects in the
brain tell us about the brain and being
told things I brought the brain will let
us be able to develop drugs to combat
the gender of brain diseases or drug
delivery systems or anything imaginable
so I could combine my two passions and I
was over the moon because this is my
dream but this is when I started to
realize the fact that I was a minority I
didn’t have peers walking alongside me
in my advanced classes I was discouraged
by people my own age not to pursue
scientific ventures because oh as a girl
you know I can’t be taking it seriously
this is for real scientists and Anna you
know I was told a woman belongs in the
home and not pursuing higher education
excuse me sir you’re a whole adult okay
okay but as an adult and me seventh
eighth grade what he said had to be
right and so I was fighting within
myself trying to choose the parts of me
that I subscribed to the most and I
found myself in a very dark place but in
the midst of discrimination and
self-doubt I turned to another passion
of mine my faith after some searching I
found over and over again my god being
displayed through weather through the
sky and the stars in nature as a whole I
have found a link between
and my faith well now I was all-in and
so instead of fighting within myself I
redirected the fight and fought against
the forces trying to stifle my
distinctive voice and the strength that
I used to fight this fight did not come
from me thinking oh you know I’m
brilliant so I’m gonna be an engineer
and I’m gonna be the best engineer and
yet no I don’t feel that way but the
conviction you have in your idea and the
yearning you have to solve the problems
faced by humanity will be your embolden
Engraving force necessary to go after
your passions and help solve those
challenges my conviction came from
seeing the combination of my passions
and seeing them come together in a
beautiful way and help me solve
challenges my conviction came from
seeing how my background as a young
black female engineer let me have a
unique perspective on solving problems
and addressing solutions and even
defining issues which actually made me
an asset in lab projects and teams and
I’m reconvince every time I walk in a
lab I feel the same flutter that I felt
that first day in sixth grade where my
dream began and the last day when the
final puzzle pieces combined and I saw
all of my passions linking together in
this one challenge so I am an
untraditional engineer who came to love
engineering in a non-traditional way and
although it is unlikely that I’d be an
engineer I don’t want to seem like a
contradiction but instead want to change
the definition of what an engineer
actually is so don’t view me
as a paradox but rather as an emerging
paradigm
[Applause]
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