Skip to main content

Women in Engineering

See yourself as an engineer!

We know how important it is to have faculty role models to mentor and encourage you, as well as lively peer activities to help you grow professionally and personally.

At Santa Clara we have one of the largest percentage of women engineering faculty in the United States, so you'll find lots of shining examples of success in your professors.

Outside of the classroom, organizations such as Society of Women Engineers, ACM-W (Association for Computing Machinery-Women), Women in STEM, and Engineers Without Borders offer inspiring speakers, informative workshops, and lots of opportunities for outreach, travel, networking, and social engagement.

You'll not only see yourself as an engineer, you'll become one!

For Prospective Women in Engineering

Interested in the School of Engineering? Check out these resources from this year's Virtual Preview Day:

Thumbnail image
Building a Better Pump

Courtney Rowe ’23 remembers sitting in a Zoom class in March 2020 wondering if she was in the right university. Like students everywhere, she’d gone home that spring to take classes online—joined by hundreds of others enrolled in the same classes with Rowe at the University of California, Irvine. Her older brother had loved his time there. But when the quarter ended, she knew she wasn’t going back.

Thumbnail image
Faculty Spotlight: Maria Kyrarini

Before coming to SCU I was a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Texas at Darlington, and before that, I did my Ph.D. at the University of Bremen in Germany. I chose to come to Santa Clara because everywhere else I interviewed, I saw few females, but there was so much diversity at the School of Engineering and in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering.

Thumbnail image
Student Spotlight: Sofia Brumbaugh '23

I participated in the Summer Engineering Seminar (SES) in Santa Clara the summer after my junior year of high school. So that got the idea of Santa Clara in my head. And then, when I was applying to schools, I knew I wanted to go into engineering, but I wanted to go to a smaller liberal arts school because I didn't want to lose that well-rounded education. Learning and being taught from every angle is important and necessary for engineers and anyone in general. Santa Clara's focus on sustainability and teaching the whole individual aligns with what I’ve been looking for.

Thumbnail image
A Closer Look At Creative AI

In today’s world, there is a lot of controversy surrounding using Artificial Intelligence (AI) as a medium to create artistic pieces of work, from the argument that AI will replace artists to the questions of legality surrounding who owns the rights to the pieces created. I sat with Assistant Professor Maya Ackerman (Computer Science and Engineering) to learn more about creative AI and its implications for the future of the creative industry. 

Contact Us

Santa Clara University
School of Engineering
500 El Camino Real
Santa Clara, CA 95053

Heafey-Bergin, Bldg. 202
Sobrato Discovery, Bldg. 402

408-554-4600
408-554-5474 fax

Apply Now Giving Bias Incident Reporting

Notable Women Engineering Alumni

Jayshree Ullal '86

Jayshree Ullal '86

President & CEO at Arista Networks, Distinguished Engineering Alumni Award 2013

Renee Niemi '86

Renee Niemi '86

Head of Smart Home Business at Logitech

Pam Rissmann '86

Pam Rissmann '86

mBlox, Former Executive VP Operations

Robin Beck '77

Robin Beck '77

Project Engineer and Engineering Manager at Aerotherm Corporation, Lead Engineer at NASA AMES Research Center, Distinguished Engineering Alumni Award 2016

Sheryl Staub-French '93

Sheryl Staub-French '93

Distinguished Engineering Alumni Award 2015

Sylvee Proehl '15

Sylvee Proehl '15

System Engineering Manager at Lockheed Martin

Allison Kopf

Allison Kopf

Co-founder and CEO at Artemis