Three ASU electrical engineering female students were presented with $15,000 Friday in recognition of their outstanding GPAs and academic success in a college where females are often the minority.
Master's of electrical engineering students, Jennifer Desai, Marnie Figiel and Nazanin Darbanian were awarded the Texas Instruments Outstanding Female Diversity Scholarship Award. The students' emphases are analog, which includes circuit programming for items like cellular phones.
"[Women are] a minority. Big time," said Desai, who is in a combined masters and Ph.D. program. There are only 959 female undergraduates in the College of Engineering at ASU compared to 3,831 males. In the graduate program, there are 1,533 males and only 393 females.
Rick Harrigan, director of marketing and publicity for the College of Engineering, said receiving three out of the 12 awards offered nationally would greatly improve the reputation of the college.
"The fact that we got three was really amazing," he said. "It qualifies what we do [for research in the college]."
University of Arkansas was the only school to surpass ASU, with its students receiving four awards. Other schools with award recipients included University of Texas-Dallas, Texas Tech and Ohio State.
ASU Connection One Center, where the technology industry partners with ASU to fund and benefit from research, is where the three students study and research.
Program coordinator senior Jane Laux said receiving the awards would be especially beneficial to females who are considering the field of electrical engineering.
"It will show [females] that there are opportunities out there for them to succeed in that field," she said.
Laux also said the award would open doors for the three students.
"If nothing else, it helps them get into Texas Instruments," she said.
Desai added that besides providing her with funding to continue her studies, winning the award has helped her to establish contacts.
"It's industrially promoting," said Desai, a Phoenix native who earned her B.S. from UA.
Desai said TI is a major player in the field of electrical engineering.
Figiel is a native of Calgary, Alberta, and earned her B.S. from ASU. Darbanian, is a native of Tehran, Iran, and earned her B.S. from University of Tehran.
TI vice president of High Speed Communication and Control Mike Bartlett and design manager Scott Kaylor will visit campus today to present the scholarships and plaques at a ceremony in the Engineering Center.
Reach the reporter at megan.rudebeck@asu.edu.
