By Michael Hill
Correspondent
High school freshman Nive Balan observes what goes into making a Kevlar vest at the Army’s Picatinny Arsenal’s third annual “Introduce a Girl to Engineering” event.
“When I was younger, when I heard ‘engineering,’ I would go, ‘Oh! A guy is supposed to be an engineer,'” Balan said.
And that’s why Picatinny opens its house and puts its female engineers and the products they design, make or modify on display so these high school girls — with their mothers or fathers in tow — from all over New Jersey could poke, prod and probe for answers about college and careers.
3D printing of artificial limbs fascinates Tasha Jackson. Here, she sees how to apply that in becoming a veterinarian and helping animals.
“The thought of making something that’s not invented yet and the possibilities of all that stuff in the future is like really cool,” she said.
Srinidhi Ramakrishna sees how to apply the math and physics from school to her passion.
When asked what makes her want to design, she said, “Just to create new objects that are useful in daily life.”
Picatinny’s commanding general brought his daughter.
“So we’re going to make our way around and see if they could convince her to switch from medical to engineering,” said Picatinny Arsenal Brigadier General Patrick Burden.
Picatinny attorney Larry Brady brought his daughter.
When asked what she loves about chemistry she said, “I started taking it this year and everything we’ve done so far I find interesting,” said Larissa Brady.
“I would not want her to be an attorney. I would like her to go in the science field. I think there’s a lot more opportunities. I see the engineers here and I work with them and they seem to be the happiest people. They have fun. They have fun,” said Larry Brady.
NJIT grad and Picatinny Engineer Marie Phillips explains how she enhances the spider munitions system. It replaces landmines. You can remotely turn it on or off.
“So engineering can improve lives and I like that. And I want to be a part of that,” she said.
And Tara Kinnaman and Laura Battista are product managers responsible for taking the latest technology to modify and improve standard weapons such as the 50-caliber machine gun — popular in video games and on the battlefield.
The women are the ones doing that work. “Yes, because we’re product directors. We make the decisions,” Kinnaman said.
“We lead the teams,” Battista added.
“We coordinate everything, manage schedules, budgets. I mean hundreds of million dollar budgets,” Kinnaman said.
Back in high school when they talked about becoming engineers, the guys seemed skepitcal.
“I don’t think they thought much. There was more of what do you mean?” explained Battista.
“They asked if I like trains a lot and I said, ‘no that’s not really what this is,'” Kinnaman said.
Of the nearly 3,000 engineers at Picatinny’s armament research, development and engineering center, 10 percent are women — a fact not lost on these girls as to why and their futures after this.
“Maybe they don’t know enough about it to be interested in it,” Larissa Brady said.
“So now I feel like girls should be more educated and realize engineering can be for women also. As you can see all around,” Balan said.
The male-dominated military fostering a fertile field of opportunities for females interested in engineering careers with this invitation-only open house that’s doubled in attendance and interest since last year.