Posted on 06/15/2008 2:10:58 PM PDT by forkinsocket
It's sweltering in Boston, and a dozen Tufts University coeds are out in shorts and tanks, attracting the usual stares. Only today the stares are for a different reason: the girls are huddled around a 750-pound machine that looks like a spaceship, long and wide with a bubble-shaped cockpit open to reveal a mass of pipes and wires. It's actually a solar car—one they've built from the ground up and hope to race next year. Suddenly sparks fly, and the girls jump back. They may be engineering whizzes, but they know a hazard when they see one. They call a teacher over to help solve the problem, as Alex McGourty, 21, gets ready to take the wheel. A junior with blond hair and freckles, she built her first car engine in high school: a biodiesel "veggie mobile" she ran on McDonald's fryer oil. McGourty revs out of the driveway, and almost immediately dislodges the car's chain. Campus police block off the street, and the baseball team, just returned from practice, lines up to watch. "Look out," a construction worker yells. "It's the Nerd Girls!"
The Nerd Girls may not look like your stereotypical pocket-protector-loving misfits—their adviser, Karen Panetta, has a thing for pink heels—but they're part of a growing breed of young women who are claiming the nerd label for themselves. In doing so, they're challenging the notion of what a geek should look like, either by intentionally sexing up their tech personas, or by simply finding no disconnect between their geeky pursuits and more traditionally girly interests such as fashion, makeup and high heels. In fact, calling them "nerd" is no insult at all—the Nerd Girls have T shirts emblazoned with the slogan.
(Excerpt) Read more at newsweek.com ...
They can bring home the bacon, fry it up in the pan, and.....totally list the properties of thermodynamics involved.
See? Between the two of you, you have a gal that has everything!
I’m off for the night! Late, for sure, but off, anyway.
I’ll talk to you tomorrow. *hugs to all*
If she gets stuck for ideas, tell her to contact me. My focus is on a transition from standard street cars to fuel-efficient hybrids. A great project for a University group.
That was her work on her Master’s program. They actually implemented a number of different technologies.
Neat!
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