Transcriber: Lisa Thompson Reviewer: Amanda Chu
Host: Gabriella inspires us to make the world a better place
by solving problems in creative and different ways.
(Applause)
Gabriella Garcia: I am here to issue an invitation
to all fashion designers, artists, musicians, writers, and scientists
to become involved in engineering.
There seems to be a certain unappealing, even bland, image
associated with engineering:
that engineering is only for guys and involves building and programming,
that it's all about robots, gears, plans, and bridges.
Well, that's what I first thought,
and I believe many girls are afraid of that image,
and that is why there are so few female engineers.
That is the image that I'm going to alter today
because engineering doesn't just involve robots, gears, plans, and bridges -
it involves art, music, fashion, design, science, medicine,
and a million other parts to the puzzle.
Engineering is a puzzle.
It is a field that aims to solve problems
by building, designing, inventing, and improving.
In eighth grade,
I began to really appreciate the wide range of people in my classes,
whom all had different opinions and ideas.
That year, I had my first engineering class.
I built and programmed lots of different robots and machines,
something I had thought I could never do.
I also got involved in a club called Mecha Makos.
It's an engineering and robotics club that I am now the vice president of.
Engineering is not based on building and programming;
it requires a lot of creativity, fabrication, and ingenuity.
My name is Gabriella Garcia, and I'm here to talk to you today
about how creative and imaginative engineering can be.
Last year, I participated in a fashion design competition
in an organization called TSA.
The two dresses I made were actually what got me recommended for TEDx.
One of them is displayed here.
Now, many of you are probably thinking,
What does fashion have to do with engineering?
The answer is "A lot."
Fashion is a simple and inexpensive way to learn design, fabrication,
the importance of materials, and structures.
Wearable technology is a growing field at the moment.
The Apple Watch, Google glasses, fitness trackers, and animated LED dresses
are only a few examples of pioneering works.
It takes a lot of creativity, in addition to electrical engineering
and, of course, fashion, to create products such as these.
This is one example of creative engineering.
Last year, I tinkered with animatronics.
This is a field aimed to create mechanical creatures that seem to be alive:
moving, talking, blinking, and even swimming.
In a group of three members,
we made an animatronic hawksbill sea turtle.
We used pneumatics to make it go up and down,
had flippers that moved due to motors, and even a head whose jaw moved.
Now, surprisingly, the most difficult part of finishing
wasn't the mechanics but the skinning of the turtle.
I used papier-mâché to make the head, shell, tail, and flippers
and painted everything.
It took five tries to get the shell just right.
Animatronics is an amazing field of engineering
because you can create absolutely anything you can imagine.
It's also a lot of fun.
I mean, what's more fun than bringing animals, aliens, and even fairies to life?
Recently, I've seen a lot of STEM efforts aimed at girls,
that are trying to show how creative engineering can be.
I participated in one called DigiGirlz last year at Microsoft,
and it was amazing to see so many girls with similar technology interests.
"Make:" is also another wonderful example.
By encouraging homemade individual projects that represent you,
Maker Faire is a show-and-tell fair for all types of art and technology.
I've seen 3-D printing, homemade soaps, fashion, and battlebots
all in the same tent,
showing how different our views of engineering are.
But it is not enough.
Women comprise only 13% of engineering positions,
according to the National Science Foundation
and the National Center for Engineering and Science Statistics.
All of you in the audience are engineers in some way or another.
You may work as a lawyer, a doctor, or a teacher,
but you are all engineers because you all work to improve the world
by solving problems in creative and different ways.
We engineers, makers, inventors -
whatever you want to call yourselves -
need to show girls how creative engineering can be.
We need to introduce them to a world
in which they can create whatever they can imagine,
from robots and creatures to lighted dresses and buildings,
because if not, the world in a couple of years
may not be as innovative, original, and visionary as it should be.
Creativity is the future, and engineering is the key to its success.
Thank you.
(Applause)