By Sarah Sipes

This semester, Margaret Hunter, an associate engineering professor at the University, won a three-year award from the National Science Foundation. She received this grant after writing a proposal on an idea to advance technological education.

Hunter, who attended Rutgers University, started out as an environmental chemist. She later moved on to engineering as a graduate student at Rice University when a teacher recommended the subject to her. Today, she works as an environmental engineer and chairs the University’s Environmental Priorities Committee, which began last semester.

Hunter says she has big plans for the grant. She is currently working on a framework to adapt course material.

Hunter says she hopes this will encourage more women to study engineering.

“Women should have a greater role,” Hunter says. She also mentions that women bring a different perspective to solving problems. This view could be crucial to the future of engineering.

The grant, of about $700,000, will be tested at community colleges this semester to draw more women to the field.