IEEE-USA Mass Media Science and Engineering Fellow

by Meredith Lohr

Who says engineers can't communicate? While engineers continue to be stereotyped as technical professionals who lack general communication
skills, one young engineer has disproved this generalization. In fact, she has shown that engineers can, in fact, communicate with technical experts and the nontechnical public alike.

Mariama Orange recently completed her 10-week IEEE-USA Mass Media Fellowship, which she spent in New York City learning the ins and outs of magazine publishing at Scientific American. Mariama, who is beginning her Ph.D. in electrical engineering at Howard University in Washington, D.C., summed up her experience at the magazine in a single word: "great." 

Among her duties as a news intern, she "trolled" for story ideas, checked and rechecked facts for articles, researched and compiled "datapoints," learned how to integrate photographs into an article, and wrote occasional article briefs and stories. She says interacting with people in the scientific and journalism communities and learning to break down information to compose interesting articles made her experience at Scientific American a memorable one.

Living and working in New York for the summer gave Mariama a chance to experience a city culture that is wholly different from the nation's capital. New York is much more hustle and bustle than D.C., she said, but the atmosphere at Scientific American was more laid back than the stereotypical New York City magazine publisher.

Applying Technical Expertise in a Nontraditional Setting

Mariama received a BS in electrical engineering in 1998 from Howard University. She had started out as a chemistry major, but soon realized she didn't want to spend her days isolated in a lab. A good friend suggested she take an Introduction to Engineering course, which unlocked the key to her future.

As an undergrad, Mariama participated in a group project that solidified her interest in engineering because it involved interacting directly with the community and applying engineering principles to a real-life scenario. The project asked the group to identify a problem facing the elderly community and then engineer a solution. 

Mariama believes that engineers are an integral part of society, that they should have a positive impact and a sense of social responsibility. This, she said, includes playing a more active role in the media and with government. As her career in engineering develops, she hopes to move into a radio frequency specialty, wireless technology and teaching.

Mariama says that her experience as an IEEE-USA Mass Media Fellow was definitely worthwhile, especially as a journalist. She credits her fellowship with giving her a couple of the keys to writing a good story: familiarize yourself with the overall picture, and the best researchers are good observers. She also offered some friendly advice to future media fellows: make the internship an everyday experience and have fun.

What is a Mass Media Science and Engineering Fellowship?

This marks the second year that IEEE-USA has sponsored a fellow in the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) Mass Media Science and Engineering Fellowship Program. Last year's  IEEE-USA Mass Media Fellow, Elan Ruskin, spent the summer at the St. Louis Post Dispatch, covering environment, nature and technology news.

The AAAS program is designed to strengthen the connections between scientists and journalists by placing advanced science and engineering students in newsrooms across the country. In its 25-year existence, the program has placed more than 350 fellows with news magazines, newspapers, TV networks and local organizations. AAAS Mass Media Fellows work for 10 weeks as reporters, researchers and production assistants in mass media organizations nationwide. Fellowship applicants must be enrolled college or university students juniors or seniors or graduate or post-graduate students in the natural, physical, health, engineering, or social sciences.

For information on becoming an IEEE-USA Mass Media Fellow, contact Pender M. McCarter or Chris McManes at +1 202 785 0017.

Meredith Lohr is Communications Assistant at IEEE-USA in Washington, D.C.