Strong mentor
Professor becomes UPEI’s first female fellow of Engineers Canada
Amy Hsiao is inspiring women to enter engineering through both her actions and achievements.
Hsiao, 46, of New Glasgow recently became UPEI’s first female fellow of Engineers Canada, a national honour for individuals who have given noteworthy service to the engineering profession.
“I’m really honoured to be recognized,’’ says Hsiao, who is an associate professor in UPEI’s Faculty of Sustainable Design Engineering.
She has been doing more than her part to encourage young women to study engineering.
Hsiao started a five-week summer program in 2017 called Promoting Girls in Research in Engineering and Sustainability (Pro-GRES) to promote engineering research interest and involvement among young women in high school.
Through the Pro-GRES Program, high-school students have the opportunity to participate in cutting-edge research projects with world-class researchers in state-of-the-art facilities. The selected students work directly with a female faculty researcher and mentor on an independent research project, and they have opportunities to meet and work with female engineers and engineering students.
“I’m just doing quite a bit of enthusiastic and passionate work towards recruiting or attracting more women to the profession because we are super underrepresented,’’ she says.
Hsiao, who was born in Taiwan but was a young girl when her family moved to Chicago, feels fortunate with how smoothly she was able to enter the engineering field.
Both her mother, who was a teacher in Taiwan, and her father, who was a chemical engineer, were very supportive of her desire to become an engineer.
So, too, were her male professors, who made up the majority of her instructors and would go on to be strong mentors.
“And they have just got it,’’ she says.
“They were supportive and encouraging.’’
Hsiao is determined to play a role in helping Engineers Canada meet its goal to have 30 per cent of newly licensed engineers be female by 2030.
She sees female engineering students thriving at UPEI.
“They are changing the nature of engineering in terms of teamwork, preparedness, organization, communication skills,’’ she says.
“It’s kind of upping the bar for everyone.’’
Hsiao’s boss, Nicholas Krouglicof, dean of the Faculty of Sustainable Design Engineering, also happens to be her husband.
They married in 2014 but have been together since 2003. Hsiao has three step-children through Krouglicof.
Krouglicof is thrilled to see his wife/employee receive the same fellowship he was granted two years ago.
“It’s great, it’s fantastic,’’ he says. “She’s very deserving.’’
The pair is eager to continue building the sustainable design engineering program at UPEI with Krouglicof’s area of expertise in mechanical engineering and Hsiao’s focus in material engineering.
“I like the quality of work and life here,’’ says Hsiao.