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From Clothes-Shopping to Spaceship-Docking, Embry-Riddle Invites Girls to Do the Math

Daytona Beach, Fla. , April 18, 2008

Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University will host its annual Women in Math Day on Friday, April 25, for female high school students in Volusia County and their mathematics teachers. The event, which promotes careers for women in mathematics, science, and engineering, will be held at the university’s Daytona Beach campus. It is restricted to registered participants and news media.

PROGRAM

All events are held in Embry-Riddle’s Miller Instructional Center, Room 101, unless noted otherwise.

9-9:10 a.m.
Welcome and introduction by Nirmal Devi, professor of mathematics at Embry-Riddle.

9:15-10 a.m.
Workshop led by Amber Gell, spacecraft systems engineer at Lockheed Martin Mission Services. Gell will discuss how “there’s more to math than docking vehicles in space” and how math links common activities like photography, shopping, cooking, and driving.

10:15-11:45 a.m.
Math games and competitions by high school students and math teachers.

Noon-1 p.m.
Buffet lunch and panel discussion about math-related careers with Nirmal Devi, Lisa Davids, Amber Gell, and Katariina Nykyri, in the Embry-Riddle cafeteria.

1-1:50 p.m.
Tour of campus and facilities.

2-2:20 p.m.
Prizes and certificates awarded to students and teachers.

Workshop presenter Amber Gell is a spacecraft systems engineer at Lockheed Martin Mission Services in Houston, Texas. As the docking integrator for the Orion Program, she ensures the safe docking and undocking of Orion with space vehicles such as the International Space Station and the moon lander. Gell graduated from Embry-Riddle in 2006 with bachelor’s degrees in aerospace engineering and aerospace studies and minors in human factors, psychology, and mathematics.

This event is co-sponsored by the departments of mathematics and diversity initiatives at Embry-Riddle.

For more information about Women in Math Day, contact Jayathi Raghavan at (386) 671-1920 or jayathi.raghavan@erau.edu.

Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, the world's largest, fully accredited university specializing in aviation and aerospace, is a nonprofit, independent institution offering more than 40 baccalaureate, master's and Ph.D. degree programs in its colleges of Arts and Sciences, Aviation, Business and Engineering. Embry-Riddle educates students at residential campuses in Daytona Beach, Fla., and Prescott, Ariz., and through the Worldwide Campus with more than 150 locations in the United States, Europe, Asia, and the Middle East. The university is a major research center, seeking solutions to real-world problems in partnership with the aerospace industry, other universities and government agencies. For more information, visit http://www.embryriddle.edu, follow us on Twitter (@EmbryRiddle) and facebook.com/EmbryRiddleUniversity, and find expert videos at YouTube.com/EmbryRiddleUniv.