The Islamic University of Gaza, in partnership with Northumbria University in UK, concluded the activities of the project entitled “Developing Intercultural Competencies for Women Engineers”, funded by the Culture for Sustainable and Inclusive Peace Network (CUSP).
The final workshop of the project was held electronically through the Teams app, with the attendance of: Eng. Amani Maqadma, the principal investigator of the project, Prof. Hatem Aydi, team member and Dr. Bill Guarentinium, Dr. Carolyn Bonz from the University of Northumbria, in addition to other interested academics from various disciplines in the Faculty of Engineering of the two universities.
The panel discussion focused on the main challenges facing female engineer’s academies in the engineering profession. Dr. Bones welcomed the attendees and spoke about the story circle approach, the most important results obtained during the implementation period of the project, and ways of addressing the challenges faced by female engineers academies in the engineering profession, including: Develop intercultural competencies by holding more activities, such as: Panel discussion and increased communication among others with different backgrounds, and training to deal with the bias faced by some women engineers in meeting these challenges.
Hence, the attendees were divided into focused groups for research and discussion with academics at both universities, on the most important research questions of the project and experience in applying the Story Circle approach department technique and any difficulties faced by female engineers in scientific or practical life.
In addition, suggestions are made to reduce the problem of bias against women engineers by gender-based discrimination, thus presenting the main findings and outputs of each team.
At the end of the workshop, Amani Al-Maqadma expressed her pleasure at the great achievement achieved through the project and the importance of holding such projects in enhancing women’s presence in various disciplines, especially engineering. She emphasized the importance of scientific research in identifying problems facing women in both their working and scientific lives.
Al- Maqadma noted that at the workshop, the project’s activities were being concluded, and thanked everyone and their active participation for the success of the project’s activities.