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Only 13 percent of engineers in the workforce are women, according to the Society of Women Engineers (SWE). The same analysis shows that over 32 percent of women switch out of STEM degree programs in college. Encouragement and support for women in STEM fields has grown in the past few years; however, there’s still work to be done to continue building an environment where female engineers can flourish. Texas ECE and WNCG student Sandy Saab is doing her best to be a part of that effort.

Engineers and scientists at The University of Texas at Austin and the AMOLF institute in the Netherlands have invented the first mechanical metamaterials that easily transfer motion effortlessly in one direction while blocking it in the other, as described in a paper published on Feb. 13 in Nature. The material can be thought of as a mechanical one-way shield that blocks energy from coming in but easily transmits it going out the other side.