Dr. Dana Drachsler Cohen inspires female students in Electric Engineering to believe in themselves.
Dr. Dana Drachsler Cohen, a new graduate of the Andrew and Erena Viterby faculty of Electrical Engineering, encourages female electrical engineering students to believe in themselves.
The Andrew and Erna Viterbi faculty of Electrical Engineering’s website list nearly sixty participating faculty members, only five of whom are women. Even as opposed to the percentage of women in non-technical faculties at Israeli universities, which was 32 percent in 2016. This discrepancy begs a question, “Why?”
In today’s world, electrical engineering study would not entail holding generators or lifting large cables, which would be daunting for many male professors. To put it in an other way, the disparity is not due to a lack of talents or abilities. A recent faculty member, Dr. Dana Drachsler Cohen, claims the difference is due to prejudice.
Dr. Drachsler Cohen’s research focuses on ensuring the correctness and security of software, especially in the areas of deep learning, computer networks and blockchain. Simply placed, it employs mathematical models to ensure that computer software performs as intended, even during lengthy production cycles.
She started her academic career an the Technion’s Taub faculty of Computer Science, where she earned a Rothschild Technion Program for Excellence undergraduate degree in two years. She went on to a direct doctoral program in the same faculty under Prof, Eran Yahav’s supervision. She received the Zeff and Jacobs Fellowships, as well as the Muriel and David Jacknow Prize for excellence in Teaching, during her doctorate.
Dr. Cohen then moved to Switzerland for a two-year postdoctoral research fellowship, which she won from the ETH. She started her studies at the Faculty of Electrical Engineering in August 2019. The Council for Higher Educational awarded her the coveted Alon Scholarship for the Recognition of Outstanding Young Scientists last year (MLAG).
Over the years, Dr. Drachsler Cohen has seen many female electrical engineering students and STEM professionals question their ability, so she created a special faculty initiative to support them. Students meet influential women in the in the industry, address challenges they face, obtain guidance, and develop a technical toolbox for themselves as part as part of the curriculum.
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