Women in STEM - Learning About Gender Equity Issues With an Interactive Wall

Project director of the Women’s Maker Program Fang Yi created an interactive wall to help the UVA community and visitors learn about gender equity issues in STEM as well as the UVA Library Women’s Maker Program.

The Women In STEM Interactive Wall was designed for the Women’s Maker Program Final Showcase, which was hosted in the University of Virginia Library Gallery 4. The primary purpose of the interactive wall is to help the UVA community and visitors learn about gender equity issues in STEM as well as the UVA Library Women’s Maker Program. It also offers research-based effective strategies for students and faculty to improve gender gap in STEM.

The Women’s Maker Program is a library makerspace program designed for University of Virginia female undergraduate students and sponsored by Jefferson Trust and Parents Fund. The primary aim of this program is to help increase female undergraduates’ confidence, improve their sense of belonging in the STEM field, and better prepare them for future careers in the STEM workforce.

To showcase program resident’s semester-long work, Yi Fang and their team designed an exhibit featuring residents’ community projects, individual makerspace projects, as well as other makerspace technologies at the library in our brand new gallery space in Clemons Library. One of the requirements for the wall was to have audio features for people who are blind or visually impaired or color blind. Additionally, the wall material needed to be projection friendly to allow for better color contrast and the team wanted to use sticker icons, so people who are blind can feel the icons easily. Also, by using vinyl instead of painted graphics  the longevity of the project could be improved. 

The team used the Interactive Wall Kit to create the interactive wall. The designs were initially drawn up with Canva for the initial prototype and then exported to Adobe Illustrator to finalize the design. MadMapper was used for programming the projection along with the Benq TK850 4K projector.

On 22 April, Fang Yi had a final showcase hosted at Clemons Library. It included an hour and half long presentation and a 30 min guided tour of their gallery exhibit.

Images and Video: Fang Yi

This project first appeared on Medium.

Do you want to find out how to create a projection mapping installation? Explore the Interactive Wall Kit and learn how to create a projection mapping installation.