{"333611":{"#nid":"333611","#data":{"type":"external_news","title":"Building the Bionic Woman","body":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EThis blog post by Professor Ayanna Howard appeared in the journal \u003Cem\u003EScience\u003C\/em\u003E on October 9, 2014.\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EI was shielded from stereotypes during my young and impressionable years. I didn\u2019t realize they existed until maybe middle school, and by then, I\u2019d already decided I wanted to build the Bionic Woman.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EI was always drawn to \u2018techy\u2019 stuff, but I also liked what people would consider typical girly things. I would just as quickly ask for a RadioShack kit as a Betty Crocker oven, and get both. I learned to solder at the same time I was playing with dolls (not necessarily Barbie, although I did collect them for a while and have some that are quite valuable). In the third grade, I started programming in BASIC on a Commodore 64 computer in the basement.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EMy dad majored in engineering, and my mom majored in math. Both were large influencers in my life. From an early age, I loved math, puzzles, computers, and gaming, and I seemed to have a knack for them. These things just seemed so logical. There was always a right or wrong answer; you just had to figure it out.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EBy this time, I was a total sci-fi nut. I would watch anything in that domain: \u003Cem\u003EBattlestar Galactica\u003C\/em\u003E, \u003Cem\u003EStar Trek\u003C\/em\u003E,\u0026nbsp;\u003Cem\u003EWonder Woman\u003C\/em\u003E. There was one show I particularly liked: \u003Cem\u003EThe Bionic Woman\u003C\/em\u003E. I thought the concept was ingenious.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Ca href=\u0022http:\/\/sciencecareers.sciencemag.org\/career_magazine\/previous_issues\/articles\/2014_10_09\/caredit.a1400251\u0022 target=\u0022_self\u0022\u003ERead the full article\u003C\/a\u003E.\u003C\/p\u003E","summary":null,"format":"limited_html"}],"field_subtitle":"","field_summary":"","field_summary_sentence":"","uid":"27842","created_gmt":"2014-10-13 15:58:48","changed_gmt":"2016-10-08 02:27:20","author":"Ashlee Gardner","boilerplate_text":"","field_publication":"","publication":"sustainability award","field_article_url":"","publication_url":"http:\/\/sciencecareers.sciencemag.org\/career_magazine\/previous_issues\/articles\/2014_10_09\/caredit.a1400251","dateline":{"date":"2014-10-09T00:00:00-04:00","iso_date":"2014-10-09T00:00:00-04:00","tz":"America\/New_York"},"extras":[],"groups":[{"id":"1255","name":"School of Electrical and Computer Engineering"}],"categories":[],"keywords":[],"core_research_areas":[],"news_room_topics":[],"event_categories":[],"invited_audience":[],"affiliations":[],"classification":[],"areas_of_expertise":[],"news_and_recent_appearances":[],"phone":[],"contact":[],"email":[],"slides":[],"orientation":[],"userdata":""}}}