During the past six years, pre-semester assessments of student skills have revealed a lack of handson experience by women students in the First-Year Engineering Projects course at the University of Colorado at Boulder. Moreover, instructors in this course have observed a pattern of female students choosing other activities within their teams rather than engaging in the hands-on construction aspect of product development. To address these concerns, a Women's Manufacturing Workshop (WMW) series

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... s piloted during the 2002-03 academic year through a partnership between the Women in Engineering Program (WIEP) and the Integrated Teaching and Learning Laboratory (ITLL). Another aim was to provide women students a context for pursuing engineering through acquisition of knowledge and skills applicable to the design-build process in a low-risk setting. This paper discusses the effects of the WMW on the students, including an increase for women in their comfort with machining and other hands-on skills, and an increased likelihood that these women will remain in engineering. Background The Women in Engineering Program (WIEP) at the University of Colorado at Boulder (CU) identifies, expands and develops new learning opportunities for women engineering students. The WIEP fosters community among women by hosting departmental luncheons, speakers and events. These types of programs have been shown to improve retention in engineering. Recently, the WIEP and the Integrated Teaching and Learning (ITL) Program facilitated a successful, hands-on manufacturing center workshop series for women only. These workshops were formulated to counteract the observed patterns in the First-Year Engineering Projects course, and provide an environment that promotes community and engagement in engineering among the women. The Women's Manufacturing Workshop (WMW) series is set within the framework of the First-Year Engineering Projects course (FYEP). 1 Each year, approximately 350 first-year engineering students complete this hands-on, team-based projects course. The students learn the design process and build engineering projects in diverse topics such as assistive technology, Rube Goldberg contraptions and robots. The projects have real world relevance and are interesting to the students who work on them in small, multidisciplinary teams. Within teams, students are encouraged to learn new skills, such as computer-aided drawing, hands-on machining and assembly, engineering analysis, and communications skills, which will benefit them throughout their college experience. Another FYEP course goal is to provide a context for first-year engineering students to evaluate their decision to pursue engineering, as many students have been advised to become engineers without knowing what an engineer does, and about 30% of the firstyear students have not declared a specific engineering major.