In a remote part of Haiti, a raging river divides an entire village from its school. Many risk their lives every day to cross it. All the small village needs is a suspended footbridge to carry adults and children across the tumultuous water below.
In steps Avery Bang, CEO and president of Bridges to Prosperity, an organization that builds footbridges across in developing countries, providing better access to health care, education, and employment opportunities. "They didn't have a bridge," says producer Shaun MacGillivray, "Many, many people, both kids and adults, had passed away from crossing this river."
This is just one of several stories in MacGillivray Freeman's new IMAX film Dream Big: Engineering Our World, chronicling notable female engineers who are making a difference in the world with science and mathematics. It's a message that's desperately needed.
In 2012, only 14 percent of engineers were women. For minorities, the numbers are bad, too, with only 5.8 percent of employed engineers with a college degree identifying Latino or Hispanic and only 4.3 percent identifying as African American. The U.S. need engineers. And according to a 2012 STEM Education report, that if this imbalance were fixed, it would "strengthen the caliber of the U.S. workforce, drive economic growth, and keep the U.S. competitive."
Dream Big hopes to reach beyond those numbers using heart-stopping imagery, inspiring stories, and the docile tones of Jeff Bridges' narration. But most importantly, the film hopes to show off the marvel of big-thinking engineering to an audience that could actually fix this problem—today's students.
Why these huge imbalances exist is a complex question with no easy answer. Dream Big argues that one major factor is the significant lack of visible role models, particularly women, in STEM fields. This is the exact issue that Dream Big hopes to rectify.
"We as engineers are very good with calculations but not so good with communicating about what we do and how we do it," says Menzer Pehlivan, a geotechnical engineer featured prominently in the film. "The biggest challenge is attracting the new generation of engineers."
Produced in partnership with the American Society of Civil Engineers and presented by Bechtel Corporation, the 40-minute IMAX movie is meant to inspire excitement in STEM education and skills, particularly for women and minorities.
To do this, the film mostly focuses on the stories of three female engineers. There's Avery Bang and her team at Bridges to Prosperity, who have fanned out across the globe from El Salvador to Kenya to Nepal erecting literal bridges that connects people to resources. Angelica Hernandez, an undocumented Mexican immigrant who helped her underfunded high school robotics club beat MIT in a NASA-funded national competition.
Then there is Pehlivan, a Turkish immigrant whose engineering career was inspired by tragedy. In 1999, northwestern Turkey was rocked by one of the 20th century's most devastating earthquakes, killing 17,000 people and causing over $6 billion in damage. Pehlivan was 13 years old and sleeping in her bed in Ankara when her homeland shook.
She vividly remembers spending the night in the family's car fearful that their house would collapse. Later, she learned that soil "liquefaction" is the reason why many buildings in Turkey collapsed. This piqued her interest and she began studying earthquake engineering in hopes of preventing future buildings from collapsing, which according to one study accounts for three quarters of all deaths during earthquakes.
After completing her Masters in Turkey, Pehlivan immigrated to the U.S. in August 2009, to get her Ph.D. from the University of Texas at Austin, one of America's best civil engineering schools. Today, she's a geotechnical engineer with a focus on earthquake engineering. She recently worked on the Georgetown Wet Weather Treatment Station in King County, Washington.
While majestic tracking shots captured by the Solido 3D IMAX Camera and a dual 4k laser projection system would grab anyone's attention, Pehlivan hopes that adults absorb the film's message as well. "It is really important to have mentors and family who believe in (students), even when (the kids) don't," says Pehlivan, "Just believe in them. Even if they fail the first time, they'll get it right the next."
Dream Big premiered Wednesday at the Smithsonian's National Air & Space Museum on February 15 and opens globally on Friday. Hopefully many future engineers will be sitting in the front row, inspired by the 50-foot-tall engineers on the screen in front of them.
Matt is a history, science, and travel writer who is always searching for the mysterious and hidden. He's written for Smithsonian Magazine, Washingtonian, Atlas Obscura, and Arlington Magazine. He calls Washington D.C. home and probably tells way too many cat jokes.
