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The Quintessential Engineer.

Cyber-Woman Engineer

Field review by the editors.

Urbana, Illinois

In 2014 the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign commissioned creation of a statue celebrating women in engineering. Chicago artist Julie Rotblatt-Amrany sculpted "The Quintessential Engineer," which was unveiled outside the university's Micro- and Nano-Technology Laboratory on April 28, 2017.

Rotblatt-Amrany's bronze sculpture features a young woman who's solving engineering problems on the run. Suspended in front of her face is one of those virtual floaty computer screens people are always tapping in sci-fi films; this particular screen is filled with mysterious waves.

The woman is frozen in mid-dash, her hair tousled by forward motion, atop a platform of hexagons labeled INSPIRATIONAL, INNOVATIVE, CONFIDENT, PIONEERING, PASSIONATE. At her feet the hexagons are rising and turning into books and circuit boards -- and then morphing into her pants. The Quintessential Engineer is a triumph of hybrid engineering!

Cyber-Woman Engineer

Address:
208 N. Wright St., Urbana, IL
Directions:
On the campus of the University of Illinois. The statue is hidden from the street, on the quad (east) side of the Micro and Nano-Technology Laboratory, which is on the east side of US Hwy 45/Wright St. at its intersection with E. Stroughton St.
Admission:
Free
Save to My Sights

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In the region:
Jerry's Hat Museum, Forrest, IL - 45 mi.

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