Formidable forces to be reckoned with at Trinity

In 1909 Miss Constantia Maxwell become the first woman to teach at Trinity College Dublin. Miss Maxwell (23) was appointed to the department of history, but despite being staff she had to observe a number of rules designed to prevent females from "subverting the discipline and academic order" at the college. She had to be off campus by 6 p.m., she was not allowed socialise in the Common Room and she had to be chaperoned if she visited student rooms.

Things had moved on by the time Jane Grimson went to Trinity to study engineering in 1966. But she was, and still is, very much a woman in a man's world. The number of girls choosing to study engineering remains low, a fact which bothers Professor Grimson.

"There is a perception that engineering is boring and detached from reality. This couldn't be further from the truth," she says. "Engineering is about people. It's about finding solutions for human problems. The discipline is missing out because the female perspective is not being reflected. Women are good at seeing the human side of situations. Engineering needs their input."

Engineering is in the professor's family. One of her two brothers is an engineer and her late father, Bill Wright, is a former dean of engineering at Trinity. His portrait hangs in the foyer of the academic common room. As a schoolgirl Jane got a taste for engineering by accompanying her father to Trinity when she was not at school.

"I was interested in science and maths and out of this came a curiosity about how things worked," she says.

Jane Grimson was Trinity's first female engineering graduate and her particular interest was in computer engineering. This has remained her area of specialisation and today she continues to teach and conduct research into health informatics with a particular emphasis on the use and application of databases in healthcare.

Jane Grimson met her future husband, Bill, while they were both engineering students at Trinity. They graduated together and went to Canada to pursue postgraduate studies, returning to Dublin in 1971 to get married. The Grimsons have two adult children. Their son, Andrew, is studying in the US for a PhD in genetics and their daughter, Sarah, is a teacher at St Mark's community school in Tallaght.

Jane Grimson subsequently completed her PhD at Edinburgh University and took a five-year break to spend time with her young family. She returned to the paid workforce in 1980 when she was appointed lecturer in computer science at Trinity. A senior lectureship followed and she was subsequently made a fellow of the university. She was appointed an associate professor in 1994 and elected dean of engineering in 1996. In January of this year she succeeded Trinity's new provost, professor John Hegarty, as dean of research and held this position until September when she was selected by Hegarty as his vice provost.

At Trinity the provost is responsible for running the university and the job is effectively that of a CEO. The post involves a lot of travel and Grimson says her job is to "make sure the show stays on the road while the provost is away". She has cut right back on her teaching commitments which she says is "hard to get used to after 21 years of teaching full-time", and she is now lecturing to postgraduate students only while also keeping tabs on her various research projects.

One project she is particularly pleased about is Ait Eile, funded by the Information Society Commission (with sponsorship from IBM), which is designed to create a virtual community for children who are seriously ill and thereby isolated from their normal school and social circle.

"The idea is for children who are ill - especially those suffering from chronic conditions who spend long periods of time in hospital - to keep in touch with each other through e-mail, chat rooms and video links via a secure internet connection," she says. "They will also be able to get information which may be relevant to their condition and to link into other sites. All of this will take place within a very controlled environment in co-operation with parents, teachers and health professionals. We hope to have the prototype up and running at the beginning of next year."

Asked why she thinks girls are less attracted to engineering and computer science than boys, Jane Grimson cites image as the main problem.

"In the case of computer science, there is a perception that it means spending all of your time in front of a computer screen with no inter-personal interaction."

Since girls tend to like working with people, this puts them off, she says.

"It's always risky to make generalisations and to stereotype the sexes, but girls are also turned off computers by male friends and brothers who use their computers for endless zap 'em, nuke 'em games which don't appeal to girls in the same way.

"When Trinity first introduced computer science, the gender split was about even. But the profile quickly changed and now only about 15 per cent in computer science are female. The female population in engineering is about 25 per cent. Interestingly enough, the level of female participation in our degree programme in computer science with linguistics and a language is 70 per cent. This suggests girls may like more broadly based courses.

"When it comes to engineering it's much the same problem. There's a perception that it lacks a human dimension. But engineers build and develop for the benefit of people and they have to understand not only the theory but also its application and impact. Engineering has a social side as well as a scientific one and if we're not attracting girls to the profession the views of 50 per cent of the population are not being represented.

"Engineers may be working to develop solutions for traffic management. But they also have to understand the why - as in why are people willing to sit for hours in their cars in traffic jams."

Traffic jams are not a problem for Jane Grimson. She is a committed cyclist who believes braving the pitted city streetscapes and running the gauntlet of motorised vehicles is better than wasting time in Dublin's gridlock. Soft spoken, down to earth and tremendously hard-working, Jane Grimson shows absolutely no sign of the ivory tower mentality of some academics. She is someone who likes to get things done - a characteristic she shares with the new provost and one which is likely to make them a formidable force to be reckoned with at Trinity's helm.