Engineering is a field heavily dominated by men but for one Mississippi State University student, gender does not limit how high her dreams can fly; it ignites them.
     Lamiae Taoudi is a shining example of a woman in the engineering field. At the young age of 23, Taoudi already has her master’s degree in aeronautics and aerospace and is now working on her Ph.D. in computational engineering. 
  Something else people may be surprised to learn about Taoudi is that she is African and light-skinned. Taoudi is  from Azrou, Morocco, in North Africa, located where the High Atlas Mountains meet the Middle Atlas Mountains.
  Women who reach the heights Taoudi has achieved are rare.
Findings from the National Science Board’s Science and Engineering Indicators 2016 reports women earn 57 percent of all undergraduate degrees, 66 percent of master’s degrees and 50 percent of doctoral degrees.
     Still, the number of women who pursue engineering undergrad degrees is “flat” compared to other degree fields, the report said. Enrollment for women in master’s engineering programs stands at just 24 percent. 
   The report also finds in both engineering master’s and doctoral degree programs, the ratio of men to women are three to one. In aerospace engineering master’s and doctoral programs, the ratios were even higher with women being represented less than five to one and six to one for every man.
  Despite such numbers against her, Taoudi is succeeding beyond measure.
      Earning a master’s degree is an accomplishment for any student, let alone a student who speaks English as a third language. Taoudi admitted it was not easy.
   Hectic does not even begin to describe her schedule last year. Taoudi said she worked practically the whole day beginning as early as 7 a.m. and ending as late as 1 a.m. Her day began with going to class and then working at the High Performance Computing Lab, located at the university’s research park. There she would work until five or six in the evening before coming home for a short nap. After taking a nap and getting something to eat, she would go back to the High Performance Computing Lab to work until the early hours of the morning.
   Taoudi said the work she does at the lab is very time consuming. It involves running different case codes, seeing how they work and what their results are.
Taoudi’s fascination and love of aeronautics and aerospace began at a young age. As a child, she was fascinated by airplanes, birds, butterflies and how it is possible for them to fly.
  “It’s more the fact of flying,” Taoudi said. “I want to know how can you get something to fly.”
   Taoudi said she does not prefer the skies over the stars.
  “It’s everything,” Taoudi said. “I love the sky, and I love the stars.”
   Taoudi said she would love to explore space.  She said one of her childhood dreams was to become an astronaut until a harsh reality hit her. 
   “I started by hoping to be an astronaut,” Taoudi said. “Then I was like, no, no, no. You need to be more realistic. There are no astronauts in Morocco.”
    After her dreams of being an astronaut were brought down, Taoudi began thinking seriously about becoming a pilot. 
  “So, okay. I can be a pilot, right?” Taoudi said. “We have a lot of pilots in Morocco.”
     However, Taoudi’s dreams of being a pilot would not last. Around the time she was getting her baccalaureate, an Air France flight crashed near Rio de Janeiro. Because Lamiae’s family watches a lot of French television, its disappearance was constantly on their TV screen. As a result, Lamiae began to think of other options.
      After the Air France crash, Taoudi said she decided against becoming a pilot. Her dreams of working with aircrafts, though, have not waned. She said she still wants to work near aircraft, possibly designing them.
   “I want to be close with airplanes,” Taoudi said. “[I want to] be as close as possible to airplanes, aircrafts [and] anything that can fly.” 
   Being 4,600 miles from home can be tough for any student. However, this semester home has come to Starkville for Taoudi.
   Taoudi’s brother, Amine Taoudi, is starting his first year at MSU studying for his masters in aeronautics and aerospace as his sister did before him.
  Both Taoudis came to America through the collaboration that exists between MSU’s Bagley College of Engineering and the Université Internationale de Rabat. 
The program allows students to attain a bachelor’s from their home university and a master’s degree from MSU. In Morocco, a typical bachelor degree takes five years to complete. With the universities agreement, students can eliminate the time it takes to complete a bachelor’s and master’s. However, the agreement between the two universities was not always guaranteed. 
  Back in Morocco, Amine Taoudi recalled a test he took that determined whether he would come or not. On the day of the test, the administers encouraged everyone to do well, telling them if they passed there was a chance they could continue their educations in the United States.
 “We were all excited,” Taoudi said. “When we took a break from the test, nobody was discussing the test. Everybody was like, oh, we’re going to go to the United States go finish our studies over there.”
   Taoudi said he considers his sister a “pioneer’” because she is one of the first Moroccan students to participate in the program.
  “Lamiae is one year ahead of me, so she got to experience this before me,” Taoudi said. “I was there with her when she was doing her paperwork, doing all the stuff to go. Discussing, what is this? Why should I go? Why should I not go?”
   Growing up, Taoudi said he and his sister did everything together, whether it was vacationing, studying or playing. Because of their one year age difference, they did not think of themselves as older and younger siblings; they thought of themselves as twins.
 
“She’s a really, really important part of my life,” Taoudi said. “She’s my best friend.”
   Taoudi said anyone who is a friend to his sister considers her a good friend. Her agreeable personality makes it hard for anyone to dislike her.
 “She’s really likable,” Taoudi said. “I haven’t met someone who hates her yet or doesn’t care about her.”
    Taoudi said he played with her more than his school friends. His parents thought maybe it was not a bad thing for him to play with his sister all the time. They encouraged him to branch out and go play soccer with other boys. He disagreed, saying he was already playing games with his sister.
Games they played included house, where she would make him sit down and serve him tea. They also played sports, like soccer. 
     Taoudi said when they were kids, he would take revenge on his sister for the girly games she made him play by making her play boy’s games, like airplanes and trucks. Those games he used to take revenge on his sister would help serve as a catalyst for her future career trajectory.
  Asked to describe his sister, Taoudi said she is very friendly, likes to meet new people and is caring toward others. She easily empathizes with others, but sometimes her ability to empathize can be too overwhelming as she takes on the problems of her friends too heavily. 
   Taoudi says the knowledge and memory his sister possess astonishes him. He likens her to an information bank or reference book. 
   Whenever Taoudi is in need of assistance for an exercise or homework, he seeks help from her. Taoudi said his sister can readily remember the things she has read or studied.
     
 
 
 
   “She’s really smart,” Taoudi said. “Sometimes I’m just surprised. How did you come up with this?”
   Prabhat Ranjan Jha, a MSU graduate student in mechanical engineering and former classmate of Lamiae Taoudi, describes her as down to earth and very sweet and kind.
  Although Taoudi and Jha both work in the High Performance Computing Lab, their interaction with one another can be limited, mainly because he works in one wing and she in another. Outside of work, they hang out whenever their schedules will permit. 
    In a class Jha took with Taoudi, Jha said she always sat in the first row and never used her phone while in class. Her focus was solely on class.                                                                      
   “She works super hard,” Jha said. “She is driven.”
    Jha said Taoudi’s good looks and intellect combined with her character makes her personality dynamic.
    “She is a beauty with [a] brain and a good heart,” Jha said.
   Taoudi said there are really no challenges being a woman in engineering. Being a woman in a male dominated field can have its drawbacks, though, such as men not being able to relate as easily on topics pertinent to women.
   “It’s the fact [of] like you know being a girl and still want to put on nail polish [and] change it every two to three days,” Taoudi said. “[Or] be complaining with your girlfriends about your hair. Oh, my god, humidity.”
 Although Taoudi has never experienced any real sexism, there have been instances where she has been discounted because of her gender. 
   One of the first courses she took upon arriving at MSU was extremely difficult. She had never had anything like it before. In fact, everyone in the class struggled. Many of her male classmates thought the class would be harder for her because she was female, but Taoudi proved her classmates wrong and earned their respect in the process.
   “It was like the inverse;” Taoudi said. “They didn’t understand, and I got to explain things for them.”
    Sexism she experienced in Morocco was very different and far more common. Most women do not pursue education past a bachelor’s degree. By 23, most women are married and already having children. 
  After graduating high school and taking her college entrance exam, Taoudi had two career options: finance and engineering. The school for finance was public and cost nothing to attend while the engineering school was private and expensive–about $7,000. She said her parents were like, should we do this? 
   “If you go there, you’re going to succeed and everything,” Taoudi said.
  Taoudi said many of her parent’s friends called into question their decision to pay for her education. Her parent’s friends thought the money would better be served spending it on her brother.
   “[They said] oh, she’s a girl,” Taoudi said. “Why should [she] need to go and be studying about airplanes, engineering and be paying for it as well?”
  After Taoudi graduates from MSU with her PhD., she said she wants to teach. She loves being able to help others understand things.
  “I like discovering new things,” Taoudi said. “Knowing about people, cultures and everything. I really like explaining.”
    Taoudi said she is interested in teaching. Both of Taoudi’s parents are educators in Morocco. Her father, who is now retired, taught Arabic and French, while her mother taught history and geography.
   Whatever Lamiae Taoudi chooses in life, she will likely hit her mark., even if it is way up in the sky.