Engineering Barbie

An EE/CE PhD (enough acronyms?) helped design the new barbie computer engineer look. I'll admit I'm a little disappointed. What with the laptop, smart phone, trendy t-shirt, square glasses, and leggings she might as well be a blogger or just an avid facebook user/tweeter. Then again "computer engineer" is a pretty broad category. Is she in industry? A PhD? A code monkey? A network engineer? A college professor? Thankfully the PhD they consulted got rid of Barbie's lab coat:

"That's not just typical attire," said Dr. Fitzgerald, who considers T-shirt and jeans to be standard wardrobe for professionals in her field.

 

Though an early idea from Mattel included the white lab coat, Dr. Fitzgerald and others discouraged it, she said, because it's more representative of scientists who work in wet labs surrounded by chemicals and potential spills.

Again I'm not sure where t-shirt and jeans is "typical" since it's hard to make generalizations about such a broad job title. Clearly a CE is probably not working with fluids all the time, but then again I see many a sparky (I mean EE) wandering around in the required static protection smocks when they're working with electrical equipment. And who wears leggings to work? I guess Barbie does. Maybe if you're a college professor that kind of crap flies, but hopefully Barbie doesn't have an office job.

 

I really would have rather seen Barbie a bona fide sparky (yeah yeah electrical engineer). Maybe you could take apart her smart phone or maybe she'd have a pink oscilloscope or something. Or better yet, a mechanical engineer. Then Barbie's pink corvette could come with an open-able hood and maybe a small plastic engine with a tiny hand crank so kids can see how a simplified engine works. A girl can dream, right?