In a recent study, researchers investigated engineering education opportunities, perceptions, and
career choices of secondary school students in Hong Kong SAR, China (Kutnick et al. 2012). The
study revealed that students’ perceptions about the engineeringmajor differ with the age of students,
and that students’ perceptions about engineering become less positive as they get older. The authors
found that students at age 14 have the highest inclination for engineeringmajors. Another interesting
finding of the study related to the timing of offering engineering summer camps and courses.
Kutnick et al. stated that offering these opportunities during high school is too late to cultivate
interest in students. The study also found that girls meeting with female engineers in a single-gender
context provide more benefit in terms of developing positive attitudes toward engineering than a
mixed-gender context. Findings from gender studies as a whole suggest that female students’
eventual decisions about engineering as a career are complex and can be largely explained by home
and cultural background (Devine 2004).