Lenovo (LNVGY) has announced its sponsorship of the "Global Marathon For, By and About Women in Engineering," a live webcast event that will be broadcast to a worldwide audience on March 22.

Lenovo also pledged its multi-year support for the National Engineers Week Foundation and the Global Marathon. This third annual Global Marathon will provide a global audience of K-12 and college students, teachers, counselors, parents and professional women engineers access to top women engineers in leading institutions and industries around the world.

Lenovo will kick off the live Global Marathon from its executive headquarters near Raleigh, North Carolina in the United States at noon EST and will feature Fran O'Sullivan, senior vice president of the Lenovo Product Group, and Dr. Sally Ride, former astronaut and the first American woman in space.

"Lenovo is focused on cultivating a diverse and talented pipeline of engineers. By reaching students early, we can help them overcome the subtle social obstacles that often turn school-age girls away from technical professions," said O'Sullivan. "This is our way of inspiring the next generation of women engineers by exposing them to a wide showcase of role models who have built distinguished careers in technical fields."

O'Sullivan and Dr. Ride will also lead a Q&A session at Lenovo with students from North Carolina schools during the live Global Marathon webcast.

Lenovo's global engineering team will also participate in the Global Marathon, giving presentations from countries including China and Japan. Over the course of 24 hours, various leaders from the engineering field around the world will hold conversations through webcasts, Internet chats and conference calls in an effort to encourage girls to pursue engineering careers.