National Engineers Week (formally known as E-Week) may have a new name, Discover E Week, but it still has the same spirit of learning, exploration, and new introductions of students to the world of engineering! This year, DiscoverE Week fell on February 17-21, and Dallas SWE members were busy all week reaching out to our community and teaching people what engineering is all about. Read below for a review of our DiscoverE Week activities!
Also, please visit the Newsletters page for the Feb18 Meeting Agenda to see announcements and upcoming events including our March 18 professional development meeting in Irving and Design Your World in Denton on March 29!
Lockheed Martin Diversity Fair
The Dallas Section of the Society of Women Engineers participated in the Engineering Week Diversity Fair at Lockheed Martin Missiles and Fire Control in Grand Prairie on February 17, 2014. The event was a fantastic opportunity for Lockheed Martin employees to learn about internal employee resource groups and external professional organizations such as SWE, Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers and National Society of Black Engineers. Many women engineers who were SWE members during their college careers were energized to reconnect with SWE. The Lockheed Martin Engineering Leadership also spent time to understand how they can provide support to and benefit from the Society of Women Engineers as they focus on increased hiring, diversity of their engineering population and growth into new technical fields.
-Lynn Mortensen
Click here to see other Engineering Week activities from Lockheed Martin.
Outreach Event at the Perot Museum
Mamatha Prakash (HP) Nandika D’Souza (UNT) Barbara Vilbig (Vilbig and Associates), Kevin Vilbig, Shwetha Ravikimar (HP) and Arun Varghese (Fidelity) staffed a booth at the Perot Museum on Feb 17, 2014 to celebrate Discover E week from 10 to 2 pm. Approximately 300 school age children stopped by and enjoyed a hands on demonstration of electrical circuits. They learned the basics of an open and closed circuit by connecting a load (light or buzzer) to a power source (battery) with various switches.
– Nandika D’Souza and Barbara Vilbig
She Networks, She Wins
On the evening of February 18, SMU SWE hosted their annual She Networks, She Wins event. This year the event included a special panel discussion on topics in Sheryl Sandberg’s influential book, Lean In. About 75 professionals and collegiates participated in discussions covering mentorship, negotiation skills, work and family life balance, leaning into fears and taking charge of your career path. For more information and photos, check out the SMU SWE blog post about She Networks, She Wins and the Dallas SWE Facebook page.
Dallas Regional Science and Engineering Fair
This month, Beal Bank sponsored the Dallas Regional Science and Engineering Fair at Fair Park in Dallas. An article from the Dallas Morning News outlines the fair’s winners and includes a review of a special projects by Alicia DSouza, daughter of Dallas SWE’s wonderful Vice President of Outreach, Nandika DSouza! Congratulations to all of the project winners!
UT Dallas’s Explore Engineering Day
Although Dallas SWE was not able to participate in UT Dallas’ Explor Engineering Day on February 22nd, we wanted to highlight this event which introduced K-12 students to STEM activities and careers. They had a variety of engineering interests represented including software, materials (polymers), robotics, and electromagnetics (microwaves). We hope to be a part of this event in the future!