Congrats to Savitha Pinnepalli, Dallas SWE’s August 2024 Member of the Month!
Savitha Pinnepalli graduated with a Bachelor of Engineering ( Electronics, India), a Master’s in Power Electronics Engineering (India) and a Master’s in Engineering Science from Louisiana State University. She is currently serving as the Department Head of Engineering, Gaming and IT at Dallas College, TX. Savitha’s career includes an array of education, mentoring, advising, and leadership roles that prioritize promoting minority women in Engineering and IT fields. Her primary goal is student success, and she mentors students by providing networking and career opportunities with Business and Industry. Savitha also has a passion for teaching seniors and has grown the Cyber Seniors Program with the help of student mentors and community sponsorships. Savitha has been involved with Dallas SWE, and is working to start the SWE student chapter at Dallas College.
Her previous experiences include serving in the Computer Science Department at LSU as Instructor, ERA (Electronic Research Administrator) Manager in the office of sponsored programs at LSU, Department Chair at Rhodes State College in Lima Ohio, Associate Professor at Marshalltown Community College in Iowa, Department Chair and Associate Professor, and Computer Information Technology at Chattanooga State Community College. She has also served as an adjunct professor at UTC (University of Tennessee, Chattanooga) and Dallas College.
She is a certified CIW Internet Business Associate, and an ACUE certified instructor. She has experience in Accreditation through ATMAE and has also served on the Accreditation team to visit Owens Community College in Ohio. She was instrumental in implementing the Cyber Seniors program, Girl Scouts STEM program, IT Entrepreneurship program, Hour of code program and capture the Flag competitions at Chattanooga State Community College. She conducted the Cyber Seniors workshop at Dallas College in the El Centro campus. She serves as administrative lead for the ASME (The American Society of Mechanical Engineers) student Chapter and collaborates with the Women in Engineering Club with Faculty advisors. She is working to start the SWE student chapter at Dallas College. She partnered with Angelo State University, TX to create articulations for Civil and Mechanical Engineering transfers. She is also working to create articulation agreements with SMU, UTA, UTD, West Texas A & M.
Savitha is recipient of the LSU Tiger Athletic Foundation Undergraduate Teaching award at LSU (Louisiana State University) and the River Parishes Community College Outstanding Teaching Faculty award (LCTCS System). She served as Faculty Senate president at River Parishes Community College. She is a Salzburg and Bioscience Industry Fellowship Fellow. She has served as the AmeriCorps Vista in STEMUP, Baton Rouge. She has presented at several National Conferences including the League of Innovations, NISOD, Service-Learning Conference in Franklin, AACC and attended ATD Conference. She is affiliated with the National Convergence Technology Center and completed several Professional Development workshops in IT funded by NSF through summer working connections. She is also a member of NITIC National Information Technology Innovation Center where she completed an NSF workshop on Generative AI tools for the classroom.
At Dallas College, she has organized several video game mixers for the Game program. She has formed the Program Advisory Committees for the GAME program and conducted Game-A-thon. She has provided administrative support in the NSF 3D printing for Entrepreneurs workshop at Dallas college. She presented at the TCCTA conference in Houston. She has attended the ASEE and SWE Society of Women Engineers conference along with Faculty. She has partnered with Career and transfer services at Dallas College to take a group of students to visit Angelo State University for a campus tour and Engineering Challenge. She has assisted Engineering Faculty with program development. Engineering students mentored by Engineering Faculty from Dallas college participated in the ASME CCEP E-Week Challenge and secured first place. The Gaming students at Dallas college secured National Gold medal at the Skills USA competitions. She helps with mentoring, advising, and recruiting students to the Engineering, IT and Gaming programs. She works with success coaches, pathway specialists, stem center, learning commons and stem league activities at Dallas College.
