News & Events

January Younger Professionals Brunch

hgsplygoAre you a recent college grad? New to the DFW area? Looking to meet other engineering or STEM professionals who are also early in their career? Welcome to the Dallas SWE Younger Professionals Listserv! Join us at our first brunch of the year as we network over some great food!

When: Saturday, January 9th 2016, 11:30am – 1:00 pm
Where: HG Sply Co., 2008 Greenville Ave, Dallas, TX 75206
Check out the menu here: hgsplyco.com
Reservation is under Society of Women Engineers (SWE)
Register: Please RSVP by January 7th 1st, 2016 so we can make an accurate head count; you do not need to print out your ticket.
Eventbrite - Dallas SWE Younger Professionals January Brunch!hgsplyco

Feel free to share this invite to anyone else interested and have them email Marzia Monty at marzia3107@gmail.com to join the Listserv. Hope to see you there!

Have questions about Dallas SWE Younger Professionals January Brunch!? Contact Dallas Society of Women Engineers

Winter Upcoming Events and Announcements

Dallas SWE Holiday Mixer happy-holidays

Wear your holiday sparkle while learning about the latest technology and the Internet of Things!  Mingle with old and  new friends and get ready to have some fun with Speed Networking!

When: Tuesday, December 15, 6:00 – 9:00 pm
Where: Lennox International Headquarters, 2140 Lake Park Blvd, Richardson, TX 75080
Cost: FREE thanks to our sponsors at Lennox International!
RSVP: Please register via Eventbrite to let us know you’re coming!
Eventbrite - Dallas-SWE Holiday Mixer at Lennox


Save the Date: January 19 Professional Development Meeting

On Tuesday, January 19, join us for our monthly meeting with a guest speaker from Southwest Airlines, Jamita (Barnett) Machen, MBA, PMP, Doctoral Candidate.


Region C Conference: February 5-7, 2016

If you haven’t already, register for the SWE Region C Conference in Northwest Arkansas and reserve your hotel room. More information and instructions on how to reserve your spot are available at the Region C Conference website!


UNT Senior Design Course Projects

The University of North Texas’ College of Engineering is seeking industry-sponsored projects for its engineering senior design courses (“The Engineer’s Aerie”). As a project sponsor, your student team is working for you specifically on a problem of interest to you, and nothing else. Sponsoring a project facilitates the student’s taking flight on their engineering journey. Projects include engineering elements of design, analysis, fabrication, and testing subject to your input requirements. Contact Dr. Thomas Derryberry or 940-565-4324) or visit the Capstone webpage.


Coppell High School Solar Car Racing Team

The Coppell High School’s Solar Car Racing team would like some professional advice and guidance on using lithium batteries (pros/cons/alternatives) for their project. Contact them here if you can help.

 

Event Recap: Abbott Laboratories Tour and Panel Talk

image005For the third time in recent years, Abbott Laboratories graciously hosted a Dallas SWE professional meeting. The evening November 19 started off with the opportunity to network and to enjoy a light meal. Then a panel of 4 top leaders at Abbott Laboratories shared career advice, including their career paths, seeking out challenges, professional milestones, and mentoring.

Ross Hynek, Senior Director Systems R & D, is the veteran at Abbott, having joined in 1986. However, Abbott is a large enough company that he had the opportunity to transition to a new role almost every 2 years. He recommended making a shift every few years, with the more dramatic the shift, the greater the growth one will experience.

Dr. Sanchali Deb, Principal Engineer in the Reliability Investigation team, provided advice that resonated with younger professionals. She related her experience of being a relatively new hire made the lead of a flagship product, one with a project in trouble and the previous team replaced. She found her age and ability being questioned; instead of reacting, she chose just to do her job to silence the questions. End of story: the product received a Presidential Award.

Cedric Marionneaux, Systems Development leader for Abbott Diagnostic Division, brought a wealth of experiences to Abbott, including military service, the defense sector and entrepreneurial endeavors.  Cedric encouraged the audience to feed their passion and to be a Continuous Learner. He is always looking for his next challenge. If he is not given one, he seeks one out.

Michaelene Sprague also had a distinguished career prior to becoming an Engineering Manager for Abbott Diagnostic Division in Dallas. When questioned about challenges, she said that she is always looking for improvement opportunities and relayed a case of reducing the number of tool sets used across different groups. One of her professional milestones took a good idea and saw it through development to become a program of record.

Thanks to the four panelists for sharing their career insights and inspiring us.

Dallas SWE President Barbara Read shared several announcements with the group assembled, including the December 15 meeting to be hosted by Lennox and the upcoming Region C conference in February 2016.

Capping the evening was a tour of the Abbott Laboratories.

Thanks to Abbott Diagnostics Division, Dallas and Alexa Wilde, Sarah Dewees, and Neha Dobhal (members of the Dallas ‘Women Engineers’ employee resource group) for their sponsorship and continued support of Dallas SWE.

Event Recap: Nov 2015 Design Your World – STEM Conference for Girls

DYWlogoWe had another great Design Your World – STEM Conference for Girls on November 14, 2015 at Southern Methodist University. Thank you to our 80 volunteers from Dallas SWE, SMU SWE, State Farm, and Abbott: without your support we would not be able to put this event on! A special thanks also to our corporate sponsors for this event: Exxon Mobil (Platinum), State Farm and Abbott (Gold), and Capital One (Silver).

For photos and our reflections on the event, check out our Event Recap post on the Design Your World website.

Save the date for our next DYW conference April 2, 2016 at the University of North Texas! Stay tuned for details!

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Jennifer Vilbig tells attendees about her construction site safety gear at our Engineering Fashion Show!

 

Event Recap: SWE Lunch & Learn at Lennox

2015 11 06 Lennox Dallas SWE
Zaineb Ahmand, Dallas SWE VP of Membership, talks about her experiences in SWE to Lennox employees.

On November 6, Dallas SWE held a SWE Lunch and Learn at Lennox International’s engineering facility in Carrollton! We had a good group, SWE members spread out and helped field questions from our new members. Questions and conversations included:

  • What is the time commitment involved in volunteering for leadership positions? Short answer: as much time as you’re willing to put into it!
  • What goes on at Young Member Brunches? Networking, making new friends, enjoying casual engineering conversations and tasty food.
  • Why did you get involved in SWE? Seasoned members enjoy networking/social, outreach, and leadership opportunities in SWE. New members signed up to get involved in these various capacities depending on their current career and personal needs!
  • What goes into the application and selection process for regional and national awards? This varies per award, but generally awards include a weighted evaluation of technical, SWE, and community leadership accomplishments. Everyone likes to be recognized for their hard work: SWE awards are one way to do so!

We are so pleased about our new partnership with Lennox and anticipate many of their employees joining us at our upcoming events, especially the Holiday Social Lennox will sponsor on December 15! Their enthusiasm is contagious!

November 19 Professional Dev Meeting and Tour – Abbott Laboratories

Join us this month for an industry tour and panel talk at Abbott Laboratories in Irving!

image005When: Thursday, November 19 , 6:00pm – 8:00pm
Where: Abbott Laboratories, 1921 Hurd Dr, Irving, TX 75038
Please use the entrance off Power Ct and check in with Security (bring your ID!)
Cost: FREE thanks to our sponsors at Abbott Laboratories. There will be a meal and raffle prize drawing.
Please let us know you’ll be attending!
Eventbrite - November Professional Development Meeting - Hosted by Abbott Laboratories

 Panelist Profiles

Cedric MarionneauxCedric Marionneaux is an intrapreneur, innovator and technologist with a rich background in product development and engineering. His passion lies at the intersection of technology and business focusing on answering the question- Can technology transform lives? Cedric has over 15 years of experience in the design and development of integrated and federated systems. Currently, he is a System Development leader for Abbott Diagnostic Division (ADD) developing the next generation of Clinical
Chemistry and Immunoassay medical devices. Prior to joining ADD, Cedric held various leadership roles in the Aerospace and Defense industry focusing on communication, avionics and radar systems. He was the co-founder of Unbridled Innovations, a composite development firm specializing in lightweight, state of the art parts for military research and other structural applications, before they were acquired by Phyletic Systems. Cedric is a veteran who was honorably discharged from the
US Army after 8 years of service in the 2nd Battalion (Airborne), 377th Field Artillery Regiment. He has a B.S. / M.S. in Electrical Engineering, M.S. in System Engineering from Southern Methodist University and MBA from Massachusetts Institute of Technology.


Sanchali DebDr. Sanchali Deb is a Principal Engineer in the Reliability Investigation team at Abbott Diagnostics and her primary focus has been to investigate and discover solutions for the critical errors in the ICQ system. She says that it is a “Research driven role which is the perfect blend of cross functional responsibility and keeps her motivated to succeed”. Before Abbott, she has worked for Fortune companies like Ingersoll Rand and also startups like ConferEdge. At Ingersoll Rand she was a Design Hardware lead where she led many Home Automation projects.

Dr. Deb was awarded with a PhD in Electrical Engineering from UT Arlington in 2011. She holds a patent for inventing the first Wireless Gastric Stimulator, which she presented in her dissertation. She has published more than 8 Journal papers and has multiple conference proceedings. Her ground breaking research was awarded the UT President’s highest award for two consecutive years – 2010 and 2011 and has been published in many local newspapers and magazines. She earned her Bachelor’s degree in Electrical Engg from North Bengal University (India) where she graduated top of her class and secured the Gold Medal. She completed her Masters in Control Systems Engineering from Jadavpur University (India). She is an avid globetrotter, passionate wild life photographer, painter and loves to ride her motorcycle.


Ross HynekRoss Hynek, Sr. Director Systems R&D, joined Abbott in 1986 as a member of the Engineering Professional Development Program. The majority of his career has been focused on product development and operations, developing immunoassay and chemistry analyzers in a number of varying capacities. After joining the Vascular division, in 2011, Ross created the Abbott Vascular Innovation Center, launched numerous Vascular products and then moved into a new role as the Sr. Site Director for the newly acquired AV Webster, TX facility. Recently, Ross returned to ADD and is now responsible for the ICQ instrument development. Ross earned his degree in Electrical Engineering from Northwestern University and quickly accepted an offer to work at Abbott in Lake County. Ross is currently based in Irving, TX.


Michaelene SpragueMichaelene Sprague is an Engineering Manager for Abbott Diagnostics Division (ADD), where she manages a team of Electrical and Mechanical Engineers. She has 30+ years of experience in Engineering and Engineering Management in Aerospace/Defense, Telecom, Automotive and Commercial Industries. Prior to joining ADD, Michaelene was the Director of Design Engineering for the U.S. subsidiary of a multinational defense company headquartered in Haifa, Israel; in this role she often led design efforts with team members in multiple countries. Michaelene has presented numerous papers at SPIE Conferences in Europe, and she currently has a patent pending for a “Light Pipe Detector Sensor” (provisional filed in 2013). She is also the Co-Owner of Advanced Photon Applications LLC, a company providing optical consulting and design services. She has an Engineering degree from Texas Tech University.

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