News & Events

FY15 Planning Meeting Recap

by Dallas SWE on in Meetings

On August 9, Dallas SWE Leadership met to transition responsibilities from our FY14 team to the incoming FY15 team, as well as getting feedback from members who joined us in the afternoon session.  We discussed a lot of topics and SWE business items, but here are some highlights from our meeting!

  • Feedback from the FY14 Membership Survey was very useful.  THANK YOU to those of you who took the time to give your feedback!  If you haven’t made your voice heard, the survey is still open so do it today!
  • In general, suvey respondants reflected positively on the FY14 events they attended.  For FY15 our goal is to have a mix of Professional Development, Networking, and Technical Tour meetings for you to enjoy.
  • Several members remarked that they have never been a part of a more diverse SWE group than our Dallas section.  That’s a fantastic observation and something we are really proud of!
  • We get a lot of requests from local grade schools and colleges for representatives of Dallas SWE to visit classrooms or small groups so young ladies can meet and be inspired by a woman engineer.  Keep your eyes peeled for opportunities for you to get involved in our community this year and make a difference in a girl’s life!
  • Our Outreach Committee is feverishly working on the next Design Your World: STEM Conference for Girls which will take place in the fall.  Stay tuned for updates on that!
  • Our FY15 has a lot of great ideas for new membership recruitment and retention activities.  We really value our members and want to make sure you know it.

Our next Professional Development meeting is tentatively scheduled for Tuesday, September 19.  We will have more details on speaker information and location in the coming weeks.

Thanks again to our volunteer leadership team!  If you are interested in being a member or chair of one of our Committees, please view our Committee Descriptions and fill out our Call for Interest Form online!

Dallas SWE Wants Your Input!

by Dallas SWE on in Announcements

Come join Dallas SWE as we plan for FY15. If you want to have an impact on the direction of our organization, you have three opportunities to give Dallas SWE leadership your feedback and be involved in the planning for FY15. Please plan to participate today and consider joining us for the planning portion of our officer transition meeting!

FY15 Planning Session

The first part of this meeting will be for outgoing FY14 officers to transition their knowledge and experiences to incoming FY15 officers.  In the afternoon, we will welcome all interested members to visit with our new Dallas SWE officers and let us know what you’d like to see from Dallas SWE in FY15!

When: Saturday, August 9
Officer Transition Session: 10:30am-1:30pm
FY15 Planning Session: 1:30pm
Where:  10132 Monroe Drive, Dallas, Texas 75229
Cost: FREE!
Please RSVP for the FY15 Planning Session today!

 

FY14 Membership Survey

Dallas SWE Leadership would like to know what you think about the past year. Follow the link and give us your feedback about FY14. It will help us during the August 9 session in planning for FY15. Please fill out the Dallas SWE FY14 Membership Survey whether or not you will attend the August 9 planning session.

Become a Committee Chair

If you are interested in improving your leadership skills, Dallas SWE has plenty of opportunities for you!  View our Committee Descriptions and fill out our Call for Interest Form online TODAY!

Become a Dallas SWE Committee Chair!

by Dallas SWE on in Announcements

Dallas SWE is an all-volunteer organization: we need your help to plan the best professional development events, reach out to our local communities, and be engaged with collegiate members in our geographic area.  One of the ways you can get involved and improve your leadership skills is by becoming a Dallas SWE Committee Chair!  We have all the resources you need to succeed in these positions.

Check out our Committee Descriptions, then fill out our  Call for Interest Survey online!  We look forward to hearing from you by Friday, August 1!!

Event Recap: Capital One Corporate Spotlight Event

by Dallas SWE on in Meetings

Tonight was our annual Corporate Spotlight Event sponsored by Capital One!  We met at Jasper’s in Plano for an evening of networking, tasty refreshments, and insights from our special guest speaker, Celie Niehaus.  She shared with the 30 attendees her experiences in Capital One’s Compliance department, how she’s become a strong female leader in that organization, and how important it is to her that Capital One values her individual contributions towards their goal of making baking better.

Great group at our 2014 Capital One Corporate Spotlight Event! Guest Speaker: Celie Niehaus
Great group at our 2014 Capital One Corporate Spotlight Event! Guest Speaker: Celie Niehaus

Celie focused especially on how important individual performance is, whether you’re a man or woman, no matter what role you find yourself filling in an organization.   She emphasized how crucial it is for recruitment teams to speak openly about the benefits of diversity programs and invest time and resources into encouraging engineers to make the most of their unique thought processes even if they are not currently in “traditional” engineering roles.  She was also adamant that women bring the same skills and abilities to the table as men do, if we will only resist hesitation, take on new opportunities as they present themselves, and excel in the face of those challenges.

Her experience at Capital One has been one of inclusion, personal connections, and opportunities for achievement.  There were several representatives from her team in attendance, and guests were invited to sign up to Capital One’s job notification system for positions in their fields of interest.  Capital One has been a strong supporter of Dallas SWE the past two years and has contributed financially to our outreach series, Design Your World: STEM Conference for Girls.  If you are interested in the career opportunities available at Capital One, visit their job website here.

Dallas SWE President for FY15, Barbara Read
Dallas SWE President for FY15, Barbara Read

After the Capital One program, Dallas SWE President for FY15 Barbara Read went through the SWE portion of the agenda, announcing upcoming events and important information about Region C and SWE HQ conferences.  You can view the agenda here:  July 15, 2014 Meeting Agenda.

Of special note is our call for interest to Committee Chair positions.  You can view a list of committee descriptions here.  If you are interested in any position, please email us or fill out our Call for Interest Survey to let us know.  Dallas SWE is an all-volunteer-run organization and we need your help to make FY15 a success!

Collin College Robotics Camp: July 2014

by Dallas SWE on in Outreach

Recently, Dallas SWE helped Collin College charter a new SWE section on their campus.  This summer, the Engineering Department at Collin has enabled the Collin College SWE section to sponsor a robotics camp this summer for girls. This camp will provide a unique opportunity to spend three fun filled days on our college campus experiencing an event that will stimulate the girls’ minds and unleash their creativity!  They will also have female engineers from across the Metroplex as our lunch time guest speakers during the camp.

Event Flyer 

Who: Girls who have completed grades 6-10.
When:  July 15th-17th from 9:00 a.m. – 3:30 p.m.
Cost: Total cost is $89 which includes lunch each of the 3 days.
Space is limited, so please register early.

Event Recap: Design Your World – STEM Conference for Girls

by Dallas SWE on in Outreach, Special Events

DYWlogoTo close out FY14, here is a review of our March 2014 Design Your World event, written by Dallas SWE Vice President of Outreach Dr. Nandika D’Souza!

Design Your World-STEM Conference for 6-12th grade girls at the University of North Texas Discovery Park was an outstanding success. Supported completely by volunteers, the second DYW event in FY14 continued the partnership between professional organizations and student sections to form a single leadership framework. Ninety girls from 6-8th grade and 30 girls from 9-12th grade from around the Dallas/Fort Worth area participated in the conference.

Design Your World attendees
Design Your World: STEM Conference for Girls attendees

The event started with a keynote address by Nancy Shugart, author of Prove Them Wrong, who inspired parents, volunteers and girls to never let the challenges of life affect their personal goals.  The girls were sent off by an enthusiastic group of SWE members who donned a range of working clothes to exemplify the range of careers and environments that engineers get to choose to work in. 100 volunteers supported the efforts representative of companies such as AT&T, Raytheon, Halliburton and students from UNT chapters of ASME, SHPE, NSBE, IEEE, Construction Technology, Association of Computer Machinery (Women) –ACM-W.

Photo Credit: @bianca_avila26 (Twitter)
Photo Credit: @bianca_avila26 (Twitter)

The girls then participated in their choice of 3 of 7 activities offered. The engineering and career activity choices that girls could choose from were:

  • Renewable Energy Activity (Solar Car)
  • Mechanical Engineering (Rube-Goldberg team design)
  • Electrical Engineering (Robots)
  • Computer Science (Alice Debugging)
  • Materials Science (strength to weight considerations for fuel efficient cars)
  • Construction Engineering Technology (house construction)
  • Forensic Science (technologies and tools for solving crimes)

 

A parallel parent and educator session was attended by 39 adults. The Parent Panel featured tools for parents and teachers to encourage their daughters and female students to consider engineering as a potential career option.  First, Dave Whitmire (Raytheon), Cherrie Fisher (AT&T), and Edna Patino (Lockheed) spoke about how their parents had inspired them to be all that they could be and shared advice they had received during times when they faced academic or personal challenges. A second panel comprised of Amber Scheurer (Texas Instruments), Neha Dobhal (Abbott Laboratories),  Jennifer Vilbig (Vilbig & Associates Engineering), and Britney Caldwell (The Brandt Companies) gave anecdotes as recent graduates about their experiences as engineers in the workplace. Parents toured the University of North Texas engineering campus and remarked that after the panel, they had a real world idea on what they needed to do to encourage their daughters.

Parent and Educator tour of UNT engineering facilities.
Parent and Educator tour of UNT engineering facilities.

The evaluations by the girls and the parents after the conference underscored the importance of the event with very positive comments and acknowledgements on the impact the experience had on their career choices.  Student attendees valued learning what engineers do, increasing their confidence in building and designing things, learning how to use the design process to solve problems, and that the event was just for girls.  According to parents, the most important goals that were met by attending the conference were  introducing their daughter to an engineer and educating themselves on what it takes to become an engineer.

Thank you to our sponsors for this Design Your World event, Capital One and Raytheon!

Below you will find links to photos and videos from the event.  Enjoy, and stay tuned to the Design Your World website for updates on future DYW events!

Models in the Design Your World Fashion Show!
Models from Dallas SWE in the Design Your World EngineerFashion Show!
Page 124 of 138
1 … 122 123 124 125 126 … 138