The Future of Code is a non-profit organization launched by high school students to inspire young students in the STEM field through hackathons, or coding events. Our first Hackathon will be completely free to all middle school students! It will be held on April 24th through virtual platforms (Zoom and Discord) due to COVID-19. We are in need of judges to judge submissions for the hackathon, and SWE members can volunteer to judge submissions- providing young students interested in STEM with some feedback on their project via a Google Form asynchronously. SWE members that participate as judges would be featured on our Instagram (@thefutureofcode) and Website.
All prospective judges have to do is attend one of our judge training sessions (either by watching a short Youtube video or attending live, information will be sent after you sign up), and use your experience in any STEM field (computer science, engineering, math, etc.) to judge the submissions of our participants for just half an hour at the end of the Hackathon. The judge registration form can be found here.
For further questions, please don’t hesitate to reach us through thefutureofcode@gmail.com or visit our website!
Join Dallas SWE as we celebrate our local collegiate graduates from the Class of 2021! This will be a virtual event over Zoom on May 1, 2021 from 2-3:30 PM. We will be using this as a networking time and open Q&A for our collegiates to connect with our Dallas SWE members, congratulate them on their achievement and celebrate with some prizes!
RSVP below or on Eventbrite to join us by April 30! All are welcome to participate in this!
The Dallas SWE FY21 Nominating Committee is pleased to present the following slate of candidates for your consideration to serve during FY22 (July 1, 2021-June 30, 2022). Ballots will be distributed to members electronically on May 1st and voting will conclude 30 days thereafter.
President – Amanda Alsbrook
Executive Vice President – Amber Kreceman
Vice President of Membership – Claire Jordan
Vice President of Outreach – Lori Wilts
Treasurer – Katie Mills
Secretary – Samantha Zellner
Investment Committee Member (3-year term) – Liong So
Investment Committee Member (3-year term) – Pam Duffy
Per the Dallas SWE Section Agreement with the Society, as amended in FY21, additional candidates may be nominated by petition, provided that:
The member is eligible for the position;
The member has given written consent to being placed on the ballet;
A minimum of two percent or five of the voting members of the section, whichever is greater, have signed a petition or endorsed an email to place the candidate’s name on the ballot and
The petition, together with the written consent, is submitted to the chair of the nominating committee by April 30 or fifteen days after the slate is announced to the members of the section, whichever is later.
Dallas SWE paid membership as of April 14 is 262, so the petition endorsement minimum is 5 members. Please send any nominations by petition with the required endorsements and consent of the candidate to the FY21 Nominating Committee Chair, Zaineb Ahmad, at zgahmad@gmail.com by April 30th.
A group of Early Career Professionals are coming together to develop a new SWE affinity group (AG). The AG is focused to serve individuals in the first 10 years of their career. Interested in joining us? Complete the form to receive email updates on the ECP AG application process.
I challenge you to share this form with at least one person who might benefit from this group!
If you’re interested in getting more involved, join the conversation here.
Email Amber Kreceman (AG co-lead), alkreceman@gmail.com if you have any direct questions. Thank you!
On April 24th from 2-4pm, Dallas SWE will be conducting our next virtual book club meeting! We will be reading “Never Split the Difference” by Chris Voss. This book focuses on negotiation. We will be reading this negotiation playbook to learn the principles perfected by Voss’s career as a hostage negotiator. Let’s see how to apply these concepts to benefit our careers and everyday interactions. Event details will be sent out prior to the event. All SWE members are welcome to participate!
Congratulations to Dallas SWE’s April Member of the Month: Laura Skola!
Laura is an engineering director for Collins Aerospace and has dedicated 15 years to Collins so far. Laura is also a mother of 2 and her husband J. R. also works for Collins.
She is from the small village of Cobden, in southern Illinois. She knew early in her life that engineering was for her. She attended the University of Missouri-Rolla (now called Missouri Science and Technology) on athletic and academic scholarships where she studied aerospace engineering and played softball.
Sports have been an integral part of Laura her whole life. It wasn’t just the game that mattered, it was extremely important because it made her tough (through hard work), made her coachable (you can never be perfect, but you can strive to improve) and most importantly it taught her about teamwork & leadership. Think about somebody being in a slump, are you going to help them out of that slump to win as a team? Or are you just looking to be the MVP?”
After her sophomore year, Laura began her career with Rockwell Collins as a co-op. She completed several student employee sessions with Collins and ended up transferring to the University of Iowa to complete a Mechanical Engineering bachelor’s degree.
Laura spent 11 years in Cedar Rapids, Iowa working in a division of Rockwell Collins called Airborne Solutions where she worked on primary flight display application software and platform systems engineering. The experiences gained through playing sports enabled her to be a committed and dedicated team-player at Collins and quickly provided opportunities for project leadership roles.
Laura found herself passionate about helping those around her and was drawn to engineering management which was the perfect blend of working on extremely important products and lifting up those around her to help them succeed.
Laura was asked to take an expatriate position at Rockwell Collins to work overseas in Toulouse, France where she led an engineering team for 2 years.
In 2018 Laura Skola moved to Richardson, Texas as a director in Integrated Mission Solutions Engineering, in Collins Aerospace, Mission Systems. The organization she leads is responsible for establishing the engineering vision, pursuing new business and executing the programs within the Integrated Strategic Solutions portfolio. Laura is on the Collins Software Discipline Steering committee which establishes and runs discipline-focused initiatives across the organization and sites. She co-chairs a company-wide software-centric community of practice which shares best practices, new technology advancements and raises awareness of the breadth of software products developed at Collins Aerospace. Laura is involved with Employee Resource Groups (ERGs) as the Enterprise Vice Chair for the Generations ERG and the Richardson Pride site sponsorship. Laura volunteers with “Introduce a Girl to Engineering Day” and is an advocate for other women across Collins as a mentor, peer and leader.
“To me, SWE is like a big organizational mom. It wraps its welcoming arms around women and says, ‘Come join us! We are in this together and WE are strong!’”
— Laura Skola
“SWE has surrounded me with so many amazing women who have supported me through the toughest moments of my life. I will forever be grateful for their encouragement. It is because of SWE that I have learned to be kind to myself and never give up.”
