On Saturday, October 14, the Membership Committee hosted our first social brunch at Ascension Coffee in downtown Dallas. The group consisted of both of old and new faces shared coffee and conversation. We had a great time discussing the upcoming WE17 conference in Austin and the Design Your World: STEM Conference for Girls. If you missed this event, check out our other upcoming professional development and social events on our website calendar!
News & Events
Member of the Month: Zaineb Ahmad
With our Member of the Month program, Dallas SWE seeks to recognize some of our non-officer members whose technical contributions, leadership accomplishments, or SWE volunteer service are particularly noteworthy. If you would like to nominate a Dallas SWE member for his/her contributions, please email us.
October’s Member of the Month is Zaineb Ahmad. This is especially timely since today marks a full year since she started our Member of the Month program as our FY17 VP of Membership! Thanks for your dedicated service to Dallas SWE, Zaineb!
Zaineb started her career with a passion for STEM and the will to positively impact the world around her. Though originally on a path towards medicine, she found her true calling in engineering, exploring the worlds of biomedical, mechanical, and finally, software. She currently holds a Business Analyst position in the Healthcare IT industry. She has a bachelor of science in general science and a bachelor of science in biomedical engineering, from Birmingham-Southern College and Washington University in St. Louis, respectively, as well as a master of science in mechanical engineering, with a focus in biomechanics, from UAB.
Zaineb currently resides in Dallas, Texas, where she remains dedicated to engineering excellence. She is actively involved in the Society of Women Engineers (SWE) and is engaged in the community. She often participates as a panelist and/or mentor, advocating engineering as a profession to young girls and women, explaining the diversity within engineering fields, and providing a positive role model. She tutors and mentors numerous female high school and college students interested in or working towards STEM degrees. As a professional member of SWE, she serves on several committees at the section, region, and society levels. Most recently, she served as Dallas SWE Vice President of Membership in FY16-17. She actively participates in Design Your World, a STEM conference 
for girls, where she has designed and led a biomedical engineering bone-fracture activity, coordinated a mechanical engineering activity involving racing rollercoasters, organized the engineering fashion show, and participated in the parent/educator panels. She was recognized by Dallas SWE as Distinguished New Engineer for FY16 and was honored as one of 45 Engineers Making a Difference by the UAB School of Engineering for the school’s 45th anniversary.
“I joined SWE as a way to engage with the engineering community, network, and enhance my professional skills. SWE more than met those expectations, while fostering a new passion for STEM outreach. The unexpected benefits are the amazing, lifelong friends I made, from my first collegiate meeting to the lovely ladies of Dallas SWE. SWE is a network, a support system, and a community.”
Event Recap: Ten80 STEM Innovation Experience
Ten80 Education is a national leader in developing and deploying STEM curriculum to institutions serving K-12 students. On September 26, Ten80 held a workshop at the Plano Convention Center for over 1000 local high school students to encourage their interests in STEM careers. Through relationships with NASCAR and the Army, Ten80 has incorporated robotic racing cars into a science and math curriculum allowing students to build and race cars across the country in the Ten80 Racing Challenge. In addition to learning about building and programming their race car, the students were able to learn how to program apps and drones and to experience real-life applications of STEM concepts and careers. Dallas SWE member, Lynn Mortensen, represented SWE on a career panel where she highlighted the success women have in STEM careers and encouraged the female students to join SWENext. The students competed in several competitions throughout the day. A summary of the day can be found in the Rowlett Lakeshore Times here: “Schools around the Dallas area participate in Ten80 Racing Challenge”Design Your World Volunteers Needed!
Dallas SWE is a not-for-profit all-volunteer organization: we need YOUR help to make our next Design Your World STEM Conference a success! Step up and inspire students to foster their interest in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics!
We need volunteers to prepare materials before the day of the event, process registration, run activities with the students and adults, and help guide attendees to where they need to be! A big part of this event is interacting with students as engineers and as role models. If you want to help make Design Your World happen, click below to register as a volunteer for our next event, scheduled for November 11, 2017 at UTD!
FREE lunch is included for ALL volunteers! You have three registration options:
- Receive a free t-shirt from a previous year’s conference,
- Help us offset costs by buying a new t-shirt for this event.
- If you can’t be with us on Nov 11, be a “virtual volunteer” and submit a donation!
Thank you for your support of Design Your World: STEM Conference for Girls. We look forward to a great event this fall!
October 17 Professional Development Meeting with Melerick Mitchell
Please join us at our October Professional Development meeting with guest speaker Melerick Mitchell on the topic of Career Ownership!
When: Tuesday, October 17, 2017 5:30 – 7:30pm
Where: Fernando’s Mexican Cuisine at Cityline
1250 State St #100, Richardson, TX 75082
Cost: FREE for SWE Members, $5 for non-members and guests. Food will be available for purchase by the individual. Check out Fernando’s menu here.
Melerick H. Mitchell is a Talent Development Expert, Speaker, Coach, and Author. A recognized technology leader called to function as a talent development architect, Melerick is known for crafting the requisite vision to achieve business goals. Corporate trainer and talent development architect, Melerick offers a unique blend of executive coach experience, global team building, along with IT solution development, and he is credited with a strong engineering and systems analyst background.
October 14 Social Brunch
Are 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? Join us for brunch as we network and socialize over some great food! Friends or partners are welcome!
When: Saturday, October 14, 2017
Where: Ascension Coffee, Thanksgiving Tower location. The restaurant is located at 1601 Elm Street #120, Dallas, TX 75201 (downtown Dallas). There is free parking at Thanksgiving Tower, Enter building from Elm or California.
Cost: FREE! Food is available for purchase by the individual. Check out the menu here: https://ascensiondallas.com/menu/
Please RSVP by October 12 so we can have an accurate head count.