Join Dallas SWE as we help college students prepare for the engineering workforce! Sign up to volunteer as a resume reviewer where you will offer resume guidance to small groups of students looking for tips on improving their resumes for internships and full-time jobs.
Volunteers must have a college degree in an engineering field. The event will take place at UTD from 6:15 – 7:30pm on Thursday, April 18th. Volunteer registration closes Friday, April 12th.
On March 2nd, 2024 Dallas SWE Hosted their Annual Design Your World STEM Conference. This year, Dallas SWE partnered with the Vickery Meadows Youth Development Foundation to share STEM insights with the surrounding community! Design Your World provides students with a day full of hands-on activities and college preparation guidance as they learn from professional engineers.
Dallas SWE is deeply grateful to the Vickery Meadow Youth Development Foundation (VMYDF) and thanks Dhara Lad, College Success Manager at VMYDF, for her stellar partnership in planning and executing this community STEM event.
Over 30 volunteers from Dallas SWE shared their passion for science and math as they engaged with students throughout the day. Students learned how classroom science and math concepts connect to real life as they built cars, flotation devices, and prosthetic limbs. Thank you to our exceptional volunteers for facilitating this learning and ensuring students left the event feeling empowered!
The day began with an engineering 101 presentation from Cyonna Holmes, Dallas SWE Vice President of Outreach, where students learned about the concepts they would explore throughout the day. Students then learned about biomedical engineering as they built mock prosthetic limbs and then tested their ability to move, bear weight and provide comfort. Product and mechanical engineering concepts were used as students built flotation devices and then tested them in tubs of water to ensure that they floated. Lastly, students built cars that could withstand various terrain challenges as they learned about mechanical and automotive engineering. Thank you to Domanique Johnson, Danielle Henry, Meena Nagappan and Robyn Broniewski for serving as activity leads.
During lunch, students had the opportunity to learn about preparing for college and also had the opportunity to partake in a Robot Demonstration from Technicbots. Thank you to Dana Emswiler, Meena Nagappan, and Cyonna Holmes for serving as panelists and to Kimberley Reid for serving as moderator for the College 101 Panel.
Students shared enthusiastic praise for the event saying:
“Can I come back next weekend and do this again?”
“I learned that engineering takes a lot of teamwork. It was fun to work with others and create things together”
Overall, DYW 2024 was a success thanks to amazing Dallas SWE Volunteers, enthusiastic students, Dallas SWE Sponsors (Qorvo, Collins Aersospace, Pepsico, HEB, Analog Devices, and Dave & Lynn Mortensen) and awesome partnership from VMYDF!
If you would like to sponsor Design Your World or partner with Dallas SWE, please reach out to dallas.swe@gmail.com.
For Dallas SWE’s January Outreach Event, we partnered with The Boys and Girls Club Richardson and engineers at PepsiCo to learn about mechanical engineering! BGC students stepped into the shoes of PepsiCo engineers to build their own chip sorters that mimicked what PepsiCo Engineers build to separate chips and other foods for bagging and selling. Thank you to PepsiCo for the engaging activity and thanks to the volunteers!
On Feb 3, Dallas SWE met with the Coppell HS SWE Group to share their engineering journey with students! Students listened to college and STEM insights from panelists Jenny Franklin, Dana Emswiler, Latischa Hanson, Savitha Pinnepalli, and Lyndsey Bouve. Many thanks to outreach committee member, Dana Emswiler, for leading the planning and execution of this event!
Congratulations to Patricia Stamatoyannakis, Dallas SWE’s March Member of the Month!
Patricia Stamatoyannakis, P.E. has worked over a decade in the energy midstream sector as a chemical engineer. Her experience includes both process and project engineering roles for business expansion and operational improvement projects. Friendships made with women have played a pivotal role in her development and growth, supporting her with a sense of community and kinship throughout the seasons of her life. Patricia was fortunate enough to have several intelligent women in her chemical engineering school that helped sustain her throughout her studies with continued friendships to today. Her involvement in SWE at the collegiate level included travel to a national conference in Los Angeles and her current involvement in book club which combines her passion for books and talking is something she looks forward to every month.
Patricia began her career in 2012 with DCP Midstream in Houston, Texas. At DCP Midstream, Patricia worked with operations to ensure that the Texas Railroad Commission and OSHA standards were met for propane refrigeration and compression maintenance through necessary modifications. She participated as a technical resource for several plant turnarounds and as the project manager for capital midstream projects.
Once hired on at Freese and Nichols in 2013, Patricia expanded her technical experience with process simulation, sizing calculations, and developing company standards. Her technical roles with midstream clients included engineering design, engineering drawings, and equipment procurement for projects. These numerous projects included compressor stations, meter stations, pipelines, and gas processing plants for the midstream sector.
In 2015, while developing their company piping standards, Patricia was hired on as a Facilities Engineer for Medallion Midstream in Irving, Texas. Wearing multiple hats, Patricia was the lead project manager, project engineer, process engineer, and operations engineer for a large natural gas system in the Delaware Basin. She installed a gathering system from wellsite to transmission lines and completed a 120 MMSCFD cryogenic plant. Plant inlet volumes were sources via numerous field compressor stations with dehydration and amine plants.
Patricia joined Aethon Energy in 2019 to build their midstream portfolio in the Haynesville Shale, as she managed their largest amine and dehydration plant installation to date. Due to their size, Patricia oversaw regulatory Process Safety Management & OSHA requirements. Patricia was also involved as a project manager in Aethon Energy’s pipeline division, and worked with the U.S. Army Corp of Engineers to permit 3 Red River crossings, purchase over 30 miles of pipeline right-of-way, and install several pipeline projects.
Patricia now works as Consultant for Pearson Adair & Co., an Oil and Gas Industry consulting firm that provides technical and economic advice to clients in the energy sector seeking to evaluate and resolve issues that are industry specific. Her experience with design, construction, and operations provides technical and economic expertise to evaluate matters for litigation support, due diligence, arbitration, construction disputes, and royalty disputes. Please find her on Linkedin to connect, or come attend a book club!
The Professional Development Committee is excited to provide more details for our upcoming Professional Development Day on March 23, 2024! SWE member only registration is open now! Non-SWE members are able to register starting March 11th and can submit their interest via this form.
Professional Headshots: Put your best face forward! Take advantage of the opportunity to update your professional headshot.
Panel Discussion on:
Managing Up: Learn the art of effective communication with your superiors.
Giving/Receiving Difficult Feedback: Master the art of constructive conversations.
Listen & Learn: Speaker Michele Rodgers will teach us how to “Build Your Brand!”
Lightning Talks: Our members have insights to share! Our event will end with back to back talks on a variety of topics!
Plus Lunch and Giveaways!
SWE-Dallas Professional Development Day
Agenda
10:00AM – 10:30AM – Welcome
10:15AM – 11:15AM – Professional Headshots & Networking
11:15AM – 12:00PM – Panel Discussion – Managing Up & Giving/Receiving Difficult Feedback
12:00PM – 12:30PM – Lunch
12:30PM – 1:15PM – Speaker – Michele Rodgers “Build Your Brand”
1:15PM – 1:30PM – Break/Raffle
1:30PM – 2:30PM – Lightning Talks
Please register so that we can have a headcount for headshots, lunch, and receive dietary restrictions.
We look forward to seeing everyone there!
