PittSWE Newsletter - November 2014

VOLUME 5

ISSUE NO.2

PITT SWE

NOVEMBER, 2014

THE UNIVERSITY OF PITTSBURGH, SOCIETY OF WOMEN ENGINEERS

High School Engineering Day

By Abigail Kulhanek On November 7, SWE hosted High School Engineering Day. 50 high school students were invited to Pitt to participate in engineering activities and see what an engineering major consists of. The day started off with breakfast and an overview of the schedule for that day. A keynote s p e a ke r f r o m G e n e r a l E l e c t r i c Transportation, Cheryle Wilson, fo l l o w e d b r e a k f a s t . O n c e M r s .

Wilson’s presentation was over, students either participated in an engineering activity or class shadowing. The activity challenged students’ critical thinking skills by asking them to develop and build a package for a s’more. Building this package could not exceed a cost of 50 cents, and the package needed to withstand a drop test – dropping the package from about six feet, a water test – dumping a full cup of water over the package without getting the

s’more wet, and a heat test – applying heat from a hair dryer allowing the s’more to melt inside. The group with the lowest cost and the package that measured up to SWE’s tests the best won a prize. While some students participated in the engineering activity other students sat in on the following classes: Material Structure and Properties, Organic Chemistry, Differential Equations, and Linear Algebra. After the activity and class shadowing, students received lunch.

While students were eating, Jorden Dent from the Career Office talked to them about Pitt and engineering at Pitt. After her talk, students took the “What Types of Engineering Should I Look Into” quiz. A female panel of students, professors, and professionals were then brought in to

answer questions from the high school students. After the Q&A panel, students participated in lab tours. The labs that the students visited were the Human Movement and Balance lab, the Additive Manufacturing lab, and the Visualization and Image Analysis lab. A special thanks to Dr. To and Dr. Chmielus for sponsoring and leading the AM tour respectively. The day ended with a Jeopardy game about the different engineering disciplines and a survey asking the students what they liked and disliked about the day. The students seemed to have fun through everything and had only good things to say about the activities they were a part of that day. Overall the day was full of fun and learning for the high school students.

Highlights: In this Issue

ALL ABOUT GENERAL ELECTRIC MIDDLE SCHOOL ENGINEERING DAY NEXT MONTH’S EVENTS RIDDLE

NETWORKING EVENT WITH CMU SWE AND PROFESSIONAL SWE OFFICER OF THE MONTH

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All About General Electric

By Dhanu Thiyagarajan

NEXT MONTH Holiday Party: 12/2 Five Guys Fundraiser: 12/3 5-8pm Etiquette Dinner: 12/5 Enjoy your winter break!

If you get the answer to the riddle go to the SWE office to claim a cool prize!

RIDDLE There is a basket full of hats. 3 of them are white and 2 of them are black.

There are 3 men Tom, Tim, and Jim. They each take a hat out of the basket and put it on their heads without seeing the hat they selected or the hats the other men selected. The men arrange themselves so Tom can see Tim and Jim's hats, Tim can see Jim's hat, and Jim can't see anyone's hat.

Tom is asked what color his hat is and he says he doesn't know.

Tim is asked the same question, and he also doesn't know.

Finally, Jim is asked the question, and he does know.

What color is his hat?

General Electric (GE) Transportation visited SWE on November 6, 2014 for a company information session and networking event.

The event went really well with over 40 attendees and five company representatives from different aspects of the GE Transportation business from one of their main sites in Erie, PA. Everybody also enjoyed Noodles and Co. catering along with some cute cupcakes. The first 45 minutes were spent learning about the GE Company, its individual businesses and more specifically about GE Transportation. This further continued into learning about the various job opportunities that they offer starting from their Early Identification Program (EID) for college students which lead into leadership training programs as full-time jobs. The event continued with break-out sessions with the various representatives for networking. This was a great opportunity for those who were looking for internships, co-ops and full-time jobs as the representatives were actively recruiting for their leadership programs. The various leadership programs are Communications Leadership Development Program (CLDP), Commercial Leadership Program (CLP), Edison Engineering Development Program (EEDP), Financial Management Program (FMP), Information Technology Leadership Program (ITLP), Operations Management Leadership Program (OMLP) and Software Leadership Program (SLP). More information into the various leadership prog rams can be found by searching ge.com/”program acronym”. I interned with GE Healthcare last summer (and will be again this coming summer) and it was one of my best experiences! Additionally, I was able to interview for a full-time position at the end of the summer which was a great opportunity!

Please contact pittswe@gmail.com if you are interested in more information on GE as we have information packets that we can give you or if you want to talk with me regarding my experience and your possibility of a career with GE!

Middle School Engineering day

By Rachel Dunn

Pi# SWE held our annual Middle School Engineering Day on November 22nd, 2014. We had four groups of 6th, 7th, and 8th graders a#end sessions about the different concentraHons of engineering where they learned about the daily tasks of engineers and completed fun acHviHes centered around each discipline. In the Civil Engineering session, the students built bridges from tooth picks and marshmallows and competed to see which bridge held the most weight. The students then went to the Industrial Engineering presentaHon where they used an assembly line to create booklets about engineering. In the Chemical Engineering session, the students created magneHc slime and tested the slime’s properHes with a magnet. Finally, in the mechanical engineering session, the students built rollercoasters out of a piece of piping and competed for the b e s t r o l l e r c o a s t e r b a s e d o n i t s capabiliHes and compleHon. Mine Safety Appliances held a presentaHon for the parents while their children a#ended these sessions; when they finished the presentaHon, they joined the mechanical engineering sessions to help the students build their rollercoasters and show them some of MSA’s products. This was a great program that helped many students learn why engineers are so vital to every day life.

Networking Event

AT CMU

By Brooke Arnold Pitt SWE teamed up with CMU to put on a networking event with members of professional SWE. It was a lovely event that was relaxed enough to let t h e s t u d e n t s ge t t o k n o w t h e members of professional SWE at their table. Each table at the event had one or two professional SWE members and the rest were students, either from Pitt or CMU. The event started off with lunch from Panera and some initial networking.

Next the presentation on networking begun.

The presenter Michele Eidam was lively and spoke about how to network effectively without either party feeling like the meeting was forced or fake. She gave plenty of advice including, finding something in common with the person you are talking to and trying not to start off the conversation with what you would like from them or what they can do for you. Also never just shrug off a conversation with someone who may not be immediately helpful to you, because you never know what

you may need in the future. When at a networking event be sure to meet new people although it may be tempting to stay in your comfort zone and talk to people you already know.

Next we were instructed to write down a current goal and a network we have that can help us with that goal. We presented our goals and got

advice from our table on how they think we should go about reaching our goals and if anyone at the table could specifically help us reach them.

Overall the event was very fun and a rewarding experience that will help everyone who attended network more effectively.

OFFICER OF THE MONTH: BECKY GLUCKSMAN Class: Becky was chosen because she showed how hard she was willing to work for Middle School Engineering Day as the co-chair of the event.

Becky’s favorite part of SWE is that it offers a strong sense of community

Junior

Major: Civil Engineering Position: Corporate Re

lations

Interests and Clubs: Bridges to prosperity, Ta Toastmasters

u Beta Pi,

and support from fellow female engineers.

Thank you!