Spring 2021 Newsletter

SPRING 2021

The spring semester brought a lot of fun, engaging and meaningful events for Pitt SWE. Remote learning didn't stop us from developing innovative programs, like a new spin on high school outreach through a virtual design challenge, and a chance to form closer connections with faculty through our Professor Perspectives meetups. A recurring theme throughout the semester was self care - from relaxing social events, to an Engineering Wellness workshop with Dr. Sanchez, SWE members were reminded that to best care for others, we must first care for ourselves. Despite the challenges of a virtual school year, the Pitt SWE community continued to be creative, engaged and a strong source of support.

HAVE A WONDERFUL SUMMER AND WE WILL SEE YOU IN FALL 2021!

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Social Events

by Annie Goodwin With the previous virtual semester behind us, this semester we sprung forward with some exciting social events! Kicking off the semester with a more active event, our first social was a virtual "Zoomba" (Zumba) taught by a fellow Pitt student. Zumba is an exercise fitness program that incorporates Latin and World rhythms combined with some great dances moves! For our second social of the semester, we gave everyone a break from Zoom and decided to distribute bags containing snacks, facemasks, journals, and more! At our third

Mentorship Program

by Melina Hudson This spring has allowed for the Pitt SWE Mentorship Program to continue to help foster wonderful relationships between first-year or transfer students and their upperclassmen mentors! Early in the semester, we held an event that facilitated conversations around helping the first-years decide on their majors.

We also held a movie watch-party of the Queen of Katwe and got motivated by the story of female empowerment! Lastly, we held a virtual escape room that was held through the National Aquarium. Some mentorship pairs even got to meet up safely in person! It has been a tough year, but we are proud of how our mentors have offered support for their mentees, SWE Squads have been there for each other, and mentees have inspired the upperclassmen!

and final social of the year, we celebrated with a relaxing game night focusing on trivia and playing Pictionary. With this semester coming to an end, I just want to say how grateful I am for the opportunity I was given to serve as Pitt SWE's 2020-2021 Social Chair. I would also like to congratulate and welcome our newly elected social chair, Saipriya Namasivayam! We can't wait to see what you have in store for next year!!

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Advocacy & External Relations

by Emma Ahlgren This spring, SWE collaborated with three other student organizations for some inspiring, engaging and educational events. We first hosted a panel on undergraduate research opportunities with SASE, the Society of Asian Scientists and Engineers. Attendees had the chance to hear from Dr. Sossena Wood, a Pitt alum and current postdoctoral fellow at CMU, as she reflected on her professional journey and the opportunities that her undergraduate research provided. Next, we worked with NSBE, the National Society of Black Engineers, to host a coding workshop led by Dr. Lamperski from the IE department. Members boosted their resumes and explored valuable technical skills as we learned introductory Python techniques and how to apply them to big data analysis. Finally, SWE collaborated with the Computer Science Club for a Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Workshop led by the SSOE Office of Diversity and the Associate Dean for Diverse Affairs, Dr. Wosu. Throughout the event, we discussed how to develop cultural competence and deal with bias to establish an environment that is authentic, accepting and supportive for everyone.

Professor Perspectives

by Rachel Blum This semester, SWE started a new speaker series entitled Professor Perspectives. Each month we invited a different professor from the Swanson School of Engineering to talk about their experiences and research with students. Dr. Gilbertson (CEE) kicked off the series by talking about career changes and work-life balance. Next Dr. Vidic (IE) discussed why she loves teaching and her path to Pittsburgh. Finally, Dr. Robertson (MEMS) ended the series by passing on the lessons she learned about working as a woman in engineering. This series also gave members insight to different research topics around the university such as cerebral aneurysms and sustainable materials. SWE members asked many insightful questions and learned a lot.

We hope to continue this series in future semesters and hear from more of the great professors at the University of Pittsburgh.

Spring 2021

PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT

by Dana Emswiler, Isabella Steinley, and Katie Harris

FiERCE Forum Pitt SWE hosted the first-ever FiERCE [Females in Engineering Reaching Career Empowerment] Forum on February 6th, 2021. A virtual spin-off of the Women in STEM Conference, our signature professional development event featured lightning talks and workshops in the following tracks: Finding Your Voice, Innovating Up, Evolving Education, Revitalize+Refresh, Collaborative Communication, and Elevating Your Network. The morning began with a welcome presentation which included exclusive Zoom backgrounds, event hashtags, and speed networking and discussion questions in breakout sessions. After many engaging sessions, we ended the morning event together with an empowering panel discussion. Participants and speakers of all career and educational levels left the event with new connections and fierce energy to motivate them to achieve their professional and personal goals.

FiERCE Participant Quote: "I loved this!! I networked with so many women -- both outside of and from Pitt-- and ended FiERCE Forum feeling confident and inspired by the speakers, my peers, and the future!"

Special shoutout to the dynamic FiERCE Team comprised of Dana Emswiler, Rachel Blum, Vidhya Thiyagarajan, Victoria Michalenko, Amanda Martin, Nicole Jackson, Kayla Trahey, Hallie Maytin, Saipriya Namasivayam, and Alex Hascall.

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Avient (formerly known as PolyOne) is a global provider of specialized polymer materials and services.

They have accepted the challenge of solving the world’s most complex material science problems and continue to work towards finding the best solutions. Avient’s commitment to sustainability, through creating specialized and sustainable materials, has led them to produce ground-breaking products to create a better world. They have made a promise to make sustainable partnerships and innovations that prioritize people and the planet. Avient shared their mission with Pitt SWE members on February 2nd, 2021 in a private professional development event titled “Sustainability in the Plastics Industry”. Avient’s commitment as a 2021 Engagement Sponsor allowed them to connect with our members during this sustainability focused event. They provided insight to members on the positives and negatives of plastics and sustainability as well as a deeper dive into sustainability at Avient. They also provided a breakdown of leadership development opportunities available to our members in a variety of areas in the company.

Range Resources is a petroleum and natural gas exploration and production company. Their core values include performance, innovation, integrity, and transparency. The company is a leading natural gas producer and the pioneer of the Marcellus Shale. Range Resources is proud of its long legacy of delivering energy solutions and value to their partners and shareholders. As an Outreach Sponsor, Range Resources representatives volunteered at and supported Pitt SWE’s outreach events to help teach kids about engineering as a career through fantastic STEM activities.

Langan is an Engagement Sponsor for 2021 and has been a recurring sponsor for several years.

Langan is a company that provides an integrated mix of engineering and environmental consulting services in support of land development projects, corporate real estate portfolios, and the energy industry. Their clients include developers, property owners, public agencies, corporations, institutions, and energy companies around the world. Langan has done projects in 80 countries and has been in business for 50 years.

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IQ Inc. engineers custom software solutions in Pittsburgh and specializes in mobile, web, and embedded software and testing. IQ Inc. has applied experience in Medical Devices, Energy, Transportation, Healthcare, Manufacturing, and more. IQ Inc. was an Outreach sponsor this year. They continued their support of Pitt SWE’s coding workshop for middle school girls, SWE++, and the culminating full day event focused on coding and its applications, Code Day. Many company representatives including their President and Founder, Barbara VanKirk, have volunteered their time to help young girls learn about engineering as a career and start developing essential coding skills.

Pitt SWE is excited to partner with MonPower, a FirstEnergy Company for the first time in 2021. As an Engagement Sponsor, we were happy to recognize this organization at SWE Celebration! One of their members also spoke at the FiERCE Forum in the Elevating Your Network panel. This power company helps its customers save energy and money. FirstEnergy assists the community through volunteerism, STEM grants, and philanthropy with United Way and Harvest for Hunger.

Elliott Group designs, manufactures, and services critical turbomachinery. They serve customers worldwide with innovative engineering and reliable products. Elliott is committed to satisfying their customers by providing high-value solutions to meet customer needs. Elliott Group served as an Outreach Sponsor for the 2020-2021 academic year and has been a recurring sponsor of Pitt SWE for many years. Their commitment to their customers translated over to their interest in assisting with outreach events. Outreach events were hosted in the fall and spring semesters for children grades K12. Elliott Group was given the opportunity to volunteer at these events alongside Pitt SWE members.

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OUTSTANDING OUTREACH E3

by Emily Grugan Similar to last semester, the spring Elementary Engineering Extravaganza featured a website with five video tutorials for engineering-related projects. We thought the Willy Wonka theme was pretty "sweet"! In addition, we were able to collaborate with Pitt's ASCE and SASE chapters to provide an "expo" for the students. For the parents, we were able to have a great discussion about encouraging elementary students to pursue STEM fields and getting them involved in problem solving activities! I want to thank my co-chairs, Dalia Fantini, Isabelle Heintz, Merrin Pickford, and Gabby Wassel, for all their help this year and congratulate Merrin on becoming the new E3 chair!

SWEtastic STEM Challenge

by Vidhya Thiyagarajan The SWEtastic STEM Challenge, a brand-new outreach program for PittSWE, took place during the month of March. Through this program, 12 teams of high school boys and girls from the Pittsburgh area participated in a virtual design challenge where they were tasked with solving one of three design challenges, creating a digital poster to communicate their idea and presenting their solution in front of a panel of judges with the help of two college mentors. In addition to the poster challenge, Mary Zeis, a Pitt Alum, and Jill Harvey, the director of First Year Engineering, did a presentation on engineering as a career choice and the first-year engineering curriculum. A huge thank you to Sarai Morato, Patty Curtis, Ekaterini Papazekos and Hannah Zucco for being such amazing cochairs throughout this inaugural program!

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GEMS

by Vincenzia Vargo Pitt SWE held our annual Girls Engineering in Middle School Day on Saturday, February 27th! We had over 70 students and parents in attendance making our event a success. We kicked off the event with EXPO’s from other Pitt Engineering organizations. The middle school students really enjoyed learning and were inspired by our Pitt engineers! The middle school students further learned about the engineering field through various at-home, hands-on activities. The first activity was “Let’s Build a Cell Phone Stand”. The students had the opportunity to learn about mechanical engineering and the process of designing and building a cell phone stand! The next activity was “Seismic Shakeup”. During this activity, the students learned how to design a structure that can survive an earthquake! I am proud that the middle school students were engaged in the activities and learned about the engineering field in our new virtual format. Thank you to everyone who helped make GEMS a success for the students! We look forward to seeing you at future Pitt SWE Outreach events!