WE17 Newsletter

November 2017

SPECIAL WE17 CONFERENCE EDITION UpcomingEvents November

28

Mentorship Event

BE BIG. BE BOLD. BE AN ENGINEER. By: Kaleigh Smith

Lorraine Bolsinger, Vice President of GE Corporate Leadership Acceleration Program

kicked off the WE17 conference as the opening keynote with this topic: BE BIG. BE BOLD. BE AN ENGINEER. She opened up with a funny analogy relating to a popular movie. When ET sees a kid dressed up as R2D2 for Halloween, he says “Home!”

December Lorraine then explained she felt the same way when she saw a room full of women engineers, leading into her talking about the lack of women engineers in the world.

HSED Lorraine served as a mentor to many women engineers and was concerned (and

Holiday Party sometimes frustrated) that they would feel they are underqualified, or an imposter. So, she went on to talk about how women need to realize and utilize their unique abilities, giving three pieces of advice.

The piece of advice was “Jump In”. She shared a personal story where she took on a large engineering project with many challenges including no engineers dedicated to the project. With only the hubris of a rookie, she took in information from all of the older engineers and learned everything she needed to know. Her first shot at a solution produced inaccurate results, but got the project started, and they ended up closing the deal just one year later. She said she did nothing that anyone else could not do, that they just need to raise their hand and jump in.

The next piece of advice was “network” and realize that everyone around you is a potential mentor. Draw strength from the confidence they place in you because they want you to succeed.

Finally, “think big” and set high standards. When the company fell behind to their competitor, she led a team to refresh an entire line of products.

Don’t stick to the lines on the page.

In closing, Lorraine urged to never stop learning, set the bar high, and bring your team with you. Her words set off the conference on an inspiring note.

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DESKERCISIZING? JUST AS N.E.A.T AS IT SOUNDS! By: Lauren Czernick

Currently, we are active college students used to walking up and down the various hills in Oakland to get to class.

However, once we receive a full-time job, we will be faced with the problem of sitting at a desk all day five days a week, without a schedule that makes us run from Benedum to Clapp Hall in 10 minutes. In this lightening round session, Michelle Sikarskie gave tips to reach our activity goal for the day and stay active even with a stationary desk or lab job.

All of the tips given during the session strive to increase our N.E.A.T. (non-exercise activity thermogenesis) which is the energy expended by your daily activities. Some of the tips include making excuses to get moving, rethinking your office routine, and using technology like a fitness tracker as a motivator. When talking about making excuses to get moving, Michelle suggested having a smaller water bottle to make you walk to the water fountain more frequently, take the long-way trip to the bathroom, make multiple trips to the printer, and talk face-to-face instead of by email. When talking about rethinking your office routine, she mentioned having a standing desk or implementing deskercises like seated calf raises, leg raises, toe taps, or ab swivels. Finally, she talked about how having a Fitbit has influenced her to get moving.

Many benefits are seen by people who are active throughout the day and these tips can help increase our N.E.A.T. even if we have a stationary desk or lab job in the future. However, even though we walk all over campus, we as students already spend many hours at a desk. I challenge you to incorporate some of these deskercises while you are studying, doing homework, or sitting in class.

A PIECE OF PIE

By: Jacqueline Welsh

{GREEN} BUILDING THE FUTURE

By: Kelsey Prem

It’s a common misconception that only civil and environmental engineers

contribute to the designing of sustainable/ green buildings, however the women of Integral Group shed a different light on the subject. All 4 women that shared their career path didn’t start out in engineering, but have found their home in designing green buildings. From electrical engineers to urban planners, there are many different aspects of green building that are more than the physical building. The Integral Group focuses on two main types of building, designing a building from scratch and refitting existing buildings with new technologies. The goal of The Integral Group is to design buildings that run at Net 0 energy. This means that the buildings output of energy is directly counterbalanced by the energy it is able to create through use of green energy systems such as solar panels and rainwater collection. The talk however was not just about green buildings and The Integral Group, but finding your path in life and doing what you love. All the speakers shared their untraditional paths to the engineering field, and the only reason they made it there was because they followed their passions and didn’t let anything hold them back.

While attending WE17, I sat in on the lightning talk A Piece of PIE-authentically define your position within an organization.

The focus of this talk was the importance of creating your personal brand at work using three components, Performance, Image, and Exposure. Performance is how you deliver results in your position, giving every assignment your all to get ahead. Image is how you carry yourself in the work place, are you professional, are you approachable, are you a leader. Finally, exposure is about how you take on every new opportunity and every new connection in your career. Each of components are crucial to your own success and bringing your entire self to work. At every point in your career you need to be aware of your own image and how you interact with people, and how you can use this to your advantage. Although you might think of yourself in one way, you could be projecting something completely different.

This is important as a young professional because I am just learning how to work in these new environments and how to start off on the right foot in my career.

By: Sarah Bednar

ADVOCATING FOR INCLUSION: A MALE’S PERSPECTIVE

As part of this panel, we got to hear from senior engineering managers and business leaders on their personal journeys on

becoming advocates for women and inclusion in their organization. In all honesty, the attendance of males in the audience was rather disappointing; however, I was eager to hear how male allies felt about being part of this conference and the measures executives were taking to support us. The vice president of Intel made a comment how typically men get involved in advocating for women for two reasons: either they have their own daughter(s) or they have this compassionate personality to them. Topics like salary gap between genders were brought up, and we were reminded to make sure we asked for that bonus or negotiate higher from our side, while they would ensure there was no discrimination from their side and that they are usually willing to comply with our requests if asked. In the Q&A portion, attendees were able to pose questions. One interesting question that was posed was on how to handle male peers in their college years who are not quite aware of the sexist comments or ideals they may be promoting. The foremost response was that we should approach them in a nonattacking demeanor and try to get at least one of them to understand and then support us within the bigger group. Overall, this was an interesting session that I believed could have been very beneficial for the male attendees in the conference. As a minority demographic in our major, we need male allies to be supportive, recognize their privilege, and be mentors in encouraging us to reach our fullest potentials.

INVENT IT. BUILD IT. By: Heather Amper

While at the conference, I volunteered at the outreach

event Invent It. Build It. (IIBI). IIBI is an event where elementary, middle, and high school girls are invited to come to the conference to experience how fun engineering can be. There was an EXPO where companies displayed engineering demonstrations that taught technical concepts in an engaging way. After that, the girls tried the engineering design process on their own, designing and building solutions to engineering problems. I served as a Roving Role Model at IIBI where I showed my own demonstration to girls as they entered the event. My demonstration correlated with my engineering discipline, environmental engineering. I created a gravity sand filter in a water bottle out of two sand layers and a gravel layer. I poured dirty water into the filter and explained how the filtration process works.

By the time I was done explaining, clean water came trickling out of the bottom. The girls and their parents were shocked that filter media as simple as sand and gravel could filter out suspended solids from water. I was proud to be part of an experience that educated girls and excited them to pursue engineering.

THE CITY OF AUSTIN By: Veronica Radin

I’ve been to New York City plenty of times, but I personally think

that Austin should be the new “City that Never Sleeps.” From festivals like Austin City Limits (ACL) to South By Southwest (SXSW) to the countless number of fun streets like 6th Street (Dirty 6th), South Congress (SoCo) and Rainey street, there is always something happening in Austin. The famous streets have everything from comedy clubs to karaoke bars, and almost every venue has live music, which is one of my personal favorite things about Austin. While we were there, the girls from Pitt SWE tried to experience everything we could in the short time we had to explore.

The first day there, the group checked out Barton Springs Pool, a recreational swimming pool that is filled entirely with water from nearby natural springs. In the summer, when it gets to be above 100 ºF, the cool springs are the perfect way to cool off. It was a little too cold to swim this time of year, but at least some good pictures came from it! That night, the girls headed to see the South Congress Bridge Bats. Every night throughout the summer, bats emerge from under the bridge to find food, but for humans, it turns into a sunset show. Seeing a giant flock of bats flying out from under a bridge looks almost fake, especially if it’s a night with a pretty sunset.

This weekend was particularly cool because it was the Day of the Dead Festival (even though the actual holiday didn’t begin until the following Tuesday. We accidentally stumbled upon the festivities, which included a parade down 6th Street, arts & crafts, live music and a ton of vendors. Seeing the whole city coming together with such spirit was so refreshing, not to mention really cool to experience first-hand!

There’s also a park called Hope Outdoor Gallery, better known as Graffiti Park. It’s basically giant slabs of concrete that graffiti artists can legally decorate. Every time you go back it looks very different because artists paint over each other almost every day, so the whole park is constantly changing. You can even climb up to the top of the structure to overlook the city!

As far as food goes, there is a lot of barbeque, which is undoubtedly the best barbeque you can get. Some of us also took a stop at Home Slice, one of Austin’s most well-known pizza places. Definitely a must-have (in addition to barbeque) if you ever go to Austin. Another fun restaurant is Magnolia’s Cafe, which has very unique meals like gingerbread pancakes and acorn squash; it’s a very hipster place to go, and worth checking out!

Moral of the story: Austin is an up and coming city full of young people who love living there just as much as you would love visiting!

HOW TO OBTAIN AN INTERNSHIP AS A FRESHMAN OR SOPHOMORE By: Sophia Rebarchak

WE17 was an exciting, informative experience for me. There were copious amounts of sessions of a wide range of topics,

other than engineering. I ended up in an interesting session called “How to Obtain an Internship as a Freshman or Sophomore.” Although right now I am not looking for an internship, I thought it would be helpful to start figuring out what kinds of things I need to do to prepare for when I am ready. The presenters were flexible as they answered questions throughout the presentation to make sure that they were covering information prevalent to us. The topics covered were all the fundamentals anyone would want to do to obtain a job. Some of the topics were basics of an elevator pitch, how to introduce yourself to an interviewer, and how to sell yourself both in person and on a resume. The presentation was super informative, and I am glad I went. It was comforting to know that other people had the same questions I did. Now when it is time for me to start a job search I’ll know what to do.

By: Joy Huang

WE17 CAREER FAIR

There is really no other feeling quite like stepping into a WE17 Career

Fair, the world’s largest career fair for women engineers. With some of the biggest engineering and technology companies in attendance looking specifically to hire young and talented women, it was exhilarating to say the least to feel so supported and valued in fields that are still heavily dominated by men. Each interaction that I had with company representatives was so genuine and encouraging as they took the time to get to know my personal and professional goals.

They were very open about their own experiences as females in engineering and excited to share their advice about entering and rising up in their companies. I met such a diverse group of women from all walks of life who each had unique perspectives to share about embarking on a career in engineering. But despite all their differences, they all had one sentiment in common: that women are wanted and valued in the STEM fields. By the end of the Career Fair, not only had I discovered many opportunities for myself after graduation but I had also made many connections to women all over the country that believe in me and my female peers to make lasting impacts as professionals in the STEM fields.

I HAVE A JOB, WHY AM I STILL POOR?

Money Matters as You Transition From Collegiate to Professional Life By: Sydney Winner

At first I felt a little silly sitting down in the room for the session, as I don’t have a job yet and I’m probably as poor as any

college kid. Despite that I sat down because it’s never too soon to start learning about financial well-being. This was just one of many personal development events at WE17, the conference topics being centered around all sorts of development. The seminar was packed to the brim with engineers trying to figure out how to be financially responsible. The presenter did not anticipate the demand of the program and even had to run to get a mike in order for everyone to be able to hear. Then the session started. The program went through topics like how many allowances should you claim on your tax form, what do all the different health insurance plans mean, and how to keep a detailed budget. The program was perfect for a young professional and I made sure to take notes for when I get a job.

CAREERS IN BIOTECH By: Farah Khan

The Careers in Biotech panel was hosted by a student at

CELEBRATE SWE By: Laura Traczynski

To end the eventful weekend, WE17 closed with

the awards ceremony, Celebrate SWE! Hundreds of conference attendees came together for dinner to recognize the society’s accomplishments in the past year. Mary Petryszyn, Sector Vice President at Northrop Grumman Mission Systems, was the keynote speaker of the event. She shared her thoughts on viewing our lives as the sum of our personal experiences, circumstances, and valuable lessons learned along the way. This encouraging speech was followed by the awards ceremony. Pitt SWE was recognized with two awards! We received the Gold Award for preforming as one of the top collegiate sections in the society, and we also received the Professional Development Award for our success with events geared toward networking and professional growth. This wonderful result would not have been possible without the work of our passionate SWE members! As WE17 came to a close, the final message was clear: we are always connecting, always engineering.

University of Texas at Austin.The purpose of this panel was to examine the different roles of an engineer within the biotechnology and pharmaceutical space, learn about what it means to work at a company that manufactures these kinds of products and understand what it takes to bring a drug to a patient. With the inception of new technologies in molecular biology, clinical trialing and the logistics of packaging and shipping, the possibilities are endless. On this panel were four professional female engineers working at a Biotech company: a development engineer at Genentech, a quality assurance engineer at Genentech, Jessica Rannow who was the FY17 president of SWE, and Pearl Yamaguchi, a clinical sales representative at Medtronic who also served as the FY17 secretary of SWE. The panel opened up with the question of “What are the most important skills that you needed to learn to succeed in your role?” The quality assurance engineer responded simply with “Problem-Solving.” “When you study engineering, you learn how to think about the way a problem is resolved,” she asserted. “It’s the process of problem-solving, the creativity that is required to do this kind of a job that has made me successful. In my role, I have to make sure our products are up to par with the standards set by the FDA, and sometimes, this is challenging and I’m met with many obstacles to overcome.” As the questions continued, I was able to gather some key advice from these female leaders like to never reject new opportunities and to pay attention to the direction the industry is taking.

One of the strongest lessons I took away from this panel was one of the responses to, “What was the biggest challenge that you came across going into your career?” Pearl’s hand shot up: “Asserting myself. I’m a very small person, and I have a very soft voice. When I first started in the industry, I realized that I spent a lot of meetings sitting quietly, shy. I wasn’t contributing. One day, I realized that this was going to get me nowhere -- so I forced myself to be assertive. To speak loudly and clearly and project my presence at a meeting.”