The Society of Women Engineers (SWE) National Conference is the biggest career conference and development event of its kind and this year brought together over 3,000 engineering professionals, students and corporate representatives, with 10 Olin students among them. The three-day conference in Long Beach, California began on October 15th. There were several different tracks of conference sessions including Outreach, Professional Development, Career and Life Transitions, Innovation in Technology and Business, and Career Enhancement. At the Outreach Exposition, we made several valuable contacts with students and professionals from all over the country and received advice that will help us improve Olin’s outreach programs. We were also able to meet up with past Olin SWE members including Kelsey, Leslie, Charlene (our SWE Founder!!!), Amy, and Meena. It was a wonderful opportunity to speak with Olin alumni; they were all happy to give advice and share their experiences. Olin SWE and Olin SWE members were also recognized with several awards. Rebecca Leung and Lexi Tsoi won first place in the “Defining Success Competition” with their video, now posted on YouTube (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ONa_wHDN3rE). Meghan Murray and the rest of the Region F SME Bowl team won third place winning $1,000 for the region. Olin SWE was recognized at Celebrate SWE awards ceremony receiving first place for Best Collegiate Website, the Silver Level Outstanding Collegiate Section Award, and the Membership Recruitment Program Award for small collegiate sections.

On Saturday, September 26, Junior Mikey Lintz and Sophomores Hannah Sarver and Rebecca Belisle hosted a booth for Science Club For Girl's Reverse Science Fair at Wellesley College. Over the course of the two hour event, 30 students ranging from first grade to seventh grade rotated through different booths. At the Olin table, students learned about density and how it related to oil and water not mixing.

On September 16, Dorie Clark, President of Clark Strategic Communications, came to Olin and gave an interactive presentation on "Overcoming Geek-Speak: Effective Communications for Engineers." Dorie’s visit was a wonderful success! The student attendees found her presentation energetic, personalized, and engaging and the content of her talk useful and interesting. One student commented, "I like how she addressed all of our questions and provided especially relevant information." Olin SWE looks forward to hosting future speakers as entertaining as Dorie!

This February, Olin SWE launched its Women in Innovation lecture series. Our first speaker was Dr. Sophie Vandebroek, the Chief Technology Officer of Xerox Corporation. Dr. Vandebroek spoke on Innovation Leadership addressing specific issues innovators face in the technology industry and offering suggestions on how to overcome them. After the lecture, she spent lunch in a more interactive discussion with students and faculty. Olin SWE hopes to host other inspiring women speakers in the future.