Three SWE members from Olin helped out at a Girls, Inc. program on May 11, volunteering to assist the established partner program with activities for their group of girls at their regular meeting. On this day, the girls were learning about user-oriented design. They were put in pairs and took turns describing to their partners how they wanted their handbag designed. The girls skethced out handbags and then were provided cloth, glue, sparkles, and other materials with which to construct the handbags.

A second activity involved learning about different engineering careers. Each girl was given a card with a brief description of an engineering occupation such as mechanical engineer. The girls each read their cards out loud so that everyone could hear the description. They talked about the different careers and what types of interesting projects each engineer might work on.

For the past few months, Olin SWE has been involved in running an afterschool program for the Needham School district. Each class focused on a different area of science or engineering, including electrostatics, chemistry, energy, and design. The class was comprised of 18 girls in 3rd-5th grades and was split between short discussions and activities designed by the SWE volunteers. This outreach opportunity was designed to offer a higher level of involvement in pedagogy for SWE members, as well as fill a curriculum gap identified by local educators. Five Olin SWE members were continually involved in this project, which received enthusiastic responses from the community.

We continued to expand our Women in Innovation Lecture Series by inviting Lilia Gutnik, a Program Manager (PM) at Microsoft, to Olin. We encouraged SWE members from other universities to attend as well. Lilia was an engaging speaker telling students about the interesting technical puzzles and interpersonal challenges she gets to solve every day, how she became a PM, and “why working in technology is the best way to get everything you want.”

On April 6th, Olin SWE cohosted a networking event with the Babson Association of Women MBAs (BAWMBA) with a panel discussion on the future of music, a topic has both technological and business aspects. Students heard from Paul Lamere, director of the application developer community for The Echo Nest, Susan (Sooz) Kaup, “connector of humans and awesomeness", Robert Ruffin - Babson MBA student, Director in Radio, and Berkeley College of Music Musician - and Don Andes, previous Director of Archives at EMI Music.

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As part of their application process, Olin College holds Candidates' Weekend where both the candidates and the college gets to see if they are the right match for each other. SWE did its part to encourage more female applicants to come to Olin to pursue engineering. As in past years, SWE hosted the Open House, which is when the candidates get to see what dorm life is like at Olin. Olin's SWE also co-hosted SWEet diversity with Open, Olin's LGBT club, where we made cookies for the Candidates and encouraged them to ask any questions they may have about diversity at Olin. During the club fair, SWE held an activity where candidates could come and make earrings out of electrical parts, like capacitors and resistors.

Last summer, SWE launched a Defining Success competition for both collegiates and professionals. Entries included essays, poems, posters, and videos. Rebecca Leung and Lexi Tsoi entered a video of Rebecca learning to master the unicycle where Lexi, as a good friend, helps Rebecca reach her goals.

Our very own Rebecca Leung was featured on page 48 of the Spring 2010 issue of SWE Magazine for her and Lexi Tsoi’s submission in the Defining Success Competition. They won 1st Place!

Check out the SWE magazine article here!

Watch Rebecca and Lexi's video here!

Olin SWE held a SWE Scholarship Application Party on January 26th. The Scholarship Party was an information session for the annual SWE scholarship, for eligibility requirements, and for discussion of the various components of an application needed to be put together. We discussed the various aspects of the scholarship, the teacher recommendations that were needed, and the importance of planning ahead for the pieces of it to come together. It was a good meeting in the sense that it helped some of the girls realize that they can gain a significant source of funding from this scholarship.

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.

As part of Olin's Women in Innovation Lecture Series, Anna Dietrich, Terrafugia's Chief Operating Officer (COO) and Co-Founder, came to give a presentation at Olin on October 9. Terrafugia is the company responsible for making the Transition® Roadable Aircrafts - airplanes that can fold up into cars and are legal to drive on the streets! Many students came to the event and enjoyed learning both about Dietrich's work and the company itself.

On Saturday, September 26, Junior Mikey Lintz and Freshmen Hannah Sarver and Rebecca Belisle hosted a booth for Newton Science Club for Girl's (SCFG) 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. The goal of each exhibit was to allow students to interact with the demonstrations and experiments at their own level to discover the science behind how things work. For the event, Olin SWE volunteers designed their own interactive demonstration to teach students about density. T