SWE has their Officer Transition in December/January so we are hereby officially opening up a call for nominations. Feel free to nominate anyone (male/female) who you think would be a good officer for SWE (including yourself!). You do not have to have been involved with SWE to run for an officer position.

The following positions are up for grabs:
President
Vice-President
Secretary/Communications Officer
Treasurer

The list doesn’t end there! If you are interested in getting involved in SWE, this is a great time to step up. We would love to add additional officer positions, we just need the people to fill them! For example, this past year we had an Outreach Committee and Fundraising Coordinator. The new board will appoint people to any new positions that they feel necessary – so voice your interest now!

In the spring, Olin SWE presented a successful bid to host the 2008 Regional Conference at Olin, which will take place on April 12th and 13th, 2008. Between two and three-hundred people are expected to register for the conference, which includes speakers, a career fair of approximately 40 companies,and sessions on leadership, engineering, technology, and outreach, among others. The theme is “Moving On Up”, which relates to advancement in careers and life. We are very excited to be a part of this conference and are already well into the planning process. The co-chairs of the Regional Confer

UPDATE: The Design It! Conference has been postponed until spring. Stay tuned for updates regarding the new date.

On November 30, 2007, Olin SWE will host a daylong conference, Design It! for high school 11th and 12th graders, introducing them to design engineering. This program
will serve to increase awareness and introduce high school students in the Boston area
to User Oriented Design and Sustainable Design, two specializations in engineering that are not often targeted to young students. After completion of the conference, students will be able to understand the principles of design engineering and apply these principles to cases such as product development and sustainable redesign. In addition, participants in the conference will get to see and experience successful Olin female and male engineering students' passion for design and engineering.

This year, ten Olin students will be attending the National SWE Conference in Nashville, TN from October 25th to October 27th. This will be a great opportunity to network with other SWE sections and the 250 companies at the career fair, attend workshops to improve our section, as well as celebrate our achievements so far. Three of our members are going to be recognized including Bryn Hollen and Carmelle Tsai, finalists for the Collegiate Technical Poster Competition, as well as Casey Canfield, recipient of the Freshman/Sophomore Collegiate Member Award.

Important Upcoming Events:

• August 5th, 2007 - Women's Open House
• August 30th, 2007 - First Day of Classes
• October 25-27th, 2007 - SWE National Conference
• April 12-13th, 2008 - SWE Region F Conference at Olin College

More details to come once the school year begins. View the calendar in a new window here

Olin SWE is excited to begin our Company Information Sessions where we will help plan and advertise sessions for Olin students to meet with visiting companies. The purpose of these sessions will be to allow companies to recruit students for both internships and full time jobs.

Not only will these sessions allow companies to tap into the talent in the Olin SWE section but the entire student body.

If you are interested in participating in these events, please contact swe@olin.edu. We look forward to working with you!

This is the first feature in a series of profiles of Olin Alumni. This month we feature Sara Schwalbenberg (’06), who is in Portland, Oregon working as a Mechanical Engineer for ESI (Electro Scientific Industries, Inc.)

What do you do on a daily basis?

I manage several subsystems for a new machine we are transitioning from the Engineering group to Manufacturing group. 'So what do these machines do?' Well...Lots of circuit boards (good example: ones used in cell phones) use MLCCs (multilayer ceramic capacitors). Companies all over the world, many in Asia, make these in very large volumes - and they're tiny! So, to sell these at the best prices, the manufacturers need to know how good these capacitors are: how far away they are from the nominal capacitance value. The machine I work on allows the customer to pour thousands of these tiny sand like chips into a funnel, and then various electrical tests are preformed on each one. Based on the results, the chips are sorted into different bins.

On March 7, 2007, SWE hosted the first annual SWE Alumni Social Event. This was an opportunity for alumni to catch up with current students, faculty, and staff, and gave the new students a chance to meet the alumni who shaped the school. This event was a great success, with over 10 alumni and around 40 students and faculty/staff. Conversation was encouraged around the themes of what can be done with an engineering degree, what influence gender balance has on current work or student life, and what the alumni wish they knew a year ago. A presentation with quotes from alumni who could not make the event, as well as statistics about women in engineering, provided a backdrop to the event. As one alumni said, “It was a fun, casual way to share our experiences and meet the new students.” Thanks to everyone who helped make this event a success!

Olin has a unique admissions process in which approximately 160 candidates for admission to Olin are invited to the college for a weekend, called Candidate’s Weekend. During Candidate’s Weekend, the candidates have a chance to meet Olin students and other prospective students and learn about Olin, and are interviewed as part of the admissions process. This weekend is an integral part in most students’ decision to attend Olin, as it provides an opportunity to see what life at Olin is like. Last year, the Olin Chapter of SWE created, planned and organizes a new event for the weekend: a Reception for the prospective students held in the dorms. When I came to Candidate’s Weekend, the SWE Reception was one of my favorite parts of the weekend. I was able to meet students, learn about their lives, and see what the dorms were like. This year, I had the opportunity to plan and organize the Reception. We tried to show the candidates what Olin was really like by inviting students to open up the doors to their rooms, making posters with information students felt was important about Olin, and, most importantly, facilitating candidates meeting as many students as possible. Many Olin students, enthusiastic about the event, were involved. The East Wing of the Second Floor decorated their hallway for the candidates, and many students donated their dining dollars so that we could order pizza for the candidates.