On December 8, SWE hosted a birthday study break for the previous SWE advisor Oscar Mur-Miranda, where he told stories about his life and diversity. We provided cake, Pinkberry frozen yogurt, and cheese and crackers.

On November 10, SWE hosted a study break for all students with two other clubs, Open and GCSP (Grand Challenge Scholars Program), where the current SWE advisor Zhenya Zastavker was invited to speak about diversity in engineering education. We provided sushi, Thai curry, and Russian cold cuts. Zhenya shared personal stories and engaged us in a conversation about becoming aware of our differences.

The Saturday workshop, which took place on November 5th, was attended by had 34 of Needham elementary school's 3rd, 4th, and 5th graders. The kids learned about 5 different branches of engineering through various hands-on activities. These included programming in Scratch, building a mechanical machine driven by a motor, looking at the design of motion mechanisms in toys, learning how to make a circuit with an LED with brightness controlled by a potentiometer, and studying the material properties of some household items. The event had 12 Olin SWE volunteers and was reported to be a big succes

This fall, SWE broadened its scope to host an on-campus event for the families of faculty and staff. Headed by Tara Krishnan, SWE organized a Halloween Festival for faculty and staff to bring their children and spouses to enjoy holiday festivities and food. Board members spread the word via talking directly to professors and staff. Once a date was established, SWE advertised by emailing the entirety of faculty and staff. We had families R.S.V.P. so that we could buy the appropriate quantity of supplies and food. Sixteen SWE board and general members collaborated to make this event a success.

The WE11 conference in Chicago, Illinois from October 13-15th was a success for the Olin contingent of 24 students. A few highlights from the conference are: we again had several Poster Competition finalists, Olin won the SWE Outstanding Collegiate Section Award (Silver Level), and many of our students received interviews (and follow-ups) and job offers.

The conference started off on Thursday with career-building sessions for the conference-goers to help them polish their interview skills, learn about different fields in engineering, and listen to established women engineers in the corporate world. On Thursday evening, the Career Fair of 200+ companies opened and lasted for about 3 hours that day. Most of the Olin students attended the fair on Thursday evening with a select lot of companies in mind to get interviews from them the next day. Later that night, several companies held hospitality suites and as one Oliner pointed out, “It really made me feel part of an important group to know that so many companies and individuals see value in women in engineering.” Plus the food and goodies they had for us at these hospitality suites was classy and delicious. The companies really sold themselves to us!

The annual Olin SWE cheesecake social is the kickoff event of the year. We handwrote invitations for every Olin first year, inviting them to partake in eating delicious cheesecake during a casual conversation about what Olin SWE is and how to join. The social, which happened on September 9th, was successful this year; many first years joined the Olin SWE mailing list and expressed interest in becoming members and/or attending the WE11 conference.

On Saturday, October 9th, Rebecca Schutzengel and Hannah Sarver went to Northeastern University to present at Show Me the Science!, hosted by Science Club for Girls. This event was a reverse science fair in which various schools, organizations, and companies sent representatives to demonstrate experiments for local girls in grades K-6. The girls came by each table in groups each ten minutes, and our table was a demonstration of static charge through the creation of electroscopes from styrofoam cups, aluminum foil, and bendy straws. The activity was quite successful, and the girls had a lot of fun learning about the charge contained in various objects.

At the end of September, SWE was honored to co-host with the Foundry Shahana Kanodia and her husband . Shahana is a partner in Edwards Angell Palmer & Dodge LLP's Business Law Department. Shahana is a Chair of the South Asia Practice Group and has practiced with global law firms and won numerous awards and scholarships. She focuses on cross border business transactions, mergers and acquisitions, joint ventures, private equity, and other strategic investments. Shahana also serves on the Executive Board of the Yale Law School Association and the Steering Committee of the Yale Law School Association of Greater New England.

SWE and the Foundry welcomed Brad Feld as guest speaker on October 22nd.

Brad Feld spoke on how to start a business as an engineer. As an investor and board member of Zynga, creator of Farmville, he related his knowledge and experience from being an entrepreneur and an investor towards how one can move from idea to success.

Brad is also the chairman of the National Center for Women & Information Technology, is a recognized speaker on the topics of venture capital investing and entrepreneurship, and writes widely read and well respected blogs at www.feld.com and www.askthevc.com. Brad holds Bachelor of Science and Master of Science degrees in Management Science from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Brad is also an avid art collector and long-distance runner. He has completed fifteen marathons as part of his mission to run a marathon in each of the 50 states.

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.