Event Updates

WE19 Reflections

Hello friends! I just got back from WE19, the Society of Women Engineers annual conference in Anaheim, CA. Going into the conference, I had no idea what to expect. Most of the conferences I have been to before were science-focused and while it is so fun to learn about cool science all day, sometimes those conferences can be overwhelming and exhausting. I was wary that WE19 would be the same way, but it was exactly the opposite. Being at the conference was empowering and refreshing (and not just because of that California sun!). The conference halls were full of women who are all like me – they chose to become an engineer to better the world around them. These women spanned generations, from the established women who inspired me to become an engineer to the young women who are becoming the future. The seminars from these same women were inspiring, encouraging, and useful.

To emphasize the importance of self-confidence, and breaking seemingly insurmountable problems down into small, manageable pieces, the first keynote speaker told a story about rock climbing Devil’s Tower as a teenager. As a rock climber myself, the story especially resonated with me, and I could immediately see why being at a conference full of female engineers is so important for young women. Her climbing story made me feel both welcome at the conference and empowered to overcome the challenges inevitable in my career (and life). After this great start, the other sessions continued to be engaging and valuable. I attended sessions about cultivating emotional intelligence on your team, perfecting your resume, nailing an interview, negotiating a job contract, and so much more. I can take these lessons all the way from my current position, looking for a job, to my future position as an effective team leader. I also attended sessions about creative and nontraditional education strategies, a really exciting field that I am considering as my career; these sessions were particularly fun and interesting for me. Between all of these sessions and the career fair, I really felt that WE19 was supporting every aspect of my career as an engineer, from finding a career direction, to landing a job, to being the best I can be in that job.

One of the coolest parts of the conference was the networking and connections, and I was especially shocked when I ran into two friends from college! I saw one of them, a friend from my all-female freshman dorm floor, when I walked up to talk to her company (without knowing she worked there) at the career fair. The other friend, a sorority sister, happened to be sitting right behind me during a session. It was so fun to see them, and it was also the perfect summary of the WE19 conference. Seeing my old friends reminded me that as women, we have incredible networks of other women around us that we can rely on and fall back on. What’s more, as female engineers we are a network. We are a network of smart, capable women who are changing the world, and that is something to celebrate.

-- Rebecca Mount

I recently had the amazing opportunity to attend the WE19 conference in Anaheim California. It was an inspiring experience to reflect on my journey as a researcher, make amazing connections with women in engineering from varied STEM fields and nurture skillsets to be a better STEMINIST. It was also a great opportunity to pause and recharge.

WE19 was packed with a wealth of sessions and a career fair with a variety of leaders in the industry. There were also affinity groups and meetups for gradSWE and SWE in academia which were extremely helpful in making connections with peers and mentors in the academia.

I got the chance to attend various session for self-improvement and sessions geared towards career planning. As my main objective of attending SWE19 this year was to identify opportunities in the industry for me in my major and also to decide whether I should pick an academic route or an industry route after graduation, this was an important stepping stone for me. Some of the interesting self-improvement sessions I attended involved techniques to handle stress and time, practice mindfulness at work, and maintain proper work-life balance. One of the most intriguing talks was on living unapologetically and speaking with intent. The way we present ourselves in professional scenarios play a great deal in how our colleagues and peers in the field access our competency. Having a confident personality and accountability is important to lead. Failure is success in progress was the motto of a session which talked about how we perceive negative feedback in an unhealthy way and how we can learn from the failures in our research and turn them into stepping stones to our success.

The two keynote speeches on day one and two featured amazing women engineers. I was extremely inspired and amazed at their accomplishments. They took time to go through their path to success, including the many instances they failed. This was extremely reassuring and humbling. Keynote speaker Carol Malnati, Vice President of Research & Development; Cardiac Rhythm Heart Failure and AF Solutions at Medtronic, stressed on the importance of living life with passion, commitment and balance. Her stories reflected that it was important to ask difficult but crucial questions in situations of discrimination. She reminded us to not let adversities harden our hearts, but to let them harden our determination. She told us that the tip to become our best selves is having resilience. Making the most of adverse situations and turning them into milestones, finding your voice and questioning the relevant parties is important. You have to listen with an open mind and do it with grace. Keynote speaker Rachel Hutter, Senior Vice President of Health & Safety Engineering at Walk Disney Parks, stressed that engineering is about knowing how to learn. She urged the audience to consider how many new skillsets they can learn, when they apply for a new job. She also mentioned the importance of building a squad of supportive women around us to cheer us on our journeys. She asked everyone to make Society of Women Engineers a tail wind which leads them to their dream jobs. Mega session speaker Smita Tharoor, Director of MnAgenome, talked about the importance of having emotional resilience in order to face situations outside of our comfort zones. Habits of resilient people include, not feeling sorry about themselves, taking control of their own path, not blaming anyone else, embracing change, accepting there are things they cannot control, learning from their mistakes, celebrating other people’s success, enjoying alone time and not living in the past.

Overall, We19 was an extremely inspiring and nurturing experience for me to meet amazing women from all disciplines of engineering and to understand the caliber of women engineers in the world. Through the conference, I not only networked with women engineers around the nation, but also bonded with BU GradSWE members who attended the conference. I am extremely grateful for Boston University graduate SWE for providing me the opportunity to attend WE19 this year! I hope the experience that I gained will help me Live, Learn and Lead better in the world of Engineering and help support the next generation of women engineers to achieve their dreams!

-- Hasini Weerathunge

The Society of Women Engineers Conference is the largest meeting of female engineers in the world. I went and here’s what I got out of going:

Lots of sun! This year, WE19 was held in Anaheim, CA, home to Disneyland and a very large convention center.

All that good networking. Where there are a ton of smart women, there are a ton of companies that want to hire them! This conference had a huge career fair, at which I went to all the national energy lab booths. I work on solid oxide fuel cells (think a battery) and want to work at one of these labs someday. I got to ask women what they enjoy about their jobs and how they finally found their way to it. I learned about a new neutrino facility Fermi is building that will create neutrinos in Illinois and detect them 1,300 km away in South Dakota! (Unlike other particles, neutrinos have such a low interaction rate with matter that they don’t need to excavate a tunnel for the project. In fact, every second trillions of neutrinos emitted from stars pass though our bodies!) And I asked for tips about finding positions at their institutions after I take a bite of that delicious defense cake. That’s right. MSE students get cake. And, we get to choose the flavors.

That beachy wave hair. We went to the beach! Once the conference was over, of course.

A lot of practical advice that I’m taking back to my advocacy work. I serve on the board for NE GWiSE another great organization for women in STEM! We empower the different New England universities’ GWiSE groups by bringing them together; host large, full-day events with topics including mentorship, gender harassment, and diversity and inclusion; and plan to use our collective power to advocate for female-identifying STEM graduate students in Boston, Massachusetts, and eventually federal governments. I learned the importance and emphasis we should put on inviting white men to our events and then explaining why it’s valuable for them to be there and what they can do to help. I learned how to get corporate sponsorships from someone who gives out corporate sponsorships. And, I learned that BU has a Public Relations Office that’s there to help you get your point across.

A framework for writing the introduction of grants for a more general audience. Think: what will draw your audience to your research, not necessarily how you think about your research on a day to day basis.

Some apt advice. One of the keynote speakers advised us to “build your squad.” And one of the things I enjoyed most from WE19 was getting the opportunity to connect with so many amazing BU women engineers. In one workshop, we discussed what makes us excited to come into work that day. Our group was from departments and divisions from across the college. So, while the activities we do are varied, the excitement for science shines through the same.

Also, I got to meet this awesome tree!

-- Michelle Sugimoto

I thoroughly enjoyed attending the SWE conference at Anaheim and I am thankful to have had this wonderful opportunity. It was very refreshing to go to a non-technical conference where we get to learn skills that are crucial for personal development and to have a work-life balance, points that are never emphasized upon elsewhere. It was also my first time on the West Coast. The exposure to different career paths taken by various women engineers in leadership roles was also greatly welcomed. I enjoyed networking and connecting with various women engineers from across the country. Though I was not particularly looking for internships or jobs, being a second year PhD candidate, spending sometime in the career fair was an enriching experience as well. Talking to the recruiters gave me ideas on what skills and experiences various companies seek out in candidates.

The keynote sessions were very eye-opening. The morning keynotes were awesome with very motivating stories and lessons from women in the forefront of their fields. One of the speakers, Carol Mahanti said to let hardships harden your determination but not harden your heart. She also emphasized that the problems can be handled part by part rather than as a herculean task. Most importantly, she asked us to enjoy the journey. Taking small steps in the right direction is still a victory. I think this is very important as at some point every graduate engineering student faces challenges to overcome. Other sessions that I attended and enjoyed listening to were about being resilient and having a positive outlook in life. Another session also noted how generally women have less confidence and more self –doubt which I found very true in my case as well. Men are always confident about their capabilities, a trait that women must adopt. It encouraged women to be more confident and leave self-doubt or imposter syndrome behind. I thought I should definitely work on this myself. Many sessions encouraged women to negotiate for equal salaries and what they deserve on par with their male counterparts. Also I am quite hesitant to ask questions with the fear that they may be stupid but some sessions mentioned the importance of asking questions and not assuming them to be trivial.

Another interesting session was on how girls are brought up to be nice and polite, leading them to be more apologetic. So it spoke about not being apologetic as it diminishes the value of what you are speaking about in most cases. We as women engineers should sit and stand tall with confidence. Some sessions spoke about the significance of networking. It made me realize that I need to work on it. As the keynote speaker Rachel Hutter said, behind every successful woman is a squad of other successful women. It is important to build your squad and have advocates for yourself. There were sessions on handling stress and infusing mindfulness and movement into the day at office that helped provide tips to balance stressful hours and encouraged self-care while meeting deadlines. There were also other technical sessions such as some on data science, one on career paths after a PhD and tips for a good powerpoint presentation. These were very informative too for making a choice of profession after PhD for someone like me who is not yet sure about it.

Apart from everything I learnt from the conference, I also enjoyed bonding with my fellow women engineers from BU. One of the people I talked to at the conference said personality needs to come with the candidate for a particular role, everything else can be taught. So to conclude, I realized the importance of honing the personality and life skills to excel in our future careers and transform into future women leaders in our respective professions – to live, learn and lead!!

-- Sudiksha Sridhar

Math has always been my favorite subject. As a little girl many of my friends shared my fascination with numbers, but as we grew up math and physics slowly gained a reputation as “subjects for boys”. By the time I finished my masters I was well used to being one of the few female students in the class. Last week at the #WE19 conference, organize by Society of Women Engineers (SWE), I sat in a quantum physics talk taught by a woman to a room full of women. For the first time I was not a minority, and I was amazed to discover how comfortable I felt asking questions and the positive effect it had on my ability to learn.
Throughout the weekend I got to hear from many inspiring and influential women who, like me, started their careers as engineers. Women who have already navigated their ways into a successful career in male dominated fields and were willing to share their insights from that climb to the top. I learned that the difficulties I face today are not unique to me, over 17,000 female engineers were struggling with the exact same problems I do. If you were not able to attend, here are some of my favorite advice from the conference:

We all get “mansplained” from time to time. My instinct, especially when it is coming from men in senior positions, is always to say thank you, smile, and move on. In the conference I learned not to say thank you. There is no reason to thank someone for restating what you already know. Instead say “this is correct”. It is a polite way to remind him that you know what you are talking about.

Do not let perfectionism or fear of failure dissuade you from applying for promotions or new opportunities. Men would apply to positions as long as they have 20-40% of the qualifications. If you will wait to apply until you have all the requirements you are not only holding yourself back, but also potentially allowing someone with 20% of the requirements get the job. Beside, even if you will not get the promotion you want, you will gain a great opportunity to ask for feedback so you can be a stronger applicant next time you apply.

Language matters! Do not be apologetic when you are asking questions. Check yourself, do you increase the pitch of your tone at the end of sentences and make them sound like questions? If you are not confident in the way you present your work, others will have less confidence in you and your skills.
I applied for #WE19 for the great career fair, personal development workshops, new ideas for outreach activities, and networking opportunities that the conference provides. But the new friendships I gained and getting to know the wonderful women who came with me from BU was the highlight of the trip. For all the female grad students in engineering, I would highly recommend attending the conference next year. In the meantime, continue to follow the conference motto: live, learn, and lead!

-- Dana Zemel

Last week, I had the opportunity to fly to Anaheim to attend #WE19, a conference and career fair for women engineers. It was a busy and productive few days with plenty of talks and networking events to keep me engaged. I am extremely grateful to #SWE, the speakers, sponsors, and others who organized the conference — and especially to the new GradSWE chapter at Boston University for making this trip possible.

On the first day I showed up to register for the conference, I was immediately astonished to see just how many women were present. Though I learned before my arrival that this annual conference is advertised as the world’s largest for women engineers, I really had no idea what that would look like. Once I was there, being surrounded by so many other women who were successfully walking along similar paths to mine was amazing encouragement. As I’m sure many other women starting out in STEM careers have experienced, there are moments where I wonder whether I belong or can thrive in the field I am pursuing. It was tremendously exciting to see living proof of a community doing just that.

The theme of the conference was “We Live, We Learn, We Lead”, and many of the talks involved building the confidence and courage to achieve that end goal. I attended a mega session led by speaker #Sabina Nawaz, of Nawaz Executive Consulting, that helpfully outlined steps we can all take towards summoning the bravery to follow our dreams. Sabina emphasized the importance of inviting in and believing positive thoughts about ourselves rather than our inner critics. Another step that she listed was to realize that “failure is the opportunity to expand your definition of success”. When Sabina graduated from college, she landed a job at Microsoft as a programmer. However, coding was not one of her strengths and she was told as much by her supervisor who reviewed her work one day. Instead of letting the defeat and embarrassment overwhelm her, Sabina came back the next day and was able to transition to another role much more suited to her skills. We will all face failure to some degree at some point in our careers. Learning to make the most of it may be challenging, but is an essential skill for growth.

One key component of Sabina’s ability to turn her failure into a different opportunity was the support of her partner, which leads me to another message that was emphasized throughout the conference. There are times when we may feel so discouraged that we are unable to think of any positive thoughts to help us power through. Consequently, it is important to have a strong support system that will help us persevere. This was brought up by many speakers, including #Rachel Hutter of Walt Disney World, who gave an excellent keynote presentation on tips for navigating a career in engineering. It is especially important for us as women to have a network we can rely on because we are often in the minority in our work environments and may feel more isolated as a result. Organizations like SWE serve an important role in addressing this issue. They help us build connections with other women who may be able to offer insight into our struggles and concerns.

Other lightning talks and sessions that I attended were also incredibly helpful in expanding my knowledge about career opportunities and professional development growth. I am so thankful for the time that I was able to spend at WE 19. Attending the conference was a wonderful experience from which I gained valuable advice and renewed motivation to pursue my professional goals in engineering. As I move forward in my career, I hope to exemplify the ideals of living, learning, and leading as a woman engineer.

-- Belle He

Recently I had an amazing opportunity to attend the SWE conference, WE19, in Anaheim, CA. It was a completely refreshing and revitalizing experience between the warm weather and being surrounded by strong and beautiful engineering women. Before going to the conference I was absolutely terrified of graduating this coming August and the prospect of finding a real job. I had so many amazing interactions with very encouraging that I now feel excited to move on to the next stage. To top it all off on the last day of the conference I got to volunteer to work with an inspiring group of middle school girls and I hope I get the chance to see what they grow into the next 15 years.

On the first day of the conference I was so overwhelmed by the sheer size of the conference that at the end of the keynote speech (a wonderful speech about hard work and not giving up by Carol Malnati) I just went to sit outside and watch the world go by for a little while. After I collected myself with a cup of tea, I went back inside to brave the career fair. The first booth I walked up to was Corning. The recruiter was extremely nice, even though had to pretty much walk me through my elevator pitch because I was so nervous, and jumped on my resume the second I said I was experienced in computational modeling. After that I was a lot less nervous talking to people. I talked to a bunch of companies and national laboratories. I learned a lot about the different careers available to me and more importantly that the sky wouldn’t fall if I talked to a recruiter who didn’t have a use for my skill set.

The time I spent at the career fair was very needed. Even though I am still almost a year away from needing a job and most of the recruiters were unable to say whether or not they would have open positions when I was ready to take them, I was able to gain a huge amount of insight into what different careers would be like. I’ve known for awhile that I want to stay in a research setting when I graduate. I love my current research, which is one of the reasons I was not excited when my advisor first told me she wanted me to graduate early. I also know, mostly from experience with the undergraduate who helps me with my work, that I am nowhere near ready to manage a lab which rules out running full speed into academia and becoming a professor. My conversations at the SWE career fair really helped me understand that I wouldn’t find the job or culture I was looking for in an industry job and that my best option was to enter a national laboratory, where I would be allowed to grow from my current state of graduate student researcher, to a leadership role at my own pace.

My final day I spent working with some incredibly intelligent middle school girls at SWE’s Invent It. Build It. event. The girls were tasked with building a windmill that would be able to lift a small weight out of paper cups and straws. These girls were extremely intelligent and creative. One of my groups made a compass out of paperclips to be able to draw a circle to cut out even blades for their windmill. Another creatively made an axle out of a wooden skewer and a straw to reduce friction and make their windmill more powerful. My third group was incredibly persistent and refused to give up any of the times their windmill had problems. These girls were so inspiring and gave me so much hope that if I ever to find my way back into academia, I’ll see an even distribution of men and women in my classroom.

The WE19 conference was a better experience than I ever could have hoped for. I would encourage women and girls of all ages to attend and will absolutely go back again next year if I have the opportunity.

-- Kathleen Dupre

This November, it was the first time I attended the annual conference hosted by the Society of Women Engineers in Anaheim, CA. I did not know what to expect from a conference with such a broad spectrum. Personally, although I was exposed to the male dominance and biases in engineering, I realized I was not recognizing how severe the situation was, especially in industry. I came to this realization from listening to talks, what people had to say and surprisingly how different I felt being in this environment.

A feeling of empowerment and positive energy flew through my body, the first day was walking down the halls in the Anaheim Convention Center filled with women engineers from all backgrounds. The inclusiveness of this event was the first thing that stroke me. The positive titter people had on their faces made me smile even bigger. After the first talk I attended featuring Carol Malnati, a woman leader in tech industry, I thought to myself, ‘Wow, we do need inspiration and determination if we are going to make it in this world’, as she portrayed the challenges she faced throughout her career. I realized though it is unspoken and subtle nowadays, sexism, it is still there. Seeing how eager and passionate the people in the convention center reassured me that we were on the right track to overcome decades –or
centuries- of dismissive behavior of the industry towards women.

Another impactful talk I sat in was about how women say “Sorry” more than men. Now that I think of it, this is true. Whether it is the right/polite thing to do or not, it is said to be enabling a belittling conversation. Apologizing for the things we do not have to might be controversial as I spent a significant amount of time discussing with my peers. Do we need to change being polite just to fit in the male norms of the society to be taken more seriously? I was thrilled that talks like this was led to open ended questions and created a base to have real discussions about our behavior and mentality. Other sessions I attended included: educational
lectures –from quantum cybersecurity to Si photonics, workshops –such as how to build a good resume or how to get a hiring managers attention- and interactive meetings like learning to improve your presenting skills using your voice accordingly to the room.

Apart from these, the SWE conference had an amazing career fair. As a women engineer in academia wanting to step into the world of tech industry, this was an exhilarating opportunity for me. Practicing my elevator pitch and being able to examine where I fit in within this large atmosphere gave me a big boost of confidence. I believe, especially the chance of getting on sight interviews made us step our game. Networking aspect of this conference might have been the best part of this entire experience as I made new friends, got leads for future steps in my career, had interviews with actual professionals and improved my self-marketing skills.

Final thoughts from WE19; I was filled with excitement and confidence, attending this conference surrounded by inspiring women engineers, being in a comfortable safe environment. It was super fun AND educational!

-- Iris Celebi