Events

Scavenger Hunt 9/24/21

We kicked off fall quarter with a scavenger hunt at Storke Tower! Groups of teams explored campus while solving riddles, and we met a lot of new SWE members along the way ☺️

Afternoon with Industry 1/22/21

This past January, we had over 100 UCSB students attend our annual networking event Afternoon with Industry through the virtual platform Gatherly. Students had the opportunity to speak with representatives from Teladoc Health, FM Global, Invoca, Lumentum, NuSil, HRL Laboratories, Clorox, and more. Later in the event, we got to hear from UCSB alumni Bei-Jing Guo and her experiences working for Amazon Web Services and Microsoft!

SWE++ 10/10/20 - 12/5/20

Our Outreach Committee organized SWE++—an 8-week coding program in which UCSB engineering students teach middle school girls across CA the basics of Python. We started off each weekly meeting by learning about new topics that included variables, loops, and functions—then went into smaller groups to practice coding in Scratch and repl.it. Our mentors loved seeing the progression of knowledge in each student, and we're excited to hopefully have in-person lessons next fall!

Girls Inc. Volunteering

During winter quarter, we had a great time volunteering at Girls Inc. and teaching the girls about science and engineering. We built kaleidoscopes, catapults, straw domes, and rollercoasters with these students, and set up a session with a paleontology student who brought fossils and clay for the fun activity that week. Sharing our knowledge and love of STEM with these young girls through hands-on activities has been very fulfilling for all of us, and we hope to continue doing so in the following years!

Health and Wellness 3/6/20

For our final meeting of the quarter, we invited a student representative from UCSB Health and Wellness to give us tips on managing stress and forming healthy sleeping habits, which comes in handy as we get closer to finals week. We shared about how we personally relieve stress, performed a short mindful meditation, and wrote down some body-positive affirmations. Lastly, we ended our meeting with a quarterly raffle!

Galentine's Night Social 2/20/20

After our mock interviews, we hosted a Galentine's Night social where we made delicious mug cakes and hot cocoa!

Mock Interviews 2/20/20

At our 4th general meeting, we invited representatives from TrueVision Systems, Raytheon, InTouch Health, and Continental to hold mock interviews for our SWE members. Our students practiced their behavioral and technical interview skills during two rounds of interviews, as well as networked with the wonderful representatives who attended this event.

Education Abroad For Engineers 2/6/20

At our 3rd general meeting, we invited Joy, a peer advisor from UCSB EAP to speak about opportunities to study abroad for engineers. Our social chair, Freda, who recently went abroad, also gave us an insight on her experiences and showed us photos from her stay. We hope that this presentation inspires our female engineers to study abroad in the future.

Game Night Social 1/9/20

We started off winter quarter with an evening of food, music, and fun games like Taboo and Codenames! There's nothing like a little friendly competition to bring us closer together!

White Elephant + Quarterly Raffle 12/5/19

To celebrate the holiday season, we held a White Elephant gift exchange where everyone took turns either choosing a wrapped present from the pile in the middle or stealing someone else's present. We also raffled off prizes like chocolate and soft blankets to members who have consistently attended our events throughout the quarter. Everyone who brought a gift to our meeting went home with one or even two new items!

SWEvening Tea 11/21/19

We held a 3-hour study jam where SWE members worked individually or with others on homework, projects, and other school assignments. We had pizza, sandwiches, wraps, hot cocoa, tea, and plenty of other snacks! It was very fun and our members got to know each other a lot more during this event!

SWE National Conference 2019

This November, our SWE members attended the Women in Engineering Conference in Anaheim. They had an amazing time networking with different companies at the career fair, listening to inspirational talks given by successful women in the field, connecting with UCSB SWE alumni, and meeting up with SWE members from other schools to explore Downtown Disney.

DPHS WIT Imposter Syndrome Talk 11/5/19

UCSB SWE members Lily Ou and Sophie Groenwold visited the Dos Pueblos High School Women in Technology club on 11/5 to teach young STEM scholars about imposter syndrome and how it affects womxn in science and engineering. Imposter syndrome is a psychological trait typically associated with high-performing womxn and racial minorities in academia and STEM fields. These people tend to underestimate their own abilities, feel like their successes were due to mistakes or luck, and believe themselves to be "intellectual phonies." Lily and Sophie taught WIT members how to identify and combat imposter syndrome. Much thanks to Alessa Somer, DPHS WIT president, and Kevin McKee, WIT advisor!

First General Body Meeting Fall 2019

On October 10, UCSB SWE held its first meeting of fall quarter, where the officers welcomed freshmen and other new members to the club. Mikayla, the president of SWE, spoke about what this club does and some of the major events that are held throughout the year. Cynthia, the IVP, and Sophie, the Outreach Chair, mentioned some of the volunteering opportunities that SWE provides. The students and officers then played an ice-breaker where each person had a chance to introduce themselves to other members of the club. Overall, this was a great first meeting and we can't wait to see what the rest of the year brings!

Volunteering Spring 2019

This spring, UCSB SWE volunteered again with IV Elementary's Engineering Arts Club! This after-school program encourages elementary students to get involved with engineering by collaborating with Mechanical Engineering students and SWE members at UCSB to build dancing robots. Groups of elementary and college students teamed up to design their robots, with the elementary students responsible for building a light-up stage for the robot to dance on. SWE volunteers helped the Engineering Arts Club members with their portion of the projects. At the end of the school quarter, all students were invited to a Robot Flash Mob to show what their robots could do!

Volunteering Winter 2019

During the fall and winter of 2018-2019, we had several volunteering sessions at the Girls, Inc. in Goleta, where we helped with science experiments like making goop, bottle rockets, and trebuchets. We even hosted a special session with a UCSB Paleontology professor, who brought in some real fossils!

SWE National Conference 2018

In November 2018, UCSB SWE traveled to Minneapolis for the 2018 SWE National Conference. This was an incredible multi-day event full of networking opportunities, professional development workshops, a career fair, and talks hosted by established women engineers. We really enjoyed getting to reconnect with graduated members of UCSB SWE, and we even found time to explore the Minneapolis area once the conference had ended!

Meeting Minutes 04/05/18

Apologies for the gap in meeting minutes, but they are back.

This meeting was almost entirely devoted to electing SWE Officers for the 2018/2019 school year!

President: Veena Chandran -> Maggie Schmit

Internal Vice President: Janavi Kumar -> Hazel Khoo

External Vice President: Paige Sullivan -> Mikayla Ambriz

Treasurer: Karli Yokotake -> Carly Larsson

Secretary/Webmaster: Carly Larsson -> Valerie Smetanka

Outreach Chair: Maggie Schmit -> Cynthia Zhang

Social Chair: Claire Rieger

Fundraising Chair: Min Dai -> Sifeng (Miranda) Li

Graduate Student Representative (New Position): Emily Jensen

Freshmen Representative: Mikayla Ambriz -> This position will be elected in the beginning of fall quarter

Meeting Minutes 11/16/17

We had two rounds of mock interviews! 9 company representatives from Amazon and InTouch Health spent 25 minutes per interview going over members’ resumes, asking behavioral questions, and offering feedback and tips.

Announcements:
Gorman Scholars Program for first, second, and third year undergraduate students. The Gorman Scholars Program provides UCSB undergraduates with an opportunity to receive invaluable mentoring from faculty and graduate student researchers while pursuing innovative interdisciplinary research projects.Students can find the application and learn more about the program on their website: http://gorman-csep.cnsi.ucsb.edu/
Early Undergraduate Research and Knowledge Acquisition (EUREKA) internship for first year undergraduate students. The program introduces students in their first year to the broader science community on campus and provides exposure to research through academic year internships.

Early Undergraduate Research and Knowledge Acquisition (EUREKA) internship for first year undergraduate students. The program introduces students in their first year to the broader science community on campus and provides exposure to research through academic year internships.

Meeting Minutes 11/2/17

Announcements:

CSEP Internships at UCSB - They have positions for 1st Years
UCSF Undergraduate Research Program: Info-session on Wednesday, Nov 8th 4pm Elings 1601

SWE National Conference was a Blast! The regional one is next quarter, so think about going.

Tough Conversations with Maggie:
How do you have constructive conversations about diversity in the workplace or in school?

Stuff that Has Worked (and Hasn't)
Study Abroad: http://duels.ucsb.edu/advising/planning/study-abroad
Go into the study abroad office and talk to them. The study abroad officials will help you arrange your classes, your funding, and your destination.
Research:
Start by emailing Professors and applying for research. The most important thing is to contact professors and
talk to graduate students.

Clubs and Organizations:
Phi Sigma Rho - Female Engineering Sorority, Human Rights Board, Engineers Without Borders, and many
many more!
AS and OSL are the two organizations that run all the clubs on campus.
http://osl.sa.ucsb.edu/
https://www.as.ucsb.edu/

Internships:
You can get an internship through SWE! Recruiters occassionally come to us and take resumes.
Be persistent and don't worry if you don't hear back from companies, just keep chipping away.
Go to career fairs, talk to your friends and family, and don't be too upset if you don't get an internship on your
first try.

Time Management:
Efficiency -
Internal - get enough sleep, and find the time of day when you are focused.
External - put yourself in a space where you can study; not next to the bed or next to your phone.
Management -
Block your calendar ahead of time, and be aware of how long different tasks are going to take you.

5 Year MS/BS: http://www.graddiv.ucsb.edu/admissions/how-to-apply/five-year-degree-programs
Start thinking about weather you want to go to grad school.
Create relationships with Professors so you can ask for letters of recommendations later.
Make sure you have your time line in order for when you are going to apply.

Meeting Minutes 10/19/17

Career Fair:
       Make sure to follow up with companies you talked to.

Social this Weekend:
       Pumpkin Painting: Saturday October 21st at 5pm on the Student Health Lawn
       Visit the Facebook page for more details!

Networking Activity

Freshman Rep Elections
       Responsibilities: Freshman outreach, advertising, officer training.
Our New Freshman Representative: Mikayla Ambriz