THE AVION
B2 Technology SWE’s Soaring Success
Brooke Linendoll SWE President This year was an exciting year for the Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University (ERAU) Collegiate Section of the Society of Women Engineers (SWE). The first major event of the year was when ERAU SWE participated in the annual Society of Women Engineers National Conference from October 18 through 20 in Minneapolis. 42 female engineering students attended this conference with Faculty Co-Advisor Claudia Ehringer Lucas, with over 75% of the students attending for the first time. This provided an early introduction to the industry for a number of these students, as 25% of the attendees from ERAU were freshmen. The conference was full of relevant and interesting presentations on a wide variety of diverse topics, from Lean Six Sigma Certifications to Resume Preparation. Many of the participants were particularly interested in seeing that there is no limit to the success of female engineers at the presentation on Powerful Women at NASA and the information session with the CEO of Lockheed Martin, Marillyn Hewson. Equally as important to those that attended, the career fair associated with the conference was a major success for the attendees, with nearly 66% of the attendees being interviewed by companies on-site at the conference. This led to numerous
internship opportunities at a variety of major engineering companies for ERAU students, allowing these students to gain a critical entry into the realm of professional engineering. Each year SWE at ERAU hosts the Introduce a Girl to Engineering Workshop (IGEW) on campus to promote the growth of women in the STEM field. This event focuses on inviting local 3rd, 4th, and 5th-grade female students, especially from Title I schools, and providing them with an educational and fun day filled with five different interactive STEM experiments. This event is organized and run by SWE members with the help of other volunteers. Dr. Kelsey Rodgers, SWE Faculty Co-Advisor, stated “Women bring an instrumental, diverse perspective to engineering that is critical for our success in striving to address engineering grand challenges. Although diversity is of fundamental importance, women continue to be underrepresented in the engineering workforce. IGEW hosted here at ERAU by the invested SWE student members is an incredible initiative to help introduce hundreds of elementary students (targeting young girls, but not exclusive to) that may not ever have the opportunity to learn about engineering or more importantly be told they too can be an engineer. I believe all the students who attend this event will find a role model that inspires them and will leave fascinated by opportunities in STEM fields. Programs like this one
IGEW volunteers and participating students
are of extreme importance in changing the future face of engineering.” On March 2, 2019, SWE proudly hosted over 200 young girls and had 64 volunteers! This year the theme of each module was “a day in the life of a ____ engineer”, where the girls were able to explore aspects of civil, aerospace, marine, chemical, and mechanical engineering. The experiments included floam, a sensory slime highlighting chemical reactions, yacht party, a clay boat activity to teach the girls about buoyancy, cargo carriers, a competitive paper airplane contest featuring the addition of carrying green army men and a discussion of the aerodynamics of an airplane, marble roller coaster, a thrilling activity to explore kinetic and potential energy by designing a roller coaster out of pipe insulation and undergoing testing with a marble, and lastly concrete legos, a fun experiment with mixing concrete
Photo Courtesy: Society for Women Engineers
and discussing the material as well as its difference to cement. The objective of these experiments is to help strengthen the girl’s teamwork skills as well as provide them with an educational background to each topic in a fun way. In addition to these modules, each girl was provided a lunch, event t-shirt, signed certificate of completion, and a goodie bag. Many parents reached out to the organization after the event to discuss how much their children enjoyed IGEW. According to a participant’s grandfather, Neil Nugent, “My granddaughter Anna attended this program in 2018 & 2019. The Embry-Riddle students were professional and wonderful role models for the girls. We could not have been more impressed with this exciting and fun-filled rare opportunity. We look forward to returning with her younger sister Elena."
Continued on B7