Volunteering at the 12th Annual Hot Chocolate Run

UMass Amherst SWE volunteered at the 12th annual Hot Chocolate Run in Northampton on Sunday December 6! The Hot Chocolate Run raises money for Safe Passage, an organization committed to ending domestic violence and oppression in women's lives. Members of SWE volunteered as course marshals and cheered the runners on throughout the race. It was a great way to give back to the community and support and empower others! 

Hot Chocolate & Cookie Decorating Stress Relief Event

The members of SWE got together for a SWEet stress relief event to enjoy some holiday festivities! Students were able to step away from their studies and enjoy decorating gingerbread cookies, drinking hot cocoa and socializing with one another. What a fun way to begin the holiday season!

Industry vs. Grad School Panel

On Wednesday November 4th UMass SWE hosted an Industry versus Grad School Panel. Attendees had the chance to ask grad school students, professors, and career women questions pertaining to different paths post undergrad. It was great to hear different paths each individual took to get to where they are today. A big thanks to our panel, Maureen Lynch, Amna Awan, Rachel Roberts, Kerianne Dobosz, Tiffany Liu, and Lillian Clark for their wonderful advice and professional development and career tips they provided!

National Conference - Nashville, TN

The UMass SWE Chapter packed up their cowboy boots and headed to Nashville for the Annual National SWE Conference SWE15 and some good country music! The conference was a great opportunity to network and meet people in SWE from all over the world! There were a myriad of talks and informational sessions to help students, teachers, and professionals advance, aspire, and achieve as women in the STEM field. The girls were able to attend the career fair with over 250 companies and grad schools who were all recruiting for internships and jobs.  What a great way to kick start a career! It was such a great experience and we look forward to attending SWE16 in Philadelphia next year!

Pumpkin Painting and Cider Donuts

The members of SWE got together for a stress relief event to enjoy some fall festivities like painting pumpkins and enjoying some cider donuts! This was a great way to take a break from studying and have some fun!

Welcome Back Meeting - Nitrogen Ice Cream & Tie-dye!

The Society of Women Engineers UMass Amherst chapter hosted their first event of the semester on Tuesday September 15th. Girls from all engineering majors gathered in the Engineering Quad to tie-dye shirts and make nitrogen ice cream! It was a great way to kick off the semester and meet new members. 

The SWE Board prepping for nitrogen ice cream.

Nitrogen Ice Cream in Action 

(Thank you to the UMass Chemical Engineering Department)

Tie-Dye!

Girl Scout Day - Solar Panel Cars

SWE UMass held our annual Girl Scout Day for elementary school girls! Girls came from near and far to come build solar and battery powered cars from recycled materials. We began the day with activities and discussions about renewable energies and how we can conserve energy in our everyday lives. The Girl Scout's had great ideas about how to conserve energy, including turning off the lights and buying products that use less packaging.

These girls are just starting the body of their car, and are cutting holes into an orange juice container so they can put the axle through the car.

 Lots of glue-gunning required for assembly!

DPO Director Paula to the rescue! This car was having lots of problems with attaching the motor to the body.

Success! This car was able to successfully use the sun's solar power to power the motor of the car and get it to drive through the engineering quad.

After a successful day, these girl scouts show off their finished car. The other girls listen intently to how building the car relates to engineering, discussing how failures are expected and help you to learn more about your design. Failures lead to success!!

Featured in the Daily Hampshire Gazette!

(credits to Gazette)

UMass Amherst's SWE was featured in the Gazette this past week for our annual Girl Scouts Day event! Here's a excerpt from the article: 

Marina DiCocco, a UMass junior in industrial engineering was once a Girl Scout herself. She said she was taken by some of the innovations the younger girls came up with. For example, one suggested sticking the lighted circles to the back of a cellphone, because young people wave their phones at concerts.
“That’s just a really cool idea,” DiCocco said, indicative of what happens when people get together to think.
DiCocco said she liked being a role model. “It feels really good to know that you are helping someone and that someday she might become an engineer.”

Read more about SWE's Girl Scout Day Event Here!

(credits to Gazette)

Girl Scout Day - Adafruit Programmable Jewelry

Our SWE chapter held our annual Girl Scout Day for middle school aged girl scouts interested in engineering.  The girls worked on programmable, LED bracelets and necklaces made by the company Adafruit. The jewelry was made by soldering wires to led boards and then programming the memory chips by writing code that could change the patters and colors of the lights.

The Hampshire Gazette covered the events of the day, and the article can be read on the UMass College of Engineering website here.

A mechanical engineering junior Daniel helped lead the day, starting by giving the girl scouts an overview of engineering and a synopsis of what the day would include.

The girls and SWE members had to figure out how their jewelry was to be assembled and how much wire they would need.

A girl scout was cutting and stripping wire for the first time.

Tiffany, a mechanical engineering junior, helped one of the girls write the code for her piece of jewelry.

Kelly, an electrical engineering senior, helps the girls use the soldering gun to solder the wires to their jewelry. 

Emily, an industrial engineering junior, helps model some of the finished products! These two girl scouts made necklaces.

First Meeting

We had a GREAT turnout to kick off SWE for 2015.  We had over 50 members, both old and new, in attendance.

As always, we had food at the event which is always a hit.  We held elections for next semester, and were thrilled with the eagerness of all the girls to be on the board. Many of our positions are now co-held, which goes to show how involved our members want to be.

Some E-board members getting creative and writing a life size SWE with the bodies!