Collegiate Section Spotlight: Everett Community College

Guest Contributor: Kristine Washburn, Faculty Advisor, Society of Women Engineers, Everett Community College SWE

The EvCC SWE club has been around for nearly a decade and became an official CIG in 2013. Our main club activities are networking, outreach, and leadership and professional development.

We also like to make liquid nitrogen ice cream and play video games and board games together. Our big annual event is Dinner with Industry: a mentoring night where students can chat with local professionals over dinner. We send students to SWE conferences every year.

To fundraise for that, we host campus events like a videogame night before finals each quarter and we have a dunk tank at the college's spring fling where students can pay to try and dunk their engineering instructors. With the new WSU-North Puget Sound campus next door we hope to partner on events with their SWE in the future.


Everett Community College SWE Contact Info: kwashburn@everettcc.edu

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This guest article is part of SWE PNW's Collegiate Section Spotlight series, where we ask the local collegiate sections to showcase their section so we can share information up at the professional section level. These guest articles are coordinated by Elaine Reeves, Section Representative and College Relations focal for SWE PNW.

An Intro to the Bearded Pineapples & Call for Mentors

Guest Contributor: The Bearded Pineapples

Hi! We are the Bearded Pineapples. We are an all-girls FTC robotics team. In FTC (FIRST Tech Challenge), teams of students in 7-12th grade build robots that are 18” by 18” by 18” to compete in a game that is different every season. (In the 2016/17 season, the game was Velocity Vortex: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b49Q3kqrSv0, and you can watch some matches played here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cnP2dMP2B7c). Additionally, teams can win judged awards, which are based off of the technical documentation in the team’s Engineering Notebook, or on what the team has done to grow the program.

FTC is part of a larger program, FIRST robotics. Over the last two years, we were part of FIRST LEGO League, the program for kids ages 9-14, and were one of 15 teams sponsored by Girl Scouts of Western Washington. One year ago, we outgrew this program. We were looking to continue on to FTC, but Girl Scouts of Western Washington did not sponsor teams at this level. We decided to help Girl Scouts of Western Washington explore what was needed to sponsor FTC teams, and now we are ready to create several more teams!

To do this, we would love to find more (preferably female) mentors who can help teams learn skills like programming, technical documentation, and mechanical engineering. Our team owes a lot to our female mentor, Toni Carlstrom. We submitted a video to nominate her for the Compass Award, an award given out to an outstanding mentor, which she won.

Mentors would ideally be working with teams around twice a week for around 2-4 hours each, though this number varies considerably from team to team and from mentor to mentor. The FTC season runs from September to mid-January, but can extend until March or April for teams that advance.

Students who participate in the program benefit greatly and learn many important life skills – and have tons of fun. Talulla, a member of our team, has discovered her love for mechanical engineering, and will attend Tesla STEM High School next year. She wouldn’t have known how much she enjoys mechanical engineering without FTC.

Are you interested in learning more about FTC? We are hosting an open house at the Girl Scout of Western Washington Bellevue Office (13029 NE 20th Street Bellevue, WA 98005). We will play some matches with some other teams and answer any questions. Please join us! Find the flyer on our website: http://beardedpineapples.com/blog.

Interested in mentoring, either regularly or just occasionally? Please contact us at beardedpineapples@gmail.com!

Call for FY18 SWE PNW Officer Nominations

Hello SWE PNW!

We hope that this note finds you well! As we are preparing for a great FY18, we are opening the nomination period for the SWE PNW elected officer positions. This is your chance to discuss your interest for any FY18 positions!

The elected officer positions are:

• President
• President-Elect
• Secretary
• Treasurer
• Vice President of Career Guidance/Outreach
• Vice President of Professional Development
• Section Representative

Each position will have the following responsibilities:

• All elected and non-elected officers will be asked to attend the summer and winter organizational planning sessions
• All elected and non-elected officers will be invited to the monthly executive council meetings

Additional details of each elected position are included at the end of this blog entry.

Please note that FY18 is the LAST year for the Section Rep role as the regions will be dissolved at the end of FY18. For more information on this, please refer to our blog, FY18 SWE PNW Election & Section Rep Role Update.

If you have any questions about making a nomination for any of these positions, please feel free to reach out to the Nomination Committee. We are more than willing to help answer your questions to the best of our ability!

Your nomination at this point need only consist of your name and position(s) of interest. Please return all nominations by email to swe.pnw.nomination@gmail.com by March 19, 2017.

Thank you,
SWE PNW Nomination Committee
Tamaira Ross, Cary Kaczowka, Kimber Hinson, & Maria Barna

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President

• Represent the section before the public and preside at meetings of the section and its executive council
• Appoint the chairs of all committees, with the approval of the executive council, except chair of nominating committee
• Authorize the disbursement of section funds within the budget approved by the executive council
• Coordinate activities and execute the business and policies of the section between meetings

President-Elect

• Serve as president in the year following their term as president-elect
• Assume the duties of the president if the president is temporarily unable to serve
• Assist the current president with all duties

Secretary

• Maintain records of the section, record meeting minutes at all EC meetings, maintain and update bylaws as needed.
• Support the virtual brand committee by maintaining connection between the virtual brand committee and the executive council.

Treasurer

• The treasurer manages and reports on SWE PNW’s budget, bank accounts, grants/donations and performs financial audits. If needed, a committee will also lead fundraising drives.

VP of Career Guidance/Outreach

• This position leads explore engineering workshops, the University mentoring program, certificate of merit (COM) and COM scholarships, collegiate scholarships.
• The committee funds and manages relationships the following organizations: Kids in Science and Engineering (KISE), Expanding your Horizons (EYH), community outreach booths (PSEC, schools, etc.)

VP of Professional Development

• This position leads and manages technical talks and tours, skills development events, social/networking events, and the book club.

Section Representative

• Represent the section as a voting member on monthly region conference calls and inperson
• region meetings. Act as a liaison between the section and the region.
• Submit section reports to the region (3 per year).