March 2007 Issue | 
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WIE and IEEE Announcements
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WIE ANNOUNCES WIE AFFINITY GROUP OF THE YEAR AWARD RECIPIENTS The Women in Engineering Committee (WIEC) is pleased to announce the recipients of the 2006 WIE Affinity Group of the Year Award. This year, the winner of the Affinity Group of the Year Award is WIE New York (Region 1). WIE recognized three WIE Affinity Groups with an honorable mention: WIE Victorian (Region 10), WIE Southern New Jersey (Region 2) and WIE Japan (Region 10). Honorable mention awardees are eligible to compete again next year. The WIE New York Affinity Group proposal, submitted by 2006 Chair Darlene Rivera and 2007 Chair Alexandra Galiotta, highlighted over 17 sponsored events the group conducted last year that included a diversity of participants. These included co-sponsored student events, professional and technical talks and many outreach activities. They have worked with GOLD (Graduates of the Last Decade ) and PACE (Professional Activities Committees for Engineers) and have created awards to recognize outstanding contributions for women in engineering. According to 2007 WIEC Chair Karen Panetta, "This Affinity Group has done an outstanding job of publicizing their events and is predominant in the public eye and in making the accomplishments of women more visible to the community. Their website is also a model site for other IEEE WIE Affinity Groups to follow and is a wonderful resource for the community." The WIE Affinity Group of the Year Award was established by the IEEE Women in Engineering Committee to recognize affinity groups based on quality programs, outreach to young women, communication to affinity group members, membership growth and website presence (if available). First place recipients receive US$250 to support future activities and a certificate of recognition. The WIE Affinity Group of the Year Award is given annually to one WIE Affinity Group that has shown outstanding leadership and initiative in organizing activities. The award was based on programs that took place during the period of 1 January to 31 December 2006. Each year, WIE awards the Affinity group of the Year award to the Affinity Group that has shown the most progress in the following areas:
Congratulations to WIE New York and all of the honorable mention awardees. Reminder: *****The WIE Student Branch Affinity Group of the Year Award is awarded separately and is based on programs that take place during the period of 1 July to 30 June. Nominations are due 30 June 2007.******* As a general rule, an Affinity Group cannot receive this award more than once every three years. The nomination form and information is available on the WIE website. www.ieee.org/women
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Other Announcements & Articles of Interest
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YAHOO! FINANCE: “FIXING ENGINEERING"S GENDER GAP” This Yahoo! Finance editorial proposes increasing the U.S. engineering workforce by increasing the participation of women. It interviews accomplished women engineers, including Duke University engineering dean Kristina Johnson, as well as female engineering undergraduates, on the difficulties faced by women and the gender gap. http://uk.biz.yahoo.com/02022007/244/fixing-engineering-s-gender-gap.html NATURE: "BIAS CUT: WOMEN, IT SEEMS, OFTEN GET A RAW DEAL IN SCIENCE” This Nature news story discusses the disparity in grant funding between male and female scientists, and steps that can be taken to make science academia more open to women. In particular, the author recommends gender-blind peer review and self-nomination rather than institutional nomination for grants and awards. http://www.nature.com/news/2007/070129/full/nj7127-566a.html INFOWORLD: “BACK TO SCHOOL: GETTING GIRLS INTO IT” This Infoworld article describes industry initiatives to encourage young girls’ interest in math and science. In particular, it discusses IBM’s EXITE day camps for seventh and eighth grade girls (ages 12-14), and Cisco’s Girls/Women in Technology Initiative. http://www.infoworld.com/article/07/01/29/05FEwomentechteen_1.html WIE membership is FREE for Student, Graduate Student, and Life Members, and just $25 for other IEEE Members. To join WIE, visit http://www.ieee.org/portal/pages/committee/women/join.html. |
Affinity Group News
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WIE CENTRAL TEXAS (USA) PARTICIPATES IN TEXAS CONFERENCE FOR WOMEN Contributed by Vicki L. Almstrum, Vice-Chair, WIE Central Texas For the fourth year, the Central Texas section of IEEE Women in Engineering participated in the annual Texas Conference for Women (TCW). Held in October, the 2006 TCW had about 7,000 attendees, primarily women, whose backgrounds ranged from academics to corporate executives to small business professionals to students. The TCW included over 200 exhibitors, representing a wide variety of businesses, organizations, and universities. The CenTex WIE booth featured brochures about IEEE and WIE, as well as IEEE give-aways such as mints and mini-highlighter pens. Also included was information about the University of Texas at Austin Women in Engineering Program (http://www.engr.utexas.edu/wep/) and about studying CS and engineering at UT Austin. These were valuable services, as many women had questions about opportunities for girls interested in mathematics, science, and engineering careers. The exhibits area remained active throughout the day, with hundreds of women stopping to sample our candy and many pausing to ask questions about IEEE. Speakers at the conference included lifestyle guru Martha Stewart and Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation founder Nancy Brinker. The closing session was an inspirational talk by Dr. Johnnetta Betsch Cole, 14th president of Bennett College for Women in Greensboro, NC, who emphasized the importance of understanding “herstory” in seeing the connections among women. The program during the day featured parallel tracks presented in 3 sessions organized under topics such as “DNA of Leadership,” “Beyond the Work/Life Balancing Act,” “Networking: Why You Need to Know How,” “Managing Your Career,” and “Overstretched, Overbooked and About to Snap?” This conference presented a unique opportunity to reach out to a broad group of women, as well as a chance to network and learn something new. Information about the Texas Women's Conference is at http://www.txconferenceforwomen.org/. WIE TORONTO (CANADA) STARTS 2007 WITH GREAT SPEAKERS AND EVENTS Contributed by Visda Vokhshoori, Chair, WIE Toronto The WIE Toronto Affinity Group started off 2007 with two very informative seminars. The speakers, well known in their field of expertise, gave talks about today's interesting topics. Ms. Ayla Tezcan, P.Eng. gave a talk entitled “Dressing and Grooming by Personality and Life.” The Group learned about fashion do's and don’ts in the work place, and being appropriately groomed at work can play an essential role in career advancement. The next seminar was on Reliability of Distribution Systems; a much discussed and researched topic in the power industry. Ms. Puica Nitu, SMIEE, P.Eng. and Dr. Daniel Fischer jointly talked about this topic. On 10 February a group of us enjoyed the beauties of orchids at the 28th Annual Orchid Show, organized by the Southern Ontario Orchid Society. The show was truly amazing. The pictures can speak much louder than the words: http://picasaweb.google.com/alaleh.azad/WomenInEngineeringTorontoChapter For more information visit http://toronto.ieee.ca/wie/index.html. The website lists all our past and future events. We look forward to hearing from and collaborating with other WIE affinity groups around the world. WIE WELCOMES 8 NEWLY FORMED WIE AFFINITY GROUPS
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WIE Member Spotlight
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Just a reminder for those of you that are also members of American Society for Engineering Education (ASEE). The ballots for the national election are due on 31 March 2007. One of our own IEEE WIE members, Dr. Sarah Rajala is a candidate for President-Elect. Good Luck Sarah! For more information visit: http://www.asee.org/about/Elections-c2.cfm |
