Over the fall, the Vaughn student chapter of the Society of Women Engineers (SWE) held several workshops at the 2016 SWE annual conference and received an award for their contribution. The core organizers of the workshop were Vaughn College students Emily German ’19, vice president of SWE Vaughn Chapter, Samantha Maddaloni ’20, president of Engineers without Borders, Lovedeep Kaur ’19, head of fundraising of SWE Vaughn Chapter with Dimitri Papazoglou ’18, president of SWE Vaughn Chapter who provided the opening presentation.

Sixteen Vaughn students attended the conference and received internship and job offers at the career fair held prior to the conference. Students received interviews with companies such as Johnson Controls, Boeing, Daimler, Northrup Grumman, Raytheon, John Deere, PSE&G, Exelon, Rockwell Collins, Toyota, Harley Davidson, Honeywell, Cummins, Alcoa, Con Edison, Kohler, and Lockheed Martin.

“Through organizing workshops at the conference, students realized that they could help others and encourage a positive attitude in their lives and studies,” said Associate Professor Dr. Shouling He, advisor of the SWE Vaughn chapter.

Vaughn SWE Vaughn Chapter also submitted a paper on how to “Create Interests in Engineering with Girl Scouts,” which detailed a program that taught middle to high school-aged girls how to build a simple electric piano using basic electrical components. This was also presented at the 2016 American Society for Engineering Education (ASEE) St. Lawrence Conference at Cornell University in April, 2016.

The presentation was well received at the ASEE St. Lawrence Conference, selected for publishing in the Jul-Sept 2016 issue of “Transactions on Techniques in STEM Education,” and won the “Best Paper Award” for that issue. “The experience largely enhanced the students’ confidence for their future graduate studies and also encouraged them to find more opportunities to educate precollege students about engineering,” said He.

For more information about Vaughn’s engineering degree program, click here.