From job offers to internship opportunities and more, the recent Society of Women Engineers’ Women in Engineering and Technology Conference in Houston, Texas, made a big difference for eleven Luddy School of Informatics, Computing and Engineering students.
“It was a highlight of my college experience,” said Jessica Thompson, a freshman majoring in intelligent systems engineering
The trip was organized by Tiana Iruoje, director of student engagement and success. She said officials from companies such as Tesla, Daimler and Boeing praised the quality of Luddy participants.
“This opportunity allowed students to envision themselves in roles they never had imagined,” Iruoje said. “They heard from tech professionals discussing a verity of topics, including product engineers, adulting, and more.”
SWE22 is the world’s largest conference for women in engineering and technology. It ran Oct. 20-22 at the George R. Brown Convention Center in Houston.
Internationally renowned experts, content creators and innovators shared information on emerging trends, data and best practices.
Partnering companies included Discover, Northrop Gruman, Ratheon Technologies, Intel and Amazon.
Carian Perez, a second-year intelligent systems engineering student, got insight on professional and technical growth, as well as an internship offer from Texas Instruments.
“It would not have been possible without this conference,” said Perez, whose academic focus is on cyber-physical systems with a minor in math and computer science.
“Not only did I learn about companies I already was interested in, but I learned about companies I had never heard of.”
Guinevere Meadows, a fifth-year senior majoring in intelligent systems engineering, quickly received one job offer, with others pending. She said classes were interesting, the career fair was stimulating (it included some good “swag”) and that visiting a new city and sampling new cuisine was “fun.”
“It was a very fulfilling experience,” she said.
Thompson figured her youth would limit her opportunities, and that companies “would be looking for upperclassmen.”
Instead, she had five interviews and received two paid internship offers from defense contractors for next summer. One is in Maryland, the other in New Jersey. She expects to receive more internship offers.
Thompson also interacted with company officials in social settings outside of the conference that, “was very beneficial to my professional development.”
An added bonus was building relationship with Luddy participants.
“We went to dinner and explored the city,” she said. “We didn’t stop laughing.”
Other attendees were Agness Lungu, Nicole Miller, Kate Riordan, Ploy Unchit, Allie Godfrey, Kate Stinson, Erin Seliger and Annabel Brinker.
Participants will share what they learned through upcoming presentations, including a Luddy poster session (for those graduating or starting full-time work in December), the spring Luddy catalyst conference and the IU CEWIT conference.