News & Events

October Outreach Event Recap: Perot ConnecTeen

Dallas SWE held their first outreach event of the year on October 21st in partnership with the Perot Museum. Cyonna Holmes and Heather Ferguson spoke to the Perot Museum’s ConnectTEEN program about their path to careers in STEM.

ConnecTEEN at the Perot is a program that empowers students to develop the in-demand skill sets needed to thrive in STEM colleges and careers while providing academic, industry and Perot Museum support. Featuring monthly workshops, university campus visits, a mentoring partnership with an industry professional and much more, ConnecTEEN participants will have the opportunity to explore and deepen their interests.

Cyonna and Heather spoke on a STEM panel as part of the program’s monthly workshop and they shared about all aspects of their careers in biomedical engineering and mechanical engineering, respectively. They also answered student questions about college, exploring new opportunities, oil and gas, and heart transplants. The students were enthusiastic, engaged, and enjoyed learning about how engineering degrees can be put into action in the real world!

A huge thanks to Dallas SWE Outreach Committee member, Liberty Schmidt, for coordinating the event with our partners at the Perot Museum and thank you to the Perot Museum for hosting us!

October Professional Development: FICO 101 Recap

Dallas SWE hosted credit expert Eddie Johansson from Credit Security Group on October 13, 2022, for a talk on how FICO scores really work. The event began with a 30-minute dinner and networking session. Eddie then began his presentation with a quick introduction and explained the history of Fair, Isaac, and Company (FICO) first introduced in 1989 used by the majority of banks, and credit grantors. FICO is based on consumer credit files of the three national credit bureaus: Experian, Equifax, and TransUnion which depending on which bureau provides the information to FICO the generated score may differ. Eddie then reviewed the different types of FICO credit score; FICO Score 8 commonly provided through your credit card accounts, FICO Score 5, FICO Score 4, FICO Score 2 commonly used in mortgage lending and various FICO Auto Scores used for auto lending. And reviewed the FICO score scale below and provided examples for us to vote on which scenario will provide a higher FICO score.

FICO Score Scales

300-560 Bad

560-660 Not Good

660-725 Good

725-760 Very Good

760-850 Great

At the end of the presentation Eddie reviewed best practices and myth busters ie. opening new accounts lower your scores and keeping an 8% or less credit utilization on each credit card (not 20% usage averaging all credit accounts).

November PD Event: Career Shift

Please join us for our next professional development event – Career Shift Panel on November 10th at 6:30pm at Sonny Bryan’s Smokehouse in Richardson.

Hear about how our panelists navigated through career changes and overcame some challenges along the way.

Register for this event below or on Eventbrite.

November Professional Development

Join our November Professional Development Event – Career Shift Panel on November 10, 2022 6:30pm at Sonny Bryan’s Smokehouse in Richardson.

Once upon a time, we entered the workforce with our engineering degrees and a plan. But as we quickly learned, things don’t always go as planned. These panelists navigated career changes into and across multiple industries, making big leaps, learning new skills, and forging a new path forward. Panelists will share their own experiences into what it takes to make a career change to different industries, some challenges along the way, and lessons learned, with multiple opportunities for questions from the audience. Attendees will leave the session with an understanding of making industry-switching job changes and perhaps inspiration to make their own.

Learning Outcomes (3):

  1. Recognize benefits and challenges of changing industries.
  2. Identify reasons to move or stay in certain jobs and industries.
  3. Discuss lessons learned from making industry-switching job changes.

Register below or on Eventbrite by Nov. 9th.

Food to be purchased by attendees.

Recap – Resume Roast presented by Claire Jordan sponsored by ADI

Dallas SWE held their first professional development meeting of FY23, hosted by our Gold Sponsor Analog Devices (ADI) Thursday September 30, 2022. We kicked off the evening with some informal networking over a light dinner on a beautiful terrace. After networking, Kathy Vehorn and Priti Gadgil, introduced ADI and the services and products they develop which we’ve all at some point experienced firsthand embedded in cell phone touch screens, voice assistants, car and airplanes electronics.

We also learned about the Analog Garage, a corporate incubator program to provide entrepreneurs with a path to propose, explore and scale new technologies and new business models. It’s called the Analog Garage for two reasons: to recognize the importance of analog know-how in these applications that are instrumenting the world; and to give a nod to all the garages, basements and other nondescript quarters that have served as home for countless beginnings in the history of technological innovation.

After some Dallas SWE announcements, Claire Jordan did a great job illustrating good and bad examples of resumes throughout the night. During the session, we learned how to apply best practices to make our resumes stronger. At the end attendees were able to ask questions. An informal discussion was held where attendees shared, based on personal experiences as hiring managers or job seekers, recommendations on how to make resumes stand out.

Moon Day 2022 Event Recap

The Frontiers of Flight Museum hosted its 14th annual event Moon Day on July 16th, 2022 , the largest space exposition in Texas! This year’s theme was “Technology Drives Exploration”, and they had Apollo 13 Astronaut Fred Haise as keynote speaker. The intention of the 14th annual Moon Day was to continue their tradition of educating, motivating, and inspiring the next generation.

In 2009 Moon Day was established, not only to celebrate the Apollo 11 landing anniversary, but to also showcase the past, present, and future of space exploration. Over the last thirteen years, Moon Day has grown to become an extraordinary event of family-oriented space-themed exhibits, activities, and presentations geared to all ages. Notable past Moon Day Keynotes include Astronauts Walt Cunningham, Janet Kavandi, Doug Wheelock, John Blaha, Bernard Harris, and Dan Bursch.

Dallas SWE was one out of many exhibitors that participated in Moon Day. And we had a blast! Visitors, especially children participated in our activity to create a marshmallow moon lander to keep the astronauts safe. While this challenge didn’t really land them onto the moon, the visitors built landers and learned the concepts of energy, gravity, and the Laws of Motion. A huge thanks to our amazing event lead Ashley Johnson and SWE volunteers Teri Cate, Domanique Johnson, Adele Houlder, Pratiksha Jaju, Sara Heurta, and Kayla Lombard for their help in making Moon Day 2022 a huge success.

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