Advancing Women in Engineering

Challenges of the Internship search from a Master's student perspective

2017-03-13T10:50:00.001-04:00

Get that Internship!

One of the most stressful activities for college students is the Internship and Job search. It can get very tiring, stressful, and can really affect the self-confidence of some students.

I graduated from my undergrad college in Bangalore, India in 2015 and came right to Penn, miles away from home, with the hope of getting a Masters degree in Computer and Information Science. I was overwhelmed by all the smart, driven, older and experienced students I met in my Masters program. I was confident in my ability to do well in academics but felt totally unprepared to face job interviews and compete with other accomplished students for internships and jobs. More than a year and a half ago, I had a lot of self-doubt and was afraid that I didn’t have the required technical and algorithmic skills needed to score a Software Engineering position at a Tech company.

I received many Internship rejects during my first semester (Fall 2015) following which I avoided interviewing with large tech companies like Amazon, Microsoft, Facebook, Google etc. I wanted to take it slow, prepare well, and analyze why I was failing. I continued applying to other smaller, lesser known companies. After a considerable amount of preparation, I finally got an Internship offer from Audible: An Amazon subsidiary, midway through Spring 2016. The key was to focus on problem solving putting aside my fears and believing that my abilities weren’t any lesser than those of my peers. Securing second place at PennApps was one such factor that contributed to upping my confidence levels. During my interview, I was able to talk about my PennApps experience and put across my passion for using my CS skills to solve everyday and important problems. My manager later told me during the summer that that was what had differentiated me from the rest of the interviewees and me being able to successfully solve the given coding question was important but not necessarily what got me the job.

I learned a lot in the Summer of 2016. I had great mentors and co-interns who helped me continuously challenge myself and deliver more than what was expected of me as an intern. I led a Lean In-tern circle where I was able to meet a lot of other amazing female interns in the NYC area. I soon realized that I wasn’t alone and a lot of others face similar struggles with job interviews. Networking and developing friendships at home with my new roommates, at work, and outside of work helped me learn a lot, gave me more insights about the industry and more importantly, increased my ability to help others.

I had learned so much from these new experiences the past year that when I got back to campus in the Fall, I was so much more prepared for the upcoming interview season. I got a lot more interviews and did much better. I went to the Grace Hopper Conference in October ’16 to present a poster on my research and made newer connections and secured more interviews. I was no longer afraid. During these interviews, I was able to solve harder problems with more ease, had much more to talk about and was able to convince the interviewers that I bring more to the table than what they could see during a 45 minute technical interview.

By the end of Fall 2016, I not only had a return offer from my internship, but offers from 2 of the “Big 4” Tech companies and 2 others. Penn is a great place with great resources. Even in a two year Masters program, there is so much you can do.

Take advantage of it.

Having supportive friends and mentors, an amazing research advisor, and my experiences as an RA and TA certainly helped me grow and learn better.

Sneha Rajana- CIS Master's Student

Step out of your comfort zone!

2017-02-21T14:57:00.002-05:00

This past summer, I worked as a Formulation Intern at AstraZeneca’s manufacturing plant in Newark, Delaware. In this position, I was able to step out of my comfort zone and experience a different aspect of the pharmaceutical industry that I would not normally be exposed to by remaining within the academic world. I had the opportunity to be part of a multi-disciplinary team that worked across the manufacturing plant to ensure the accurate and timely production of multiple pharmaceutical tablets produced in that facility. Although the days were long and the projects were not simple, I found that I really enjoyed working in a manufacturing plant environment that constantly tested me.

By putting myself in a new situation I challenged myself to learn and to become more comfortable in a setting that even today tends to be primarily dominated my men. That being said, I believe that these are the circumstances that can help to bridge that employment gap. By more women in the field being exposed to these jobs earlier, it can spark their interest in this area that is not normally discussed. I also believe that it is important for everyone while still in school, to put themselves in a situation that will push them to learn and to experience something outside of their comfort zone. Overall, this experience helped to shape my career goals and aspirations.

Caitlin Ward

Being an Engineer in the Performing Arts

2017-02-14T10:22:00.003-05:00

Before I came to Penn, I had a lot of hobbies. But the main two were STEM and music. I decided to pursue Chemical Engineering when I came to Penn but I didn’t want to let go of my love for performing. Upon arrival at campus, I joined the Quaker Notes A Cappella group. By finding a balance between engineering and performing, I have been able to truly shape and enjoy my college experience.

As an incoming freshman, many students are warned to not get too involved because college is a big adjustment and it is very easy to get overwhelmed. Personally, I was very hesitant to audition for groups. I figured that I would go through the process and if I got overwhelmed, I would take a step back and put my academics first. What I didn’t realize was how great of a decision joining the all-female group would be.

Quaker Notes has not only given me an outlet to take a break from engineering, but it has also provided me with a supportive group that is there for me throughout all of my college milestones. Most engineering classes are very large and while you will find friends in your classes and in the engineering school in general, you may not see them every day or even every semester. A performing arts group will give you a group of 20-or so friends that you will not only spend time with every week, but will truly get to know and love. There are times in engineering when you can become very stressed or overwhelmed, but when you walk into rehearsal, you can put aside all of your stress and focus on having fun with your friends.

Quaker Notes rehearsal is something I look forward to every week. I have even decided to become the Music Director of the group. I am so glad that while I made sure I wasn’t overwhelmed by joining every group, but by joining that one group, (which for me was a performing arts groups) I have truly enriched my Penn experience.

Emily Peters – CBE, 2018

My Experience at PennApps, Fall 2016

2017-02-08T09:38:00.000-05:00

Being an engineer at Penn is great for many reasons, but one of my favorite parts of being at Penn is participating in PennApps. PennApps is a bi-annual hackathon, a 48-hour competition in which teams collaborate on programming projects.

At the beginning of the hackathon, my team still hadn’t thought of an idea for our app. One of the suggested topics for the competition was healthcare, so we focused on apps in this category to narrow down our brainstorming. We also took the time to visit each sponsor booth, and one of the sponsors was Nexmo, a communications company that provides a way to send texts and make phone calls using code. This piqued our interest, and ultimately led to the idea for our app.

We decided to build an app for Apple Watch that listens to a user’s pulse to detect cardiac arrest or other life-threatening heart conditions. After the watch detects this, we used the Nexmo code to send texts to emergency contacts and make a call to 911 to receive emergency medical attention. The biggest challenge in building this project was testing and demoing the app because we couldn’t just simulate a cardiac arrest every time we wanted to try out the app. Instead, we changed the Apple Watch code to listen for normal, healthy heartbeats instead of life-threatening conditions, and we tested the app by wearing the watch ourselves.

Building the app was truly a team effort, and our hard work was rewarded when we received a prize for Best Use of the Nexmo API! Each team member received an Amazon Echo as a prize. It was a great experience to work with Nexmo and Apple Watch programming for the first time, and I am excited to participate in PennApps again this semester!

Bethany Davis – CIS, 2017

All I need is a little help from... my TA!

2016-02-08T16:04:00.000-05:00

When I came to Penn as a freshman in the fall of 2012, I was a professional at not studying for quizzes, tests, or exams. Coming from a small private school in the suburbs of Detroit, Michigan, school was never the thing that stumped me. Sure, I had my fair share of homework and stress, amongst college applications, sports practices, rehearsals for the band, and Model United Nations research. But the foundation of my stress was in the time management department, not the content of my academics. I was confident in my ability to succeed on an exam, as long as I had done the appropriate homework, listened in class, and glanced over the material as a refresher the night before.

Coming to Penn and majoring in Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, however, was a whole different story. My peers were just as smart, driven, and accomplished as me. And it took completely bombing the first Chem 101 midterm a few weeks into the semester, a class I actually felt strongly about, for me to have a real wake-up call. My no-study days were long gone. But what was I to do? I had never studied before, I had no strategic skills to fall back on, and no one to teach me the study habits I desperately needed.

After some frantic phone calls home, then a brief period of denial, I was at dinner one night with a group of friends whom I’d grown really close with during AWE Pre-Orientation. One of my friends suggested I go to the TA (Teaching Assistant) office hours with her that night. The concept baffled me; wouldn’t it be embarrassing to show my face in the “supplemental help” meeting, where the under-achieving students went when they were in trouble? But I ignored this train of thought and let my friend convince me to go, chalking it up to new experiences and getting out of my comfort zone. We walked down to the Engineering Quad together after dinner and both timidly knocked on the door of our TA’s office, totally unsure of what we were going to encounter.

The door swung open and, to my complete shock, nearly half our class sat in the tiny office. Most kids sat on the floor, legs and backpacks and notebooks and laptops sprawled all around, some kids even eating dinner while they were working. Everyone, from the kid with the highest grade on the midterm to the kid with the lowest grade, was working together on the most recent homework assignment. It turned out pretty much everyone was just as confused as I was, and we ended up tackling that week’s problems as a team. I went home that night and texted my mom in disbelief. I had figured out my first major problem on my own.

From that night forward, throughout my four years at Penn, I have had to constantly remind myself of the amazing resources available to undergrads when the going gets tough. Many of the TA’s for Engineering classes are phenomenal; they are always willing to meet with you either in office hours or by appointment if your schedule conflicts. Professors are equally receptive, answering emails (often in the middle of the night), and encouraging students to ask questions when they’re confused, instead of falling behind and then trying and failing to catch up later.

Penn is bursting at the seams with smart, driven, accomplished kids, but the faculty and grad students are even more driven, accomplished and smarter. We must always keep them in mind as the amazing resources they truly are. We must not be timid or afraid when it comes to asking for help. Learning how to ask for help is just as important as learning from the help that is received. If I could go back to freshman year and give myself one piece of advice, it would be to take even greater advantage of my professors and TA’s. Never again will you be surrounded by such brilliant people who are so willing to help you. Take advantage of these endless opportunities, ask for help, and learn a little bit about yourself in the process.

Rebecca Michelson CBE ‘16

Then and Now

AWE in New York City

2015-10-21T15:53:00.000-04:00

On Friday, October 16, nine SEAS undergraduate women, myself included, traveled to New York City for two site visits at LivePerson and XO Group. The trip was arranged by Advancing Women in Engineering (AWE) and Penn Alumnae Kristy Sundjaja and Katherine Brady.

To give a short background on the company, “LivePerson is a New York City-headquartered technology company that works with over 13,000 companies to enhance their online commerce transactions by providing a cloud-based platform that enables businesses to connect with their customers via messaging through websites, social media and mobile devices.”

During the site visit, we first heard from the CEO of LivePerson, Robert Locascio. He told us a story of learning to grow from failure based on his own experiences being laid off from his first job and with the failure of the first company he started. One thing he said which sums up his message was, “Where you fail is where you learn. You never quit when you fail.” Mr. Locascio said that for every silly idea, there’s a wealthy person making money from it. He said, “No one can help you make the journey of your life.”
After Mr. Locascio spoke with us, Kristy Sundjaja ENG00 W99 GEN00 (Systems, Finance, Master’s in Systems) told her story. She came to Penn from Indonesia without ever having visited the school. She started in Bioengineering but switched to Systems Science and Engineering and entered the M&T program. After graduation, she began working in consulting before working with the New York City government and eventually joining LivePerson.

She said that engineering teaches you how to work with different people, and if you know how to work with and manage people, you have the foundation for great leadership skills. Ms. Sundjaja arranged for a panel of four speakers from varied backgrounds and current roles in technology and product management at LivePerson to speak with us.

Visiting XO Group in New York City

We headed to the XO Group on the MTA. XO is the premier consumer Internet and media company dedicated to providing information, products and services to those planning their wedding, pregnancy and everything in between. We met with Katherine Brady, ENG01 W01 (M&T, BAS and Economics) and got a quick tour of the office before lunch. After lunch, a panel of XO female professionals in Technology, Product, and Marketing joined us in the café. They gave us their perspective on how they came to work at the XO Group. We heard from Ms. Brady as well as Michael Steib, the CEO ( Penn alumnus).

We discussed what skills are important for engineers, the experience of being a woman in tech, and about how their respective backgrounds led them to XO Group. To one question, “What drives your career?” Ms. Krechmer, VP of Engineering, said, “saying yes to opportunity, even when you’re scared.”Another piece of advice was to be able to learn and adapt, ask good questions, and go out of your comfort zone. The tech world moves quickly, and you must be able to learn to keep up.

The thing that struck me most on this trip was how much the mindsets of the professionals I met differed from own. While many of my friends and I, as seniors, stress over what we will do after graduation, the people I met on these visits to LivePerson and XO Group showed me that your path will take turns that you never expected, and opportunities will arise that you never could have predicted. This visit showed me that you have to be true to yourself in your goals. At Penn, it’s easy to get swept up in the wave of people who seem to have their whole career trajectories planned out. But unless you’re being honest with yourself with regards to who you are, what you enjoy doing, and what difference you want to make, you won’t be content, even with a paycheck.

Erin Beacham BE 16

Stress Relief Paint Night

2014-12-22T15:38:00.003-05:00

As engineering graduate students at the University of Pennsylvania, we spend our days working with hard numbers, algorithms, scientific equipment, and biological cultures, looking for answers to tough questions. Sometimes, a break from research can be very valuable, and so we helped AWE host a Stress Relief Paint Night, where graduate students could come and exercise their creative, artistic sides, and do some work that doesn't have an answer at all, much less a right one.

We provided canvases, paint, and lots of paintbrushes. For those who needed a little artistic inspiration, we projected a short video walk-through of how to create a simple acrylic painting for people to follow along. Some attendees surprised us with their advanced painting skills! There were lots of unique paintings in all sorts of styles: realism, impressionism, even some (perhaps unintentional) abstract expressionism. Everyone seemed to bond over their painting successes and "happy accidents." The paint night was a great way to relieve stress, relax, and socialize with grad students from departments other than our own.

We also got lots of positive feedback from attendees!
One told us "I really appreciate such a wonderful night! I posted my photos on social networks and received a lot of compliments!"
Another shared: "It was tremendous fun!" And: "It's a great event!!!!! Love it!!!"

This was an incredibly popular event, and we had over 100 women express interest in attending! We plan to host another grad paint night in the Spring semester, in addition to the many other events AWE puts on.

CIS 120 Teaching Assistant, Bethany Davis

2014-12-04T12:16:00.003-05:00

Here's a blog post from Bethany Davis:

It has been said that the best way to learn is to teach. That is why I was so excited when I found out I was chosen to be a CIS 120 Teaching Assistant at the beginning of this semester.

My name is Bethany Davis and I’m a sophomore at SEAS studying Computer Science. CIS 120, or Programming Languages and Techniques I, was the first computer science course I took at Penn. During the first half of the semester, I learned my first functional programming language, OCaml, through a series of increasingly challenging weekly assignments that build off of previous concepts and syntax structures. The OCaml portion of the course culminates in a GUI project similar to Microsoft Paint. The second half of the course transitions from OCaml to Java, and culminates in a largely self-directed project in which each student designs a Java game. When I took the course, I built a version of the Snake game from scratch. I found the course to be rewarding because I learned a new programming language, constantly challenged my programming abilities, and produced tangible projects that I could demo for my friends.

The spring semester of my freshman year, two of my hall-mates enrolled in the course. I found myself staying up late to help them with the assignments. I found it very rewarding to share my own CIS 120 experiences with my friends, and it was also very fulfilling to see the influence I had on my peers: one of my hall-mates ended up declaring a minor in CS, while another hall-mate went so far as to consider a second major in CS. I realized that I had a passion for spreading my love of programming to others, and I wanted to find a way to give back to the CS community at Penn, so I decided to apply to become a CIS 120 teaching assistant. After an application and an interview, I was hired as a CIS 120 TA for the Fall 2014 semester!

The infrastructure of the entry-level CIS courses at Penn is very well established. Every week, I attend a CIS 120 staff meeting to debrief on the previous week’s lecture concepts and assignments, review plans for the upcoming week, and discuss the overall trajectory of the course. As a new TA, I also attend weekly TA training sessions with first-time teaching assistants and Head TA’s from the other entry-level courses. During training sessions, we discuss a variety of topics ranging from how to best conduct a recitation to how to increase diversity within computer science. Training sessions definitely help me think critically about my teaching and my role as a TA.

While it may seem that being a teaching assistant primarily entails helping others, I have found that my role as a TA has also been beneficial for my own sake. As a TA, I am responsible for teaching a weekly recitation, holding weekly office hours, and grading students’ weekly assignments for style, testing, and efficiency. Once of the most challenging (yet rewarding) parts of being a TA is helping individual students during office hours. It is difficult to strike a balance between guiding a student towards the right answer while still allowing the student to solve the problem independently. The most fulfilling part of being a TA is when I am helping a student in office hours and the student suddenly reaches that “AHA!” or “eureka!” moment of understanding. Whenever I help a student reach this moment while solving a difficult problem, I am reminded why computer science is such an incredible field to be a part of, and why computer science sparked my interest in the first place. Furthermore, although grading assignments can be tedious and time-consuming, I have found it to be very beneficial to my own journey as a computer science student. Reading other students’ code allows me to visualize many different solutions and approaches to the same problem. Additionally, when I am forced to be critical of other students’ code, it teaches me to be more critical of the code I write myself, and I have found that through grading poorly written code, I am inspired to write more readable, well-written code for my own assignments. Finally, being a TA has helped me prepare for technical interviews. It can be very challenging and uncomfortable to discuss algorithms and code segments with an interviewer, but because I get practice explaining algorithms and code during recitations every week, I have felt much more at ease whenever I approach questions in a technical interview.

I am grateful for the opportunity to be a teaching assistant even though I am only an undergraduate student in computer science. While my role as a TA is primarily to teach others, I am also grateful for everything that being a TA has taught me!

Grace Hopper Conference 2014

2014-11-04T12:04:00.000-05:00

Below is a blog post by Kate Miller and Bethany Davis on their experience at the Grace Hopper Conference in Phoenix:

Bethany Davis and I had the tremendous opportunity to attend the Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing in Phoenix early October. For three days, thousands of women across the country gathered to talk about the state of the software industry, the rich history of women like Naval Rear Admiral Grace Hopper (who developed the first compiler) and where we’re going as individuals and colleagues.

Grace Hopper Celebration 2014

There were too many incredible sessions for us to attend them all, but we both gained a lot from it. I attended the international release of the documentary, “The Big Dream,” which follows several young women from different backgrounds including the Comp Sci sisters in Iowa, the homeless computer animator in San Francisco, and a military-minded freshman who had just lost her mother to cancer (her mother was also an engineer).

I also did technical interview practice questions with fellow nervous interviewees and learned about the effect of body language on negotiations.

We heard many positive remarks at this confernce -- a social change award recipient, Ruthe Farmer, encouraged HR reps at software companies to start increasing their payroll budgets, “because there are a lot of young women headed your way who are going to negotiate their salaries!” However, not everyone was so positive -- CEO Satya Nadella encourage women not to negotiate, but rather to “trust the system” (an inflammatory statement as Microsoft has only 17% female employees). He apologized for remarks shortly after, but the firestorm is still burning on tech blogs.

Controversy aside, some exciting developments came out of it: I had several interviews during the conference and even received an internship offer on the first day! We even ran into an old friend: we went out to dinner with Michele at Culinary Dropout. I am happy to report that she is as fabulously successful as ever, and is enjoying her new pool. (It’s not too late to come back to Penn, though!)

Kate, Michele and Bethany

A note on swag: I think if more young women knew about the corporate giveaways at technology conferences, the talent pipeline would overflow. The networking and knowledge gained are of course the most valuable piece of the conference, but my suitcase was filled to the brim with portable chargers, headphones, t-shirts, flip books, nail polish, and much more (most of which I passed along to my little sister, a high school freshman. I’m essentially bribing her to become an engineer).

A slightly more serious note: Though I believe that Penn does an excellent job in its efforts to recruit and retain women in engineering, the fact remains that only about 10% of Computer Science majors are women, and that can feel isolating. The fact that a community like the one that came together at Grace Hopper exists is inspirational, and I’m excited to continue to build that network of support at Penn through AWE.

Our lovely Kate and Bethany

Senior Year: Part 1 of 2

2014-09-18T10:24:00.000-04:00

Coming back to campus this fall, I was excited to see what the year would have in store - but for a different reason than most of my class of 2015 peers. For them, it is the first of many lasts—the last first day of classes, the last course registrations, the last summer before real life happens. I normally do things a little differently and have recently decided that I would take five years to finish my undergraduate degrees instead of the normal four. It was a bittersweet moment when I met with advisers to officially change my academic status to a 2016 graduation date. Even though I’ll have a different experience this year during my senior year, part 1 of 2, I’ll be able to actually live my life instead of just surviving the rest of the days trying to get through all of my classes.

After transferring in to The Jerome Fisher Program in Management and Technology at the end of freshman year, I had a quite a few additional classes to catch up on to complete my bioengineering and my Wharton degrees. I thoroughly enjoy both sides of my academic experience at Penn and wanted to fully pursue both sides with a Bachelor of Science in Engineering (BSE) degree instead of a Bachelor of Applied Science (BAS) degree along with Wharton concentrations in finance and management. I came to Penn not wanting to have to choose between business or engineering, so instead I chose to do both and have loved it ever since!

Cathryn and her dog Zoey

I also realized there was more that I wanted to experience in college rather than racing through my classes and giving up other activities that I love like Chi Omega Sorority, SWE Educational Outreach, AWE Advisory Board, club volleyball, and running among other things. Although I am constantly learning through my classes, I feel I have learned the most through these other activities because there isn’t a textbook to learn from or a professor to ask for help during office hours. Instead, you are forced to learn as you go. Failure is only a failure if you don’t learn from it! Whether it is solving Chi Omega’s tax issue with the IRS or piloting a new SWE Educational Outreach mentoring program, I am constantly challenged outside of the classroom to become a better leader and a smarter student. I couldn’t justify giving up these experiences and giving up what I wanted to explore in college.

My Summer Internship

2014-09-12T12:03:00.002-04:00

Here's Bianca Pham's summer internship experience in a small startup tech company:

My summer internship in the creative industry

As a Networked & Social Systems engineering student, I had the option of going into software, consulting, product management, etc. just like the other kids in my major. However, I wanted to build up skills that would allow me to be more creative and allow more room for design thinking. Thus, I interviewed for a small creative digital agency in New York called Ivory Digital.

Ivory Digital

Ivory Digital is made up of a small team of entrepreneurs who build products they love for small brands that matter. As a production assistant, I helped the production team on every facet of a digital project: from business and web development to the creation of a business class website; from collecting project requirements to creating design presentations; from browser-troubleshooting to producing HTML markup; I experienced the full cycle of crafting websites for a wide array of client sites Ivory Digital currently maintains. In short summary, many of my projects consisted of giving a “fashion makeover” for a company’s website. Although I had mostly only technical skills, my boss was willing to take the time to teach me design skills such as Photoshop and InDesign because I was in a small startup company.

Typically when I start my project, I would first meet with the clients to understand their brand goals and objectives for their new website. I would then strategize content, website features, and plan the architecture of the new website. Once that was approved, I got to the fun part which was putting together mood boards and concept designs for the new website based on inspiring themes. After my clients approve all of the steps above, we would code up our newly designed website and Voila!

Bianca and her coworkers

At this internship, I found out both that I have a creative side as well as the value of being a Penn Engineering student. I had the skills to talk to clients, understand the coding behind the website and figure out what the developers wanted out of the final product. With these various skills, I was able to act as a middle-man between the various departments and translate the needs of each department to one another. It was difficult to find a balance between all of the departments, but I had the power to pick and choose what elements made sense to put together to build our final product. Thus, I really encourage students develop new skills that you have always wanted to develop and try working in a startup environment, because there, you can learn a lot about yourself and learn from the people around you.

Questions for Bianca? You can contact her at phamb@seas.upenn.edu

What I did on my summer vacation

2014-08-14T14:34:00.001-04:00

As a dual-degree student (M&T), I knew that I wanted to stay at Penn this summer and take classes to lighten my course load during the regular school semester. However, I also wanted to supplement my summer coursework by doing research or interning somewhere near Philadelphia. Through an introduction from my MBA mentor at Wharton, I was hired as a Business Development Intern with a fashion start-up called Pragma Retail.

Pragma offers clothes for on-the-go women who travel frequently. The startup was formed when the company’s founder—a former consultant at Accenture—noticed the lack of stylish clothes that were designed for traveling. Her job required her to travel a lot, and she was tired of stepping off the plane and into a meeting with a wrinkled outfit and dealing with hotel irons that would burn her clothes. All of Pragma’s clothes are wrinkle-resistant and made with chemical-free, vegan textiles. The clothes are designed to be practical but stylish. Long-term, the company plans to expand into accessories, menswear, and children’s wear.

For this summer, Pragma’s goal—and the main project I was working on—was the development of a Kickstarter campaign to fund the first production run for the company’s three product lines. As an intern at a start-up, you get to learn and have a hand in many different things—it all just depends on what needs to be done on that particular day. My internship has been a fun mix of graphic design and business. I’ve created designs for their main logo as well as the logos for each of their individual product lines. I have also taken photos for their website and am currently filming and producing a video for their Kickstarter page. In terms of the business side, I have done a lot of benchmarking and research on crowd funding campaigns for start-ups. I have also accompanied the founder to strategy meetings with fashion designers (and have gotten to try on some sample clothes that the designers have made!). We have also met with textile producers in the New York area to discuss pricing and to select fabrics. For the remainder of the summer, I’m working on updating their business plan and creating pitch decks to present to investors.

Another great thing I’m enjoying about my internship is having more female mentors to learn from. Pragma’s founder and the entire team are all females, and I have gotten to pick their brains about career development and their professional experiences. Along with the advice and support I’ve been grateful to have received from upperclassmen and peers in AWE, it has been great to also have mentors in the business world to learn from as well. I really enjoyed my internship experience this summer and look forward to what’s in store with Pragma in the future!

Michelle is a sophomore in Electrical Engineering. Questions for Michelle? contact her at awe@seas.upenn.edu

A recent graduate shares her summer adventure

2014-08-10T12:27:00.003-04:00

I just got back this weekend from two weeks of training in Chicago for my new job. I’m still living near campus because I’ll be working in Philly, and I have to say it’s a bit strange to be here and know I won’t be going back to class next month. I had about two months between graduation and work so I’ve been traveling a lot. I went to Washington DC for the first time where I saw all the monuments, museums, and the white house. Then it was back to Philly for a couple days before heading off to San Francisco. While I was there I also made some side trips to visit friends in LA and go wine tasting in Napa Valley. After that I had a weekend here and then it was off to Brazil – the trip I had been saving for all through college.

I’m Portuguese, so football, or soccer as Americans call it, is a big part of my culture. Ever since I was little, I’ve wanted to go to a world cup. It’s also been a dream of mine to go to Brazil. So when the two things happened together, the year I graduated, I knew I had to be there. Even better, Portugal was playing the US on my birthday. I entered the lottery for tickets back in January or February, and as soon as I learned I got the game tickets, I was looking for hotels, flights, and people to come with me. Luckily a couple of my friends were crazy enough to decide to come with me, so at the end of June we left for Brazil. The games we were watching were in Manaus, which is a city in the middle of the Amazon rainforest. So on top of getting to watch the world cup live, we got to explore the forest. One day we climbed a 60m tall tree and relaxed up at the top in hammocks above the forest canopy. Another day we went swimming in waterfalls, and hiked through the river and caves. The games themselves were also amazing – being in the stadium with people dressed up and supporting their teams was a great experience. Unfortunately, Portugal tied so it wasn’t the best end to my birthday, but I still had a really good time. In fact, the whole experience was so good, and easier to organize than I expected, that I’m planning on going to the next world cup. So, if anyone wants to join, I’ll see you in Russia in four years.

Patricia graduated in May with a Systems Science Engineering Degree and will be working in consulting in Philadelphia this fall. Questions for Patricia? contact her at awe@seas.upenn.edu

One student's summer adventures

2014-07-15T16:26:00.000-04:00

My first Saturday here in Raleigh, North Carolina, I slept until 5 PM. No, I didn’t have mono; I was just severely jetlagged. Two days earlier, I had flown back to the United States from Guatemala. From the Philadelphia airport, I went straight to my hometown of Baltimore to pack for the rest of the summer. I proceeded to get two hours of sleep before waking up at 4 AM for my flight to Raleigh. Although those few days were crazy, my tendency to overextend myself has definitely paid off. This summer has been rewarding, exciting, and enlightening, and has helped to shape me as a person just like the past two semesters I spent at Penn.

If you had asked me six months ago what I thought I would be doing in the summer, I probably would have gotten a panicked look on my face. I had decided not to go back to my previous summer employment as a camp counselor in hopes of getting a job where I could apply what I had learned about computer engineering. I hoped that was the right decision, as I had doubts that I could get a meaningful position after only a year of college. I put all my spare time into my summer applications to prove these doubts wrong. I wanted to do research, so I applied to National Science Foundation Research Experiences for Undergraduates. These programs are located all over the country and there are opportunities for just about every scientific or engineering discipline. I liked the idea of going to a different university for the summer and meeting students with different educational backgrounds. I also wanted to try research to see whether it was something I would want to pursue further. When the Interactive and Intelligent Media REU at North Carolina State University offered me a position doing computer science research, I was ecstatic. On top of that, I found out that I had been offered a spot to travel to Guatemala with Engineers without Borders. Ever since applying to Penn, I had dreamed of going on an Engineers without Borders trip and applying my engineering skills to serving others.

The view of the area around Pajomel, Guatemala after a hike up the mountain.

So right after finals ended, I was off to Guatemala, excited to explore a foreign country for the first time. The first few days were a whirlwind of new sights, sounds, and sensations. We drove down steep switchbacks in the fog in a van packed tight with 16 people and caught glimpses of the deepest lake in Central America, framed by the lush green mountains.

I played Frisbee and tried to communicate in Spanish with 9 year old girls who were holding their baby siblings on their backs in slings made of vibrantly colored fabric. Soon, the rest of the team and I settled into life in the rural village of Pajomel, where we worked each day carrying materials and mixing concrete in order to build latrines for families. I will never forget the day a few of my friends and I woke up before dawn to help a woman make corn tortillas. We carried a bowl of raw corn down to the mill to turn into cornmeal, then trekked back up the mountain to her home where we tried to imitate her dexterous manner of shaping the cornmeal into perfect circles and placing them on the stovetop over the fire. I gained a deep appreciation for the work ethic and community spirit of the people in Pajomel, and these traits made me rethink the value we place on material success and technological connectivity in the United States. Because of this trip, I know I want to continue to travel, and most importantly, to use what I learn as an engineer to help people and the environment.

Me surveying a completed latrine in Guatemala with the help of an expert

When I got to Raleigh, I felt a bit lost at first. The fact that I would be away from home all summer was setting in, and summer has always been my favorite time to spend with my family and childhood friends. On top of that, it was hard being alone all of a sudden when the past few weeks I had become so close with everyone on the Guatemala team. Although we had been in a foreign country, we had experienced everything as a group, and at first I felt like the new things I was seeing in Raleigh weren’t even real if I couldn’t share them with the others in our end-of-the-day discussion.

Luckily, I had my work to keep me occupied. The principal investigator in my lab let me choose my project, and I decided to work on developing an Android application for a study on the user experience on smartphones. I was given much more freedom than I expected, which was intimidating at first. I had to teach myself Android development through online tutorials and forum discussions. Now, though, I feel confident that I can teach myself any programming skill. This is critical in computer science, where the “hacker” culture values self-taught skills as much as those learned in classes. I love coming to work each day and learning new aspects of Android development. Recently, I have been working on getting my app to interact with Google Spreadsheets and Dropbox, and it is really rewarding to see the data that my app collects appear on a spreadsheet on another computer when I press a button.

Meanwhile, I have started to feel much more at home here in Raleigh. I have made good friends here and explored the city with them. We spent the Fourth of July listening to live music at a street festival and then going to gallery openings. Raleigh has a vibrant arts scene as well as being part of the “Research Triangle,” which is known for tech and engineering innovation. It also has a growing startup culture. One of my friends brought me to a networking event at a startup accelerator, where I learned about ways that small local businesses and entrepreneurs are trying to change the world through tech. I was one of only two women at the event, but I felt confident that I belonged because of the confidence instilled in me by the supportive community of women in engineering I experienced at Penn.

If you are a woman pursuing engineering or just thinking about it, one reason to keep following your dreams is because it shows you that you really are capable of anything—of thriving in new places, making good impressions on new people, and learning new things. As an engineer you are consistently challenged but also given the resources to rise to the occasion, and you will become more confident than ever when you do succeed. Although I will be sad as this summer winds to a close, I know that being an engineer will give me opportunities to go to even more exciting places, and I can’t wait to take those chances.

Nova is a sophomore in Computer Engineering. Questions for Nova? Email her at awe@seas.upenn.edu

Thinking about Pre-Orientation? Here's two students' reasons why you should come!

2014-05-27T10:27:00.002-04:00

The best decision we made after committing to Penn was signing up for the AWE Pre-Orientation program. We know that sounds a little over the top, but it’s a completely legit statement. Coming into Penn Engineering, we didn’t know anybody and didn’t know what to expect, but the AWE Pre-Orientation program quickly alleviated all of our fears of not making friends or knowing what to do.

Close to half of the girls in the incoming engineering class participate in AWE Pre-Orientation every year, and that number continues to grow. This makes the program an AWEsome (we’re so punny) way to get to know the girls in your classes. We walked into our Chem 101 lecture the first day of classes and basically knew all of the girls, which made us feel much more comfortable in a completely new and stressful situation. We ended up studying with girls from AWE in a lot of our classes, and hung out with them outside of class as well. Most importantly, we found each other. We met during a rather intense spaghetti structure competition on the first night and bonded on the walk to the quad when one of us (Bizzie) didn’t know how to get there from engineering. We’ve been besties ever since. In fact, we’re rooming together next year! We aren’t exaggerating when we say the friends you make during Pre-Orientation will be your friends for the next four years.

In addition to the friends we made, the knowledge we gained was irreplaceable once we started freshman year. For one thing, we got to move into our dorms early. Trust us when we say this: there is NOTHING more valuable than moving in early! It was super convenient since it’s pretty empty and there aren’t a lot of people to get in your way. Moreover, we learned how to get to our classes, and how to navigate the engineering quad, as well as DRL (the math and physics building) before anybody else even got on campus. There was a general engineering tour during New Student Orientation, and when all the boys tried to figure out what country they were in, we already knew the E-Quad like the back of our hand.

The volunteers of the AWE pre-orientation were also extremely helpful in preparing us--both emotionally and mentally--for the year ahead. These girls gave up their time to help us, and they really were an incredible group of girls, who we still know, look up to, and are even friends with now. They did the program themselves, and have the female engineering thing down. They gave us great advice about everything, from office hours and the horrifying average engineering GPA, to understanding the Penn social life. They were completely honest with us, answered any questions we threw at them, and made it clear they just wanted to ease our stress. Further, the Pre-Orientation gave us a ton of insight to all the engineering majors, which was extremely helpful for one of us (Lindsay), who was undecided at the time. After attending the Pre-Orientation, we felt far more prepared walking into class, with a group of girl friends and knowing what to expect.

At Penn, we definitely have a “work hard, play hard” mentality, and so naturally the AWE Pre-Orientation included some super cool events that made the experience all the more fun. We watched a movie and had a scavenger hunt (which we almost won) and explored Philly! Michele (the Director of Advancing Women in Engineering, or, as she refers to herself, “the lady who sends all the emails”) took us on a trolley tour of Philadelphia, to Reading Terminal Market for some amazing cheese steaks and ice cream, and to a bowling alley (cookies and lemonade were included).

Now, this brings us to our last point about AWE: we love Michele. She is an academic advisor, and so she is incredibly approachable and helpful with questions about classes or AWE or anything else. She is incredibly passionate about bringing the women in engineering together and building a community amongst them, which she succeeds at beautifully. And more importantly, if Michele is there, there is a 99 percent chance of free food. She is the queen of the BEST FREE FOOD YOU WILL EVER EAT. There will be so much of it; your stomach will thank you.

In closing, we absolutely loved our AWE experience. Signing up for the AWE Pre-Orientation program was the best decision we made our freshmen year, and we hope that every girl in Engineering makes the same choice.

Bizzie & Lindsay just finished their freshmen year at Penn. Questions for them? Email awe@seas.upenn.edu

Why I chose Penn

2014-05-22T16:11:00.001-04:00

Congrats to everyone who was accepted this year to Penn Engineering! When I think back to last year, I remember the excitement of being in your shoes and making my decision on which school to attend. Though I thought my choice would be difficult to make, when I visited Penn, I knew that this school was the right fit for me and my interests.

One reason why I chose Penn Engineering was its opportunities for hands-on learning. For example, I am studying Electrical Engineering and am currently taking an introductory digital design lab. Every week, we are challenged with a mini project that we design using software similar to the programs used by actual R&D teams. At the end of each lab session, we program and demo our design on an FPGA board (my dad, who also studied Electrical Engineering, didn’t get to work with FPGAs until his junior year of college). Additionally, there are many clubs and organizations at Penn that encourage hands-on learning both in and out of the classroom. Although I am not a Computer Science major, I participated in PennApps (Penn’s biannual hackathon) under a mentoring group that taught me the basics of programming in Java.

The supportive network of other female engineers at Penn Engineering was also a major factor in my decision. Since engineering is often a male-dominant field, I was pleasantly surprised to meet so many female engineers at Penn. I met some of my closest friends by attending the AWE Pre-orientation program and my AWE and SWE (Society of Women Engineers) mentors have been extremely helpful for advice on academics and adjusting to college. It has been invaluable to be a part of such a tight-knit, friendly community of fellow female engineers.

I have enjoyed my first year at Penn Engineering and I’m looking forward to studying at Penn for the next three years. Hope to see you in the Engineering Quad!

Michelle is a freshman in Electrical Engineering. Questions for Michelle? Contact her at awe@seas.upenn.edu

One student's senior design experience

2014-05-06T14:24:00.000-04:00

As of one hour ago, I finished giving my final presentation to the judges during Demo Day. For those of you who don’t know what that is, here’s a quick rundown: seniors at Penn have a final graduation requirement know as senior design. It varies a bit from department to department but basically it’s a final project to showcase what you learned in your four years here at Penn. In my department (ESE) we have a year to do any project we want. So we start by defining a project and finding advisors and then the rest of the year is actually spent completing it. Towards the end of the year we get the chance to show our work to people in what is called Demo Day. We set up our poster and product in a lab, and people have the chance to come in and talk to us or ask questions. We also have to present to a panel of judges. So, over the course of two hours we gave our presentation four or five times to a total of nine judges.

To some, that may sound intimidating, but I think for most of us, it’s an exciting time to show off what we have done, and once you get the hang of it, the presentations are really simple. I was actually glad of the opportunity to present because we finally get to share our work with someone other than our advisors or our friends. And after working on something for an entire year, it’s nice to get to talk about it. So, I guess I’ll take this opportunity to talk about my project one more time.

My teammates and I worked with the process improvement team at CHOP (Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia) to create a model that helps predict length of stay for low acuity patients (those with less severe conditions). The current length of stay for this patients is very long and we wanted to help the hospital find specific times when they could improve the most. We were given a year and a half worth of data to sort through and organize, and we used this to create probability distributions that would be the driving force behind our model. We then created a model, using MATLAB, which could predict patient length of stay or give a predicted range for length of stay for any time of day on any given day of the year. And our predicted range contained the actual historical average length of stay in 99% of the cases (we were at 95% only yesterday, but were able to make some last minute improvements). Now CHOP can use our tool to compare the effects of interventions across various time blocks and see where these interventions can make the most impact. Hopefully, this will go a long way in helping them reduce their length of stay. It really has been nice to work with a stakeholder of our project, and to create a product that might actually be useful to someone.

I’ll be going back to Demo Day in half an hour or so when I finish work, and I look forward to speaking with more people about my project and then finishing the day by celebrating our accomplishments with other ESE seniors. There were times during the year when it almost looked like we wouldn’t get things done, but somehow we pulled through, and now not a lot more stands between me and graduation. It’s been a great four years here at Penn, and this has been a great way to finish things off.

Patricia is a senior in Systems Engineering. Questions for Patricia? email her at awe@seas.upenn.edu

What is Systems Engineering?

2014-04-30T12:50:00.000-04:00

Systems engineering is a major that is often hard to describe. There are many definitions of systems engineering—just ask a few systems majors and you will no doubt hear a different iteration—all of which include words like “optimization,” “efficiency,” “integration,” or some combination thereof. Sure, these words can describe systems, but they are probably meaningless out of context.

And so it is best to give an example: let’s say we are building a plane. The mechanical engineer is involved with the construction and design of the plane. The electrical engineer is concerned with the wiring of the electronics in the plane. The computer engineer codes the flight software that the pilots will use to fly the plane. A chemical engineer researches the best fuel for the plane to allow it to fly long distances and not pollute the air. The bioengineer researches the impact of a plane crash on the bodies of passengers and the appropriate safety equipment to prevent serious injuries. And the systems engineer is the person who makes sure that all of these engineers coordinate with each other, that the right parts are ordered and arrive at the right time in the construction process, that the construction process is cost and time efficient, and that the best final product is made. Essentially, the systems engineer considers all aspects of a project in order to integrate them into the whole, the plane in this case.

While the example of building a plane may be very specific, systems majors can enter a variety of different fields. Generally, a systems engineer will have a focus within systems since it is a broad major. At Penn, some examples of focuses are economic and financial systems, transportation systems and logistics, information systems, robotics and control systems, and computational social systems.

But you might still be wondering what a systems engineer would actually do in the workforce. Many systems engineers pursue consulting—consultants can work in a multitude of industries ranging from technology to finance to retail. The job of a consultant is to provide professional advice to companies after analyzing data specific to their needs. For example, if a restaurant is wondering whether they should expand their company to multiple locations, a consulting company might help them do research on what areas to expand to, what menu options they should offer based on regional tastes, and the optimal price point for customers in a given area. Furthermore, systems engineers can work in designing the transportation for urban areas. Let’s say Philadelphia is planning to expand its subway line. A systems engineer could help SEPTA figure out the optimal locations for subway stops given traffic density, the price point of a subway ride, and how to make subway travel the most efficient for its travelers.

I chose systems because I am all about organization—I am constantly planning my life and how I can optimize my time. The beauty of systems engineering is that you can design your major to be whatever you want it to be. For me, I am not necessarily interested in pursuing financial systems, but logistics fascinates me. I too was confused what I was going to do with my degree, but then I thought about it and realized that the possibilities are endless with my major. I decided to follow what truly interests me: online shopping. I did some research and asked a systems alum (and AWE alum!) named Hilary about her experience at URBN, the parent company to Urban Outfitters, Anthropologie, Free People, Terrain, and BHLDN. I applied for an internship at URBN this past winter, and now I will be working in the Global Transportation Department at URBN this summer. My internship is the perfect combination of logistics and my love of clothing. And this is just another example of how versatile and customizable a systems degree is.

Many entering students are unaware of systems engineering as a major. They shoot for the popular majors like bioengineering or computer science instead. I got lost in the array of different majors as a freshman, until one of my friends a year older than me encouraged me to look into systems. It is a major that is often overlooked, but is incredibly versatile and customizable by the student. If you are confused about your major or not sure you fit into one of the common engineering degrees, I encourage you to look into systems, too.

Chloe is a sophomore in Systems Engineering. Questions for Chloe? email her at awe@seas.upenn.edu

Why Penn?

2014-04-16T14:12:00.000-04:00

Something that I find to be kind of cool is that my answer to the question “Why Penn?” as a senior in college is pretty different from the one I would have given when I decided to apply early decision as a senior in high school. When I applied to Penn, I wrote in my essay that Penn fit my top priorities: “academic excellence, school spirit, manageable size, and a beautiful campus.” I also discussed the residential house programs and the wide array of student activities. While all of these are true representations of what Penn offers, they are not what I would use to answer the question “Why Penn?” today.

After four years on Penn’s campus, I’ve come to realize that one of the greatest offerings Penn provides is both the quantity and quality of opportunities that you encounter throughout your time on campus and beyond. At any institution you attend, there will be doors that open for you to take advantage of, but the great thing about Penn is what those doors are. Opportunities like the submatriculation program into the graduate school of engineering, study abroad (as an engineer), undergraduate research opportunities through PURM and Rachleff Scholars, and the engineering entrepreneurship program are all doors that I ended up walking through that I didn’t even know were options when I applied to the University. All of them were great learning experiences that were influential in helping me identify my interests in the healthcare industry and product development, both of which are key components of the job that I will be starting post-graduation.

Along with the incredible resources and opportunities that Penn provides, one of the best things about Penn is that you’re constantly surrounded by smart, driven people with an incredibly diverse range of interests. The conversations I’ve had with other Penn students or Penn professors about what they are passionate about are ones that I will look back on fondly. And having people respectfully challenge my opinions or ask detailed questions about what I am interested in so that I am forced to delve deeper and gain a better understanding, that has been one of the greatest benefits of going to an institution like Penn; the people around you are engaging and curious and eager to learn, which creates a community that encourages out-of-the-box, critical thinking and problem solving.

Let’s be honest, no institution is perfect and there have been times when I have wondered what my life would be like had I gone somewhere else. But then I look back at how much I have grown throughout my time at college and how Penn has contributed to that, and I realize how incredibly lucky I am to have spent the last four years here.

Emily is a senior graduating in May with an undergraduate and master's in Systems Engineering. Questions for Emily? Contact her at awe@seas.upenn.edu

My PennApps experience

2014-04-09T11:51:00.001-04:00

I have a fair amount of hackathon experience under my belt: I’ve done HackNY, Hack n’ Jill, and now, 4 Pennapps. This spring semester, Pennapps took place (a little strangely) on Valentine’s Day. As a graduating senior in Digital Media Design, it was also the last Pennapps I could participate in. So, I was willing to forgo any Valentine’s Day plans, but only if I worked seriously on an idea I really liked.

Luckily, my partner had what I thought was a fantastic idea: an ad-blocker for live television. The app would mute the tv when commercials came on, and un-mute it when the show returned. My partner’s long-term dream is to integrate this product with educational gaming: when commercials start, the child will be redirected to an educational game, and they will need to achieve a certain amount of progress before getting back to the television.

We chose to do all of our coding for the app in Matlab—an unusual choice, but Matlab has a fantastic signal-processing library. Because we didn’t have access to cable in engineering, we used Hulu (specifically, we did all of our classifier training from many hours of recorded Arrested Development episodes. I now know season 3 better than any person should). As it turned out, the most informative feature for detecting commercials is deceptively simple: a moment of pure silence. Pure silence occurs only during transitions between show and commercial, or commercial and commercial; even what we perceive as silence during tv shows actually always has a small amount of ambient noise.

As in all hackathon experiences, we had a couple crises; there were definitely times when I feared we’d have nothing to show. But we powered through, and the excitement climaxed when my partner had a breakthrough on the hardware component, and successfully turned on and off a projector using an arduino controller. At that point—6 AM Sunday morning—we decided to keep going and take it all the way. On zero hours of sleep, we trekked to my house to bring back the spare tv in my basement.

The final result was just about everything we’d imagined. During demos, we streamed hulu live to the television. When commercials began, the arduino controller muted the sound and blacked out the screen. When they ended, the sound and picture were restored. While we didn’t win anything, I was thrilled with what we’d made. There’s nothing like having an idea and then bringing it to life!

Elissa is a senior majoring in Digital Media Design. Questions for Elissa? Contact her at awe@seas.upenn.edu


Our final set-up!

Why I love my major

2014-04-04T16:45:00.002-04:00

I love my major, and I just came to that realization—four semesters into my college experience. Before applying to college, I remember looking at the various types of engineering I could study at the range of schools to which I would apply. Materials Science Engineering seemed like the perfect balance of math and chemistry (with absolutely no biology, fortunately for me). And so, I applied to Penn as a declared Materials Science Engineering student. Even with that designation, I had truly no clue what MSE was like when I entered my freshman year of college.

Since there are no core materials science courses to take until sophomore fall, my choice of major never had the opportunity to be validated freshman year. So, I stuck with my MSE major declaration even though I had no idea if I liked it or not. Even in the fall, when I began taking two MSE classes, I enjoyed one of them and disliked the other. I still wasn’t sure if materials science could be my future and my career path, potentially for life.

Then this semester arrived. Commonly known throughout the MSE undergraduate department as the “hardest semester you’ll face in MSE”, this semester has truly been a struggle. Late nights working on problem sets, writing lab reports upwards of 40 pages, and studying for challenging midterms have filled a majority of my semester. Constantly working so hard distracted me from the realization that I truly love what I’m studying. This past week I finally realized how much I love MSE. I was taking my second midterm in a materials class notorious for its challenging material when, mid-test, I stopped to think through a problem and found myself actually enjoying the process. I had been so busy this semester I never really paused to consider my feelings toward the subject and my major overall. What I realized is, I love MSE. I love my classmates, I love my professors, and I love the material I’m studying. Sure, MSE requires a lot of work and may result in a few near-sleepless nights, but what major doesn’t challenge its students in that respect at some point? Though overwhelming, these challenges have brought me so much closer to my 25 classmates and have united us as a class. The concepts I’m mastering and the friendships I’m making with these classmates are lasting, and I wouldn’t change my major for the world.

Kristen is a sophomore in Materials Science and Engineering. Questions for Kristen? contact her at awe@seas.upenn.edu

The Computer Science Balance

2014-04-03T17:14:00.002-04:00

When I first showed up at Penn Engineering as a Computer Science major, I was under the impression that I would have an edge over other students because I had taken the AP class in high school. None of the people I knew from my hometown had the first idea about what being a computer scientist really entailed or what exactly I was getting up to in my small class of ten back then. I thought this trend would carry over into college, and that I would spend the next four years again having to explain to people that I wasn’t building computers, I was programming them.

At first, I felt entirely competent in all my computer science abilities and breezed through first semester freshmen year. However, as the year moved on, I became increasingly aware of other people in my classes beginning to build their own websites or forming a startup or programming their microwave for fun. It was at this point that I started panicking. I had not the faintest idea how the internet and computers really worked; people would say words like “proxy” and “caching” and I would cringe. I realized that while my classes were great for learning high-level algorithms and best-practice java syntax, I had no idea how to transfer this knowledge from my computer to a working application.

PennApps this year was the first time I had any real exposure to the applications of computer science beyond what I had learned in the classroom. My teammates all knew more about web development than I did, and pointed me to websites that would help me learn HTML, CSS, JavaScript, etc. for the web app that we wanted to make. At first, I was overwhelmed with how much there was to learn, and felt like it was unfair that I had to learn all this outside of class in addition to having homework to do. I did learn, however, and this made my PennApps experience significantly more enjoyable—I felt like I was actually contributing something to our project.

After PennApps, my workload got harder and I stopped trying to teach myself other web dev tools. My classmates continued to learn more, and I was frustrated with this fact. I was in computer science classes all day, so outside of class I wanted to be participating in clubs and activities that didn’t have anything to do with it. Instead, I felt the pressure to dedicate all my time to learning more web development instead of taking the break that I needed. As I started applying for jobs and realizing that most of them wanted me to have the significant experience that my classmates did, I grew stressed and more frustrated.

I did what I always do when I’m stressed about school: call my parents. My dad suggested doing five minutes of outside learning a day instead of pressuring myself to learn PHP in a weekend. This turned out to be exactly the advice I needed to hear; I was so overwhelmed by everything I had yet to learn that I prevented myself from starting to learn anything at all.

It turns out that you can remember things better when you practice them every day rather than cramming them all into a weekend (who knew?). This is by far the best way I’ve been able to learn the things I need to know for a sophomore internship, and would be the advice I’d give anyone just starting computer science at Penn. Maintaining a balance between schoolwork and non-schoolwork should be everyone’s top priority, and only after that should you be worried about coming up with the next billion-dollar startup.

Allegra is a sophomore in CIS. Questions for Allegra? contact her at awe@seas.upenn.edu

AWE and SWE—One in the same?

2014-03-21T15:56:00.000-04:00

When you first arrive on campus as a female engineering student, you start to hear these acronyms. SWE, AWE, APO, BE, MEAM, ESE…the list goes on and on. However, two of them are more similar than the rest. SWE and AWE at first appear to be pretty similar organizations. SWE—the Society of Women Engineers—sounds pretty similar to AWE—Advancing Women in Engineering—so they must be pretty similar, correct? The foundation of each organization, to help women in engineering, is similar but the organizations themselves each have their own unique features. As a member of both the Advancing Women in Engineering Student Advisory Board and the Society of Women Engineers’ Executive Board, I have had the opportunity to see both organizations from an internal and external view.

AWE is “dedicated to recruiting, retaining, and promoting women in Penn Engineering” with initiatives to increase the number of women studying engineering and enhance their experience with available opportunities. These goals create a network of female engineers within Penn’s broader engineering school. It’s important to create this community in a field often dominated by men to show our peers that every opportunity out there is also available to us as women. I love being a part of the AWE Student Advisory Board because it gives me an opportunity to shape the future of Penn engineering. Although most people don’t know much about us, we are a group of approximately 30 women (and one guy!) from all majors and years within the engineering school who meet every two weeks.

Within the AWE Student Advisory board, we plan social events, professional events, and outreach events. Each event is usually planned by a group of 3-4 women from the Student Advisory Board. The Board also includes graduate students who provide another insight into the Penn engineering community and plan their own graduate events in addition to the rest of the events. We plan events like study breaks and major wide dinners to foster this community development. In addition to social events, we also help Michele Grab (our fearless leader) plan outreach events to local schools or volunteer our time to help at outreach events like Sleeping Bag Weekend. It’s great to see student interactions at these events after the board has worked to plan the event and most importantly, picked the food.

SWE is “aimed at informing the community of the qualifications and achievements of women engineers. Its mission is to stimulate women to achieve their full potential in their careers as engineers and as leaders, to expand the image of the engineering profession as a positive force in improving the quality of life, and to demonstrate the value of diversity.” These goals provide a broader, nationwide community with which to learn about the more professional side of being a woman in engineering. This community after college is only strengthened by the communities that organizations like AWE and SWE create within the community at Penn. The SWE Undergraduate Executive Board is composed of 15 undergraduate women who are all responsible for creating and developing events within their respective positions. Although some SWE events like social gatherings and outreach activities overlap with the purposes and activities of AWE, SWE provides a unique opportunity to expand female engineers’ professional opportunity through events like the SWE Corporate Dinner or corporate networking events.

Although distinctly different, AWE and SWE both work to provide an opportunity for female engineers to meet each other and learn from each other—one of the most important aspects of your college career!

Cathryn is a junior in Bioengineering. Questions for Cathryn? email her at awe@seas.upenn.edu

Senior Design Project—The Culmination of My Engineering Curriculum

2014-03-06T15:50:00.000-05:00

After three years of mostly lecture based classes, senior design allows students to apply the immense amount of knowledge they have gained to a hands-on project of their choice. As a bioengineer, my senior design team was really interested in making a medical device. After teaming up with the Simulation Center at Penn, we decided on a challenging and intellectually stimulating project. To give a little background, the Simulation Center at Penn is one of the best simulation centers in the country and is dedicated to training physicians and students on medical procedures with the goal of improving patient safety and satisfaction, all while increasing physician efficiency. After discussing with our advisor at the Sim Center, we decided to create a reusable ligating loop with delivery system.

The Ligating Loop with Delivery System, also referred to as a Snare or an EndoLoop, is a one-time use medical device used in laparoscopic surgery (minimally invasive surgery). It is most widely used in appendectomies but is also used in a number of other gastrointestinal and gynecological surgeries. The ligating loop can be used in place of staples, so its purpose is to cut off blood flow to a mass of tissue, therefore isolating the desired tissue for removal from the body. It is generally up to the discretion of the surgeon to determine which method is used for the isolation of tissue (staples or ligating loop), but every surgeon is required to be trained on this device.

Because surgical residents must be trained to use this device, ligating loops are often available at simulation centers for practice. However, each device is approximately $40 and as I mentioned before, it can only be used once! The average resident practices the procedure 10 times, which totals to $400 in equipment per resident. As you can see, costs add up rather quickly.

Our goal is to create a reusable ligating loop with delivery system, so that residents can practice the procedure at least 10 times, all with the same device. Our prototypes right now cost approximately $10, so hopefully we will be saving the Simulation Center a lot of money!

Ellie is a Senior in Bioengineering. Questions for Ellie? Contact her at awe@seas.upenn.edu

Study Abroad

2014-02-27T13:40:00.000-05:00

As an engineer, most people think that it is too hard to go abroad. They are told that it is too hard to rearrange their schedules or that their classes will not transfer. That is absolutely not the case. I have always dreamed about going abroad. I had older friends and cousins who went abroad when they were in college and they all raved about their experiences. I knew that I was not going to let the fact that I was an engineer stop me from doing something that I had always wanted to.

I went abroad to Zurich, Switzerland, at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH). I was taking 6 classes, all of them engineering, and I received credit for all of them back at Penn. So do not let anyone tell you that it is not possible. I had other engineering friends who also went abroad to Scotland, London, Australia, and China. It is possible to go anywhere as long as you are determined to do so.

As an engineer, the classes that you will be taking abroad are a little harder than average abroad classes but do not let that deter you; I still had time to travel every weekend. I went to 17 different cities in 8 different countries. Every weekend was a new unique experience and it was absolutely incredible. I learned so much about different cultures and made so many memories that I will never forget. I had such a diverse group of friends (my best friend was from Sweden) and going abroad is an experience that I will always remember. I would absolutely encourage anyone, no matter what his or her major, to go abroad. When else will you have the chance to live in a foreign country for 3-4 months with so many opportunities to travel?

Going abroad as an engineer is 100% possible, so do not let someone tell you that it is not. Not only is it possible, but it is an absolutely amazing opportunity that everyone should take advantage of.

Ally is a junior in Bioengineering. Questions for Ally? contact her at awe@seas.upenn.edu