IEEE FOOTHILL SECTION STUDENTS at RISING STARS 2016- CONFERENCE—LAS VEGAS
| January 15, 2016 | Posted by COMauthor under EmpNet, General |
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The IEEE Region 6 “Rising Stars-2016” conference was held in Las Vegas NV on January 2-4, 2016. The IEEE Foothill Section students attending from Cal Poly Pomona were Byron Phung, Brooke Neufeld, Luke Rodrick, Oliver Khachekian. From UC Riverside, the students attending were Alberto Tam Yong, Andrew Nava-Juarez, Alyza Malunao, Andrew Olguin. Each student attending prepared a written report on their trip, as a requirement levied for support from the IEEE Foothill Section. Below is a composite of impressions selected from the students’ reports.
…attended the IEEE Rising Star Conference in Las Vegas, Nevada on January 2-3th. The purpose of this event was to connect young successful students to their peers that live across the nation. These students not only networked with other (IEEE Engineering) students but also had the opportunity to meet a variety of professionals.
…..The event began on Saturday, January 2nd at 6:00pm, however a Spaghetti Tower Competition “ice breaker” was held from 3:00pm until the start of the event. As part of the competition, groups of 2-4 people were provided with a limited amount of spaghetti and marshmallows in order to build the tallest possible tower.
We are structural engineering students??? Our FIRST try.
……..The opening address by Jamie Garcia, from IBM, introduced the very interesting results of her team’s research on sustainable polymers. On the second day of the conference, the schedule was full of talks that varied from technical topics to professional development. I attended the “Networking: How to Get That First Job”, led by Natalia Baklitskaya, “Leading in a MultiGenerational World”, provided by Ron Hadley, “Linking IEEE, Professional Society Involvement, Career Growth and Personal Satisfaction”, which featured a panel of speakers, and “Introducing Technology to theNext Generation”, which assembled a team of educator experts. During the lunch break, Tenaya Hurst shared her Keynote Address, presenting her efforts to promote STEM among children and outreach activities.
The IEEE speakers have our attention—as they describe their career experiences.
….Iris Bombelyn, who is vice president of narrowband communications and Lockheed Martin provided a very interesting speech on lessons learned form a career in space. She spoke about her history as a student as well as a project that would greatly improve on the communications systems available to the military. What stood out most to me from her presentation was that she had worked at different positions almost every 5 years. She then went on to say that if someone were to work as an engineer from the age of 25-55 and changed positions every 5 years they would have worked at 6 different positions. She stressed the importance of continuously changing, improving and stepping out of one’s comfort zone. She mentioned that she initially disliked working in management positions because of the sudden change in focus.
…..Their passion for their fields is contagious. For example, talking to Iris Bomdelyn from Lockheed Martin about how she started her career was very motivational. She advised me to take all the opportunities available to me and to be FEARLESS.
……Presentations where given on Wearable Technology, Missions to Pluto, How to Start a Startup from companies that include Google, Southwest, and Lockheed Martin.
Technology continues its march FORWARD,
…..The conference did not have a career fair this year, but had a “Reception, Resume
Lounge, Corporate Mixer” at the end of the second day. Students and Young Professionals, alike, were able to talk to recruiters and speakers for the chance to handout their resumes, get some feedback on their resumes, and network.
……..As a student who had not previously attended the conference, I was shocked about the variety of different topics and the knowledge that each speaker had on their topic. I loved learning about the different obstacles an engineering project had, or hearing what advice professionals who had been in the industry for 20+ years want to give the young students.
Alberto wins the Elevator Speech Award. Congradulations!
…….Overall, this event was definitely an experience that I will be sharing with other members of IEEE ……. to encourage next year’s attendance.
We had FUN too!
Our FINAL extra-tine effort building a marshmellow & spaghetti structure. Can the IEEE Foothill Students beat this height next year????
Yes, a very worthwhile conference for our IEEE students. We in the IEEE FOOTHILL Section EXCOM thank the Region 6 PACE Committee for additional partial support for our students. After viewing this report, some students may want to start planning now for the “Rising Stars 2017” conference.