Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers

Become a member!

Become a professional member of the largest Hispanic engineering society! Membership fees help fund community outreach initiatives.

To register please visit: http://oneshpe.shpe.org

Region: 1

Chapter: Puget Sound

Board Contact info:

President:

Aida Hernandez

president@shpepsc.org

Vice-President:

Armando Gomez

vicepresident@shpepsc.org

Treasurer:

Erick Cruz

treasurer@shpepsc.org

Secretary:

Steve Leon

secretary@shpepsc.org

Please follow us on:

www.shpepsc.org

In this issue…

• A Word From Our Secretary
• Awards and Recognitions
• SHPE PSC Past Events
• SHPE PSC Upcoming Events
• SHPE PSC Featured Events
• SHPE Puget Sound Membership
  

A Word From Our Secretary...

Steve Leon, SHPE Puget Sound 2010-2011 Secretary
secretary@shpepsc.org

Pablo Picasso once said "Action is the foundational key to all success" and this is what SHPE, as an organization, is doing. We are carrying out actions that create and develop talents and expertise in our Hispanic communities. Many times I have felt that for us, Latino, it is sometimes difficult and challenging to get ourselves more visible in the professional field. That is why, as secretary, I have made my goal to provide all the necessary tools and resources to help Hispanics become more discoverable and distinguishable among the available pool of resources and at the same time, guide and encourage them to attain their highest potential not just as a professional engineer but also as a leader.

We, as SHPE, have already started putting in motion events and activities to help us accomplish these goals. Furthermore, we have made sure that we reach Hispanics ranging from all ages. We have started engaging with local high schools with the goal of establishing our first local high school student chapter. We are also committed to improve our MentorSHPE program by organizing events that will provide college students more visibility and exposure to real life work environments. One of the events that will help us achieve that goal is the “Take your student to work” day event. We also have in our agenda plans to organize more leadership panels and workshop events, which will focus on the professional advancement and leadership development of our professional members.

I realize that we have a very difficult mission ahead of us and we will certainly encounter our share of challenges and obstacles along the way; and this is why you are very important to us. We need your participation to help us achieve these aggressive goals. So having said that, on behalf of the members of the SHPE PSC leadership board and myself, I would like to express my gratitude for your continuing interest and support of the SHPE Puget Sound chapter. We have had many achievements as a chapter and they are all thank to the active participation and constant involvement of our members. Let's keep the ball rolling and maintain this momentum alive so that we can maintain our status of Best Chapter of the Nation.

Steve Leon
Software Engineer
Hewlett Packard

Awards and Recognitions

SHPE Puget Sound Member of the Month: Jason Romero

Jason Romero is our 2010-2011 SHPE Puget Sound Professional Development Officer. Jason is a great asset to our organization and highly committed to one of our Chapter’s goals which is to focus our chapter’s resources on our members’ professional advancement and leadership development. Jason is originally from Chicago, IL. He is an MEP Superintendent with Turner Construction and currently working on a data center project in Puyallup, WA. In his leisure time, he enjoys skiing and mentoring students.

Congratulations to Dario Valenzuela for his HENAAC 2010 Award as the “Most Promising Engineer”

Dario is a Materials, Process & Physical Engineer in Research and Technology at The Boeing Company and a highly active member in our SHPE Puget Sound Professional Chapter.

Welcome to our 2010-2011 LeaderSHPE board members:

Gaby Baylon, Northern Washington High School Liaison (hsliaison2@shpepsc.org)

Laura Garcia, Public Relations Officer (publicrelations@shpepsc.org)

Angela Nunez, University of Washington Student Liaison (studentliaison@shpepsc.org)

Welcome to our team!!!

SHPE PSC Past Events

Lego Mind Storm at Seattle University

On September 18^th 2010, the Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers Puget Sound, in conjunction with Seattle University, hosted a Lego Mind Storm competition for teenagers. The SHPE objective was to challenge young minds to think like engineers and give students the opportunity to interact with professionals from the Puget Sound community as they tackled a significant challenge and worked towards a particular goal. Introducing New Futures youth to computer programming and design and partnering them with professionals in the community is a way of supporting their passion for technology while educating them about the various career opportunities that are available to them.

The students first received an introduction to making and controlling robots using Lego Mind Storms. With the support of SHPE mentors, teams of students used what they learned in the morning tutorial to then download sensor commands into the robots, making them mobile via various sensors such as light, sound and distance. The competition at the end of the day was to determine which of the robots could complete a given challenge, and it yielded some exciting results! To learn more about the New Futures youth who won the competition and read Steven Ono's (Youth Program Coordinator) full account of the day, please click here.

For more photos of this event, please visit our picasa web album.

Resume Workshop for University of Washington Students

On Saturday, October 16th 2010, SHPE Puget Sound organized a “Resume Workshop” for our University of Washington student chapter in the Turner Construction Seattle office. The objective of this event was to provide our engineering students with preparation for the 2010 SHPE National Conference. The students were exposed to presentations, resume review and feedback, interview etiquettes and a career fair simulation. The event was a success and the students left very enthusiastic and eager for our next event with our student chapters. Special gratitude to Turner Construction for facilitating the meeting space for this event, to Rachael Brown from Puget Sound Energy, and to all the professionals who volunteered to make this event a success.

SHPE National Conference 2010

SHPE Puget Sound received the following awards:

“Best largest chapter of the Nation” for the first time in 24 years

“Region 1 Chapter of the Year” for the 3rd consecutive year

On October 27^th to 31^st 2010, The Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers National Conference took place in Cincinnati, OH. More than 4,300 Hispanic students, professionals, corporate representatives, educators and community leaders from throughout the United States came together at the SHPE Conference. At the Conference, the attendees were offered an incredible lineup of educational, technical, networking and career programs in the fields of science, technology, engineering and math (STEM).

To see more photos of SHPE Puget Sound in the SHPE National Conference, please visit our picasa web album.

On November 11^th 2010, SHPE Puget Sound partnered with NSHMBA-Seattle who hosted the Fall 2010 Microsoft Diversity Recruiting & Networking Event at the Microsoft Studios West Campus in Redmond, WA. This Event featured a Career Fair and two Job Seeker Track Sessions. The SHPE Executive and LeaderSHPE board members where in attendance representing, promoting our SHPE’s vision and recruiting new members.

November General Body Meeting at Trane

On November 17^th 2010, SHPE Puget Sound organized our November General Meeting which was hosted by Trane in Redmond, WA. Trane is a leading designer and manufacturer of HVAC (Heating, Ventilation and Air Conditioning) equipment such as air handlers and chillers. At our November General Body Meeting, Trane provided a high level technical presentation on how HVAC equipment operates followed by a discussion on job opportunities. Trane’s presentation was followed by our SHPE Puget Sound Chapter announcements and recognitions.

A special welcome to our new members!

SHPE PSC Upcoming Events

When: December 4th, 2010
Time: 9am - 3pm

Where: Monroe Hall at Edmonds Community College, 20000 68th Avenue West, Lynnwood, WA 98036

SHPE PSC is organizing a straw-bridge competition for students between 7th to 12th grades. Working as teams, students design and create bridges using plastic drinking straws with the goal of building the strongest bridge that will hold the most amount of weight without collapsing while meeting all design criteria and constraints.

The main goal of this event is to promote to young students the engineering areas of physical science, science & technology, geometry and problem solving. These students will be challenged to use their innovation and creativity in designing and collaborating on an engineering project. They will be designing and constructing a bridge using plastic straws and some other basic materials such as tapes, pins, and paperclips. These straw bridges will be subjected to load pressure as weights are added to test their strengths.

Goals of the event:

1. Promote the study of engineering as bridge building has always been one of the most established and recognized engineering project.

2. Encourage students to use and develop their creativity, problem solving and team skills which represent a big part of an engineer expertise.

3. Expose students to different factors that contribute to designing bridges. This includes identifying effective geometric shapes, tension, compression, trust etc.

If you would like to volunteer for this, please RSVP here.

To learn about our Community Outreach events, please contact Jin Zhang at communityoutreach@shpepsc.org

MentorSHPE Program Kickoff Dinner

Time: Saturday, 11 December 2010, 6:00pm - 9:00pm
Location: Please visit our website for location details
Contact: Armando Gomez, vicepresident@shpepsc.org
Angela Nuñez, studentliaison@shpepsc.org

2010 - 2011 MentorSHPE Program Description:

The SHPE University of Washington Student Chapter & Puget Sound Chapter have a rich history of collaboration. The MentorSHPE program continues to evolve annually. Each season, our professional members grow along with each student involved in the program. This year I am happy to announce that we will be launching the MentorSHPE program with a record amount of interest on behalf of the students from the UW Chapter. However, we still need to find mentors for the program to reach maximum success.

What are the benefits of mentoring a student?

Mentoring gives you the extraordinary opportunity to facilitate a student's personal and professional growth by sharing your knowledge learned through years of experience. While the primary intent of the mentor's role is to challenge the student to think in new and different ways, the student is not the only one who gains from the arrangement. You can benefit as a mentor by enhancing your coaching and leadership skills by working with students from different backgrounds and with different personality types. Another benefit is that you will play an important role in developing and retaining talent for the future generations of SHPE. In your role as a mentor, not only will you contribute to a future engineer's success in their technical career, but you will have the opportunity to grow that student to take a leadership role within SHPE and take our organization to another level, thereby creating a legacy that has a lasting impact. Not only will you gain the satisfaction of helping develop future SHPE members, but the knowledge you foster in your student can inspire new ideas for generations to come. Furthermore, through mentoring, you can help carry on SHPE's legacy by passing on our values and our mission.

Although mentoring can be a truly rewarding experience, becoming a mentor is a big decision and one that should not be taken lightly. The benefits to you, SHPE and STEM, however, are well worth your effort. I encourage you to participate in this year’s MentorSHPE program.

Thank you,

Armando Gomez, VP, 2009-2011
vicepresident@shpepsc.org

How to become a mentor?

To support our program, become a mentor by filling out this application no later than Dec 6th 2010. Please try accessing it with Mozilla Firefox if Internet Explorer is not responding.

SHPE PSC Featured Events

2nd Annual NSHMBA Seattle Leadership Awards Gala

Time: Saturday, 04 December 2010, 6:00pm - 10:00pm
Location: Renaissance Hotel, 515 Madison St, Seattle WA
Contact: Sandra Rivera at marketing@seattle.nshmba.org

The NSHMBA Seattle Chapter will be organizing their second Annual NSHMBA Seattle Leadership Awards Gala and SHPE members are invited to participate. This event will recognize a diversity leader, student volunteer, and diversity partner professional organization member of the year award. We will also recognize the NSHMBA National scholarship recipients. The evening will promise a memorable evening of outstanding cuisine, entertainment, a silent auction, and networking with business professionals. As NSHMBA's partner, SHPE members can take advantage of discounted ticket prices. The prices are as follow:

SHPE Members: $30
Non-members: $75
Onsite members: $50
Onsite non-members: $100

Purchase your tickets at www.nshmba.org/seattle2010gala/rsvp

Viva Technology in Seattle

Boeing Volunteers needed!

When: Thursday, January 13, 2011 at 8:30 AM-3:30 PM.
Where: 8212 South 118th Street, Seattle WA 98178

Viva Technology is designed to engage inner-city and rural K-12 students, teachers and parents in the applications of technology in order to stimulate interest and academic achievement in math, science and engineering, thereby laying the foundation for students to select and succeed in college and university degree programs leading to careers in science, engineering and technology.

Event Description: On the Viva Technology Student Day, students experience a hands-on day filled with competitive and educational STEM-oriented exercises presented to them throughout the day. Challenges and exercises typically call on students to design, construct, and operate physical prototypes and plans that can be associated with one of the many engineering and applied math fields.

Students work in teams led by engineering and science university students, with the expressed goals of communicating the different STEM fields. Students will also hear presentations from technology professionals. Active participation gives the students opportunities to accrue Viva Dollars and win educational prizes at the end of the day.

BNN Article: http://bnn.ids.web.boeing.com/index.cfm?content=story.cfm&id=77085&bu=1

Viva Video: http://videos.web.boeing.com/video/438/

THE BOEING COMPANY CONTACT: Alfredo Rodriguez, Alfredo.J.Rodriguez@boeing.com

VIVA TECHNOLOGY ™ CONTACT: Lorenz Cisne, LCisne@GreatMindsinSTEM.org

SHPE Puget Sound Membership

We now have 91 members and counting! Please support our Puget Sound Chapter by becoming a member. With your help and support, we will be able to push forward our goals to develop our community and to enhance our professional members’ technical and professional leadership.

If you're asking yourself, "Why become a member or renew?" All we can say in response is, "WHY NOT!" Check it out:

- Awesome community outreach activities in which you can participate and share your knowledge with kids such as Lego Mindstorm Competition, VIVA Technomania and MentorSHPE Program that have an immediate impact in our local Hispanic community at various levels

- Targeted Professional Networking that will directly aid and progress you in your career path

- National and Regional Conferences that provide excellent professional, career, and leadership development opportunities

To become a member or renew your membership please follow the following steps:

1. Go to www.shpe.org and click on the "Join NOW!" link

2. Choose the "New member Application" or "Membership Renewal" option

3. Follow the corresponding steps, making sure you register as a member of the Puget Sound Chapter, and that's it! Easy Breezy!

Remember, recent grads have their membership fee waived and the first 50 Microsoft employees are eligible to have their memberships sponsored by Microsoft!!!

We'll see all you '10-'11 members at the upcoming events!