Student Activities
Diversity, Equity and Inclusion
Game of Life – College Edition: Understanding educational opportunity structures through an intersectional lens
The past two years have accelerated the global reality that the Covid-19 pandemic has firmly planted us in a state of global disruption. We are no longer preparing: we are here, in the midst of disruption, coming together to reflect on various contexts. For this workshop, we connect disruption in the world to the way advocacy efforts within the sphere of DEI are forcing institutions to reevaluate policies and processes. The themes of the 2022 WEEF & GEDC conference, collocated with the AEEA 2022 conference, are reflected in this workshop through these questions:- How have we adapted to global change in the DEI&J narrative ?
- How do we create stable environments that encourage vulnerability, resiliency, and communication in face of polarization in value systems at a global level?
- How do we meet this challenge of global reconciliation of systemic oppression that is bound to be in a status quo for the foreseeable future without advocacy at all levels of society?
Facilitator: Yash Tadimalla (SPEED)
Capacity Building
Cross Cultural Communication Workshop (Cultural Awareness Essential Skill set) & CIRTL Information session (Come Earn a Nationally Recognized Certificate!)
As an essential skill set, whether becoming a faculty member or going into industry, it’s important for professionals to be able to respect, identify and mitigate areas of cultural communication misunderstandings. In this workshop, students will have the opportunity to navigate sources of miscommunication by using an experiential approach. Participants will engage in research based practices that will help develop their understanding and help identify how to ‘culturally’ communicate with peers, colleagues and professionals in industry and research. Participants will gain an understanding of sources of miscommunication in a cross-cultural setting, and will be able to reflect on the occurrences of miscommunication in a constructivist perspective. These techniques can be applied to overcome stumbling blocks in cross-cultural communications. Additionally, this session will introduce how students can earn an associate level certification for the Center for the Integration of Research, Teaching and Learning, a US nationally recognized certification, during the WEEF conference. This workshop contributes to this certification.Facilitators: Jamie Gurganus (UMBC) and Renetta G. Tull (UC Davis)
Lightning Round Session:
It’s exciting to bring this rare opportunity to highlight some of the quality research work our potentially new future faculty are working on. In this engaging session, several PhD candidates will give a 3-5 minute summary of their exemplary research in a creative fashion. Additionally, students will have time to hear and engage with some of the Deans around what they seek when hiring a new faculty member at their institutions. *Special session by PEI Global. **Limited availability.Facilitators: Jamie Gurganus (UMBC) and Renetta G. Tull (UC Davis)
Employability Skills – What are they and do you have them?
Let’s think of employability skills not as a checklist of must haves that is the same for everyone, but as your own unique jigsaw puzzle that you’ve already started putting together. But let’s face it, you don’t know yet what the finished puzzle should look like or even where to find the missing pieces. So let’s explore your employability jigsaw and work on the skills you need to communicate your ‘work in progress’ picture to a potential employer. We’ll cover tried and tested steps to help you find your career pathway and show off what you can do in a great interview. Your host for this fun, exploratory and interactive workshop has enabled thousands of students worldwide to find their pathway and launch their career with confidence and would like to help you do the same. *Special session by Petrus Communications.Facilitators: Kirsten Williamson (Petrus) and Cheryl Persaud (Quanser)
Experiential Learning
Starting with a 15 min. chat with one of the most outstanding corporate and educational leaders in the engineering community, Paul Quanser. Students will have the chance to hear valuable ‘Words of Wisdom from a Dinosaur’, and be inspired to dive into the topic of experiential and workplace learning. Through an open conversation with students, this workshop will facilitate a process to define the different types of experiential learning with a focus on workplace learning, using guiding research questions. The session will also highlight the importance and positioning of workplace learning within undergraduate studies and beyond, and its role in developing engineering human capacity. This workshop will also explore the challenges, opportunities, and structures that support students and young engineers during workplace learning and will investigate both the formal and informal settings provided by industry, universities, and students, and suggest improvements to the workplace learning system.Facilitators: Yashin Brijmohan (Co-chair to WEEF-GEDC 2022) and Francisca Trigueiros (ESTIEM)
Nail Your Pitch
Communication skills are essential for business success, and there is nothing more important – or potentially harder to master – than getting an important idea across with impact. In this session you’ll learn about what makes a powerful presentation along with techniques for storytelling, and confidence building to enable you to develop your own unique style. You’ll learn with one of the best communicators ever to decide to become an engineer, with plenty of time for practice and a lot of fun guaranteed. *Special session by Petrus Communications. **Limited availability.Facilitator: Rhys Phillips (Airbus)
Mental Health & Wellbeing
Meditation session
In this workshop, participants will experience the effortless power of breathing techniques in effectively managing stress & energy and learn new frameworks for dealing with stressful situations, enhancing restfulness & managing time with an introduction to the SKY Breathing techniques. SKY Breathing techniques are a part of the larger holistic SKY Campus Happiness program which is a comprehensive biopsychosocial program tailored for university populations – students, faculty, and staff – offered by the International Association for Human Values ( https://us.iahv.org/ ).Our minds remain constantly engaged in deep rational and analytical thinking, which goes beyond office hours. Taking time away from work is not a luxury, but rather a necessity to reset our brains. The meditation and breathing techniques taught by SKY Campus Happiness give that calm and clear state of mind, great for a beginner of meditation or an advanced meditator alike. These breathwork and cognitive reframing techniques increase self-awareness and enhance work-life integration that contributes to physical and mental well-being. SKY campus happiness offers tools and techniques which can help gain a calm and relaxed state of mind, even in stressful moments for handling complex scientific information at work.
Facilitator: Yash Tadimalla (SPEED) and Frank Brueck (The IKIGAI Corporation)
Climate Change
Skills for Sustainability
On Thursday 1st December from 10:00-11:00 SAST be inspired by the next generation and hear what students have to say about sustainability skills and education. As is our tradition, we’ll kick off the Industry Forum with a panel of student leaders. We’ll share the results of the ‘Skills for Sustainability Survey’ and are grateful to Siemens for pioneering this pilot study, and to CTI for their support in bringing the students to Cape Town.Facilitator: Jennifer Bradford (Siemens)
Student Leadership
Effective Allyships for Student Engagement Workshop
The voice of students and information on student experience is critical to the enhancement of Engineering Education. The questions as to whether, and how effectively this is demonstrated by faculty and leaders in engineering education is an important point to investigate. Leadership both in engineering and engineering education is a key competence, and this is expected to be recognized and adequately supported by institutions. Effective support can be demonstrated in many ways: financial support from the institution, awards/certificates for leadership, reduction in student fees, access, etc. These motivations, combined with intrinsic factors, have the potential to increase student participation. This workshop aims to establish practical mechanisms for allyship between student leaders and relevant stakeholders, by fostering horizontal collaboration among participants. Attendants will leave the workshop with an initial roadmap towards optimizing student leadership in their communities. Facilitators: Maria Laura Polo Gonzalez (SPEED) and Yashin Brijmohan (Cochair WEEF-GEDC 2022)Student Leadership Luncheon
A social event to highlight prominent student voices and celebrate the meaningful work of student leaders. This event will also serve as a networking space for attendants.
What Our Members Have to Say
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Kelvin Black
From Dallas, USA
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Zasha Swan
From Australia
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Frank Jones
From Japan
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Jack Brownn
From London, UK
