I Attended WE21 and It Was SWEet!

SWE swag? SWE swag.

So, during fall break, I attended the Society of Women Engineers’ annual conference, aka WE21, in Indianapolis, Indiana. I’d already paid for everything in the summer, and all that was left was to actually attend the conference!

Everyone had booked their flights separately, and I ended up on a flight that left Daytona Beach at about 4 PM and arrived in Indianapolis at 12:30 AM the next day. It wasn’t an ideal time, but I was able to attend all of my classes and fly out of the nonchaotic Daytona airport. I’ve flown out of the Orlando airport once, and it’s much bigger than Daytona. It also requires a larger time commitment- since it’s bigger, lines are longer, and there’s more chaos in between.

The trip to Indianapolis wasn’t too bad. One of my friends graciously dropped me off (and picked me up!) so I wouldn’t have to pay for parking, and I didn’t experience any significant delays. On the flight to Indianapolis, however, Delta Airlines had overbooked by 5 seats, and they were seeking volunteers to take the next flight in the morning. Thankfully, I had a seat on that flight, and they did get 5 volunteers, who each got $500, a hotel, and meal vouchers.

I got a pretty early start the next day at WE21. I checked in and then watched the keynote speaker, Stephanie C. Hill, the Executive Vice President of Rotary and Mission Systems at Lockheed Martin. It was super cool to listen to her speak in person, only a few hundred feet away (since I was in the back of the room).

WE21 had a lot going on. There were various other speakers, workshops, and social opportunities all included with the conference registration fee. I attended the resume review, where a lady from Honeywell reviewed my resume and gave me feedback. I ended up meeting a few other collegiate members from other schools, too! On the first day, we also took a group picture.

This year’s theme was Aspire to Inspire, and they had a wall to sign for members to leave their mark. Someone had already drawn Embry-Riddle’s logo on it (right above the “s” in aspire) so I ended up signing my name and drawing a little Cessna on it.

Aspire to Inspire!

SWE had been giving out free luggage tags, and I had a QR code that went to my LinkedIn. They also had a free computer lab, so I printed out the QR code, cut it out, and laminated it on a luggage tag. It worked well for me- I printed and laminated it right before the career fair, and it was easy for recruiters to scan. I also had a copy on the top of my resume in case they wanted to connect with me later.

I had a lot of fun at the conference. I went to several of the talks and spent as much time as I could at the career fair and resume workshops. I met a lot of other engineers, both collegiate and professional, and it was amazing! I also attended some Affinity Group meetings, which are meetings for people of similar backgrounds to meet up and connect.

The conference was definitely worth leaving Indianapolis at 7 AM. We wanted to be there early so we didn’t miss our flight, and I only ended up getting three hours of sleep the night before. I slept on the first plane to Atlanta and then ended up doing some of the coursework I’d neglected to do over break.

Flying back to Daytona!

The flight back to Daytona was pretty quick. It was on a Boeing 717, which is apparently pretty rare. According to my friends, not a lot of them were made, and not a lot of them are in circulation- plus it’s an older(ish) aircraft compared to the 737 and newer Boeing models. It was pretty cool to see- planes are beautiful pieces of engineering, and I love watching them come and go all day in Daytona. So I’ll see you in the next post… and hopefully watching the planes at Riddle!

Research Opportunities

This past summer, I had the privilege to work on an undergraduate research project with my faculty mentor. I was accepted to the Summer Undergraduate Research Fellows (SURF) program offered by the undergraduate research department. I spent the spring 2020 semester (pre-covid) designing my research and a plan for data collection. I conducted my research on Women in Aviation and factors that impact minority female students enrolled in aviation higher degree.

2020 SURF Receipients

During the summer and into the spring semester, I was conducting interviews on zoom from a remote site (due to the pandemic). These participants identified themselves as a minority female and I was able to have meaningful conversations with them in order to explore their needs and wants in order to achieve success in a very homogenous industry. The entire process almost took up a year but this past month, I was able to present my research at the Global Virtual Conference on Diversity in Aviation, Aerospace and STEM, hosted by Ohio State University. The paper was later published on UAA (University Aviation Association) for the CARI (Collegiate Aviation Review International) journal. In addition to the publication, I will be presenting at the virtual Student Research Symposium (ERAU) this fall.

It was such a meaningful opportunity to be able to conduct my own research, present it in front of people and be able to publish a research paper. I have learned so much from the experience and all the time I spent working on this project was well worth it at the end.

I always knew that our university had great research programs, but as a pilot, all those opportunities felt distant from me as I assumed they were more for the engineering students. However, from my own research experience, I found out these research programs extended to aeronautics, business, homeland security and many more majors offered at our school. It was a refreshing experience to see the work of student researchers from a diverse pool of studies.

For anyone who is interested in conducting their own research (you can also do it in a group), I would highly recommend contacting our undergraduate research department to find out more about all the opportunities they have to offer. They will help you find anything from a good research topic, a mentor, a scholarship, to conference opportunities. The experience you will gain from conducting a research at a higher degree institution is something you will not obtain from your average classroom setting.

ISS Research & Design Conference

(From left to right) – Space Tango’s Director of Business and Communication Operations Kirsten Jenkins, CEO Twyman Clements, and myself at our booth.

It’s been a pretty computer-heavy summer with my internship at Space Tango as we prepare for our next batch of customer payloads to be launched on SpaceX CRS-12. From cleaning up the website to controlling social media, I’ve spent the last two months behind screens completing a lot of background work. Needless to say, I was absolutely enthralled when Space Tango invited me to attend this year’s International Space Station Research & Design (ISS R&D) Conference in Washington, D.C.

The ISS R&D Conference is an opportunity for aerospace industry leaders to network among each other, share ideas, and learn from their personal business ventures in commercial space. Through a series of talks, technical sessions, and a huge networking event, I got to learn first-hand what it’s like to be in the industry. Just so you know, they are just as excited and geeked-out about space as any other college student. It’s truly a shared passion.

Not only did I meet several astronauts, like Embry-Riddle Alum Terry Virts, but I also networked with people at Bigelow Aerospace, Leidos, Made In Space, and the Sierra Nevada Corporation to name a few. 

Astronuat Terry Virts and myself – We had a great talk about his experience not only at Worldwide, but at the Daytona campus as well.

Astronaut Kate Rubins shared a detailed story on what it was really like getting to and from the ISS. If you check out the ISS R&D Conference website, you can access a full video on her experience.

Astronaut and Orbital ATK Space Systems Group president Frank Culbertson shared a heart-wrenching story about what it was like to be the only American not on Earth during the 9/11 events. As a military dependent, it was an honor to hear stories from an American hero.

JAXA Astronaut Soichi Noguchi and I not only spoke about JAXA, but I shared a few stories about my time in Japan. Truly an amazing place to visit, but an even better place to live!

It was absolutely exciting to listen to Bigelow Aerospace founder Robert Bigelow. He shared with the audience why we should remain a leader in space exploration. This was another great talk I urge you to check out at the ISS R&D website!

I even got to meet Dr. Camille Alleyne! We bonded over our Caribbean roots and she even shared some insight on her newest non-profit, The Brightest Stars Foundation. As a woman of color, to say that our conversation was empowering is truly an understatement.

Several students from high schools and universities were also in attendance to share their research. My favorite part of this whole week? A tie between two young women for the Genes in Space Science Contest.

Elizabeth Reizes (14) and Sophia Chen (14) were both named the finalists for the 2017 Genes in Space science contest. Their experiments will be performed aboard the ISS.

The conference was an amazing opportunity and has given me the motivation to get through my last year of my undergraduate degree. It’s a little costly, but this event is well-worth the time for any looking to enter the industry!

⋆ Dani

Aviation Safety InfoShare 2017

Hello everyone!

I got to attend the Aviation Safety Infoshare at Pittsburg, Pennsylvania from April 18th– April 20th. Aviation Safety InfoShare is a semi‑annual confidential industry-sponsored meeting attended by government and industry safety professionals who share their safety concerns and best practices in a protected environment. InfoShare offers a unique opportunity to advance aviation safety outside of individual air carriers and bring about improvements for the industry by sharing these experiences.Participants at Aviation Safety InfoShare include representatives from—

  • International, major, regional, and corporate operators
  • Pilot, mechanic, dispatch, cabin, ground operations, and air traffic labor groups
  • Aircraft manufacturers
  • Maintenance repair and overhaul organizations
  • Trade associations
  • University aviation departments
  • Government agencies

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Grand Ballroom

Id Badge to enter the InfoShare

Id Badge to enter the InfoShare

The host hotel was Wyndham Grand Pittsburg Downtown. I got to attend it with Delta Air Lines. I traveled on company business, and I had my own room at the hotel with a fantastic river view.

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View outside my room

View outside my room

The InfoShare was a great opportunity, and I got to talk to a lot of the other airlines. Attendees can only enter the infoshare if they work for an airline and proved it by showing their respective company ID badge. There were even guards at the door making sure no one who didn’t work for an airline entered! I am so thankful that I got to attend the InfoShare and talk to so many aviation professionals!

Until next time,

Maryam

Spring Break Round 2

Hello, hello! After a nice two week hiatus, we’re back with our regularly scheduled broadcast. Spring Break was not too, too bad, which is nice.

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The conference was held at the Sheraton Hotel. Unfortunately, the WiFi was not free so I didn’t get to work as productively as I would’ve liked.

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The weather was also really wet and cold for some reason.

The first half of my break consisted of me representing The Avion Newspaper at this years College Media Association (CMA) conference in New York City. Considering that this was my first conference for anything, I think it went pretty well. The weather was a bit chilly so I never got to do any of the cool photo stuff I was planning to do, which was a bummer. While at the conference, I got to meet some really interesting people, I learned how other colleges, across the United States, layout their newspapers, and I have some valuable information to bring back to use for our newspaper.

I kept getting the right answers during Photography Jeopardy though.

I kept getting the right answers during Photography Jeopardy though.

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I miss doing theater.

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Once the conference was over, I luckily had the option of going straight to my house in New Jersey where I spent the remainder of my break. It was nice being home even though it was only for about four days. I got to see my high school’s production of Footloose which was amazing, and I had lunch with a friend: Pretty much average Spring Break. Maybe next year I’ll do something more awesome, but only time will tell.

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Lugging my luggage from NJ to John F. Kennedy International Airport was fun considering it was a 3 hour journey.

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With only just 6 more weeks left of Spring 2016, I’m really nervous about what’s next. Maybe I just need to take a leap of faith and go with the flow. I’ll let you know how that goes in two weeks.

Go Girls!

Last weekend I had the privilege of traveling to Dallas, Texas for the Women in Aviation, International (WAI) Conference. Every year the conference brings together almost 5,000 aviation professionals from all over the world. The purpose of the conference is to promote women in the aviation field. I have never seen so many women pilots in my life. It was awesome!! The conference consists of an exhibit hall (where all of the companies get their own booth), opening receptions each morning with keynote speakers, education sessions with speakers, interviews, and the closing banquet on the last night. Besides bringing professionals, the conference also attracts many students from the WAI Chapters all over the world.

The journey to get to Dallas began at 3AM on Thursday morning. The ERAU WAI Chapter got together and drove to Orlando (MCO) to catch our 6AM flight to Atlanta. Our flight ended up having electrical problems, so we had to wait inside the plane for 40 minutes while it was being fixed. This put us an hour behind schedule and on track to miss our next flight in Atlanta. Luckily, due to a lot of snow on the taxiways and ramps in Dallas, our flight from Atlanta to Dallas was also delayed by an hour! Miraculously, we made it to Dallas. Once we got there we went straight to our hotel, which was HUGE! I guess it really is true; everything’s bigger in Texas.

It’s a good thing the hotel was massive because the conference was huge, too! I didn’t realize how many people attend the WAI Conference every year. It really was a great opportunity to network with some very experienced aviation professionals.

Each day I attended the opening reception, the exhibit halls, and a few education sessions. The opening reception was filled with women and it was a wonderful chance to go sit with someone new and connect with them. Every woman I met was very willing to share her story and her love of aviation. The exhibit hall was very intimidating at first. It was comprised of hundreds of booths, all with very powerful companies in the aviation industry. Once I got used to it, I talked with many companies and made some great connections. Lastly, each day I would attend at least one education session. These were smaller lectures about a specific topic. Some of the ones I attended were about the Women of The Boeing Company, how to find business fraud, and an education session about 9/11 from the experience of a fighter pilot. Overall, the business side of the conference was amazing. I met so many interesting women who were eager to talk to me as a student. I am definitely planning on attending next year in Nashville, Tennessee!

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Myself and one of the Tri Sigma Eta Tau alumna in the hotel!

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Me at the ERAU booth in the Exhibit Hall

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ERAU Alum whom I really connected with

 

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Part of the ERAU WAI Chapter at the closing banquet

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Crystal and I before the closing banquet

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ERAU Daytona Beach and Prescott Chapters before the closing banquet

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Kim, myself, Crystal, Lillian, and Kim before the closing banquet

 

Now for the exploration side of the conference trip! Of course, since I was in Dallas, a city which I had never been to before, I wanted to go explore the town. We found the best burger place in Dallas, Rodeo Goat, and realized it was just a few minutes walk from our hotel. One afternoon we went and had lunch and it was awesome! I believe in never eating somewhere while you’re on vacation that you could eat at while you’re at home, so Rodeo Goat definitely fit my mantra.

One night, the entire ERAU WAI Chapter went out to eat at Medieval Times. If you are not aware, Medieval Times is a dinner show where you eat everything with your hands while watching knights on horseback dual for the princess. The dinner experience is like no other. We cheered on our blue knight as we ate the dragon scales (potato skins), baby dragon (chicken), and drank dragons blood (tomato soup).

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Myself, Cevera, and Crystal at Medieval Times

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Jincy, Myself, Crystal, and Helen at Medieval Times

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Dragons blood and a baby dragon for dinner! Yumm

 

The last night of conference, a few friends and I went out to downtown Dallas. Downtown Dallas is not very active at night since it is a business district, so we went to Uptown instead! It was crazy! The restaurants all along the streets were packed with people out having a good time. Later, we went to a small TexMex restaurant and had the most delicious shrimp tacos I have ever had. It was great to get out and explore some of what Dallas has to offer.

In closing, the 2015 Women in Aviation, International Conference was well worth the travel and missing a few days of class. Although very tiring, it was my first opportunity to experience a business conference and network with people. I recommend attending at least one time, even if you are not a pilot, or a woman for that matter! You will be able to take away so many great connections and memories from the conference.

Until next time,

Lindsey

The 2013 “Coupling, Energetics, and Dynamics, of Atmospheric Regions” Meeting

Greetings from Boulder, Colorado!

I’m going to be writing this entry throughout the week as events progress, but as the conference is nearly half-over (or half-started, for you optimists), I thought I should get started writing! Also for anybody interested, you can read my conference poster here. Note that it’s a hi-res PDF so it may take some time to load.

Tuesday

View of the mountains from outside my hotel room!

I’m blogging from my hotel room at the CEDAR conference while I take a break from sitting in talks that go way over my head. It’s been a great experience being here; I’ve met students from all over the country and world, and have really enjoyed talking to them. The weather is absolutely gorgeous, as is the view. This is my first time in Colorado, and I can definitely see myself calling it home someday, should the opportunity come along.

We arrived in Colorado late on Saturday night, after a long day of taking a final exam, catching a shuttle to Orlando, a delayed flight to Denver, and a shuttle to Boulder that forgot about us and ended up being an hour and a half late. It was quite lucky to have the time-change working in my favor, as I was up at 7 am the next morning (something I swear never to do) for breakfast and the beginning of the student workshop. Sunday was a whole day devoted to some lower-level talks aimed at students (albeit Masters and PhD students, so I was still pretty lost) and a lot of socializing. The group of us from Riddle, which consists of myself, three PhD students, and three Master’s students (all EP) have been pretty much sticking together, but in the last couple days we’ve also been hanging with a student from the Indian Institute of Technology, some students from Utah State and various other state colleges all over the country (I’ve lost track!), and a group of students doing an REU program at the MIT Haystack Observatory.  For those who haven’t heard that term, REU stands for Research Experience for Undergraduates, which is similar to an internship (it’s basically what I’m doing, but you usually go to another university to do it.) They are my favorite to talk to because they don’t make me feel like the kid in the group.

Panoramic picture of the mountains over the CU Boulder football stadium. They are such a sight to see, the camera just doesn’t capture it. Click for the full picture!

Yesterday we attended a fancy schmancy banquet at CU Boulder, which was a great time. The food was delicious and it gave us an opportunity to chat about all sorts of things – time flew and we almost missed the last bus back to the hotel! We all went out for “the best frozen yogurt in Boulder” afterwards and had more chance to chat in a less-formal setting. It was a blast! I regret sitting with students at the banquet rather than doing some networking with professionals, but I’ll have a better opportunity for that later in the week anyways (My plan is to schmooze some NASA guys into hooking me up with an internship.)

A few of us Riddle students after lunch in Boulder. Mountains!

The conference itself is definitely interesting, but does get boring (just being honest here!) The sessions are generally aimed at other scientists in the field, i.e. people with PhDs, so a lot of what they are talking about goes way over my head. It’s some pretty cool stuff though, and I do enjoy bits and pieces of it. Mostly it gives an impression of what it’s like to get out into the world and actually be a physicist, because until now the only viewpoint I’ve had was The Big Bang Theory. I’ve been spending a bit of time sitting in sessions, and then taking breaks to sit in my room and let my brain recuperate. The coolest talk so far has probably been the one this morning, which was a tribute to 50 years of gravity wave research. Dr. Colin Hines, the first to publish a paper on gravity waves (in 1960!),  participated in the session via phone, which was pretty cool. After that I grabbed lunch with the group from MIT Haystack and then came back for another gravity wave session, led by ERAU’s own Dr. Snively.

Tonight will be the first of two poster sessions; it is divided into “IT” and “MLT”, which stand for “Ionosphere/Thermosphere” and “Mesosphere/Lower-Thermosphere”. Basically it depends on what part of the atmosphere your research focuses on. My poster is MLT, so I’ll be presenting tomorrow evening, but I’ll definitely be out there tonight to get a feel for the session and check out the other posters from Riddle. That’s all I’ve got for now, I’ll write some more tomorrow…

Wednesday

Standing with my poster at the MLT poster session.

Today was the big day! I skipped out on all the sessions this morning to sit in my room and read over every inch of my poster – had to be ready for the big, scary questions! Well, there weren’t many big, scary questions, so that was good. Overall I think my poster presentation went well; I definitely got flustered going over my spiel so many times, but people seemed genuinely interested. And they should be, as I’m the only one here doing non-Earth research. I even handed a business card to a guy from NASA. It’s always worth a shot in the dark to say, “hey, I see you work at NASA, do you have any connections to internships?” I think he admired my forward-ness, because he took my business card and said he’d email me. You never know what can come from good networking!

After the poster session we all went into downtown Boulder for dinner – wow! I wish I had taken some pictures. It’s a really cool city, lots of small brick buildings, street performers, and little shops, bars, and restaurants. We ended up eating at this bar/restaurant, and had the whole second floor balcony to ourselves (mostly because it was the only place all 8 of us could fit!) It was a great time. And they had this raspberry red velvet torte with coffee ice cream that was divine.

Thursday

More mountains! I loved taking pictures of them.

Well, the conference is winding down. We were up way too early today for “breakfast with NSF”, where the directors of the National Science Foundation sat down with students over breakfast and just had an open conversation. It was cool, but I didn’t feel like I got much out of it. We ended up talking more about how the conference went and suggestions for next year than we did about getting jobs and working in the field. Also, we were just sitting in a big circle of chairs, and it’s really difficult to eat French toast from a plate on your lap. Just saying.

After that were the poster prizes. One of the students from Riddle and the guy from the Indian Institute of Technology with whom we have been hanging both won honorable mention awards! There was also a distinguished speaker lecture this morning by a woman who has been in this field of research for over fifty years. It was really interesting, because she talked more about her life and building her career than the actual science – she spoke about being denied entry into a PhD program in India and only being allowed to teach undergraduate physics to women, simply because she was a woman. It was a very thought-provoking lecture.

Ethiopian food! You take those bread rolls (we called them “food towels”) and use them to pick up the different foods. It was really good!

In the evening a few of us went out for Ethiopian food with the group from Utah State. It was a really cool experience – they bring one big plate of food to the table, and you all just kind of dig in (with your hands!). There is this like soft bread stuff you would rip off and use to grab the different foods. It was delicious, cultural, and a lot of fun!

Tomorrow we leave Boulder around noon. The trip over all has been fantastic, and an amazing experience. I can’t wait for next year!

Our whole group from ERAU!

Feel free to email me if you have questions about anything I have (or haven’t) talked about here. I’m always open to emails!

-Lynsey
schroel2@my.erau.edu

September 21, 2009

This past week I had an amazing opportunity to travel to Washington D.C. and spend five days there. The reason I had this opportunity goes back to my freshman year when I decided to join a club on campus called Silver Wings. Silver Wings is a national, co-ed organization that focuses on professional development and community service. The club’s members are both AFROTC cadets and civilians and one of our purposes is to create awareness throughout the community about the military. Over the past three years, I’ve been able to develop more as a leader because of the positions I’ve held in the organization. This year I’m the Silver Wings National Treasurer and the reason I went to Washington D.C. is because we had our Executive Boards. Executive Boards are when the National Staff shares with the eleven Region Presidents what the vision is for the year. Also, our sister organization-Arnold Air Society-meets and we discuss what community service projects we will work together on amongst other things.

My time in D.C. was not just spent in hotel meeting rooms; I did get to go out and see many of the monuments. I saw the Capitol Building, the Washington Monument, the White House, the Vietnam Memorial, the Korean War Memorial, the Lincoln Memorial, and the Jefferson Memorial. I had never been to Washington D.C. before and to see all these monuments was an amazing experience! Also, we did get to go to one museum-the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum. We decided to get a group picture taken in front of the original Wright Flyer, since our school has a replica of the Wright Flyer in front of the library. One day I want to go back, so that I can spend more time exploring the city!

One of the reasons we have our Executive Board Meeting in Washington D.C. is because the Air Force Association invites us to their Air & Space Conference and Technology Exposition. When we finished with our meetings each day, we were able to go downstairs in the hotel and attend their conference. Some of the briefings I was able to listen to were from the Secretary of Defense, the Secretary of the Air Force, and many other notable people. On Sunday morning, we were guests at the Air Force Association Wreath Laying Ceremony for fallen Air Force Association members. The ceremony took place at the Air Force Memorial and I was impressed at the size and beauty of the memorial. Also, we were included in the two formal dinners they hosted. One of the dinners was to honor the 12 Outstanding Airmen and the Air Force Band along with the Singing Sergeants put on a performance. To be able to attend the Air & Space Conference and Technology Exposition was an experience that I will remember for a long time.

The whole conference was a one of a kind opportunity and I’m so glad that I joined Silver Wings my freshman year. A big part of the college experience is joining organizations on campus and Embry-Riddle has something for everyone. I encourage you when looking at prospective schools to also look at the clubs they offer. My college experience without Silver Wings is one I wouldn’t dare to imagine!

Until next time,
Kaleigh