1. Undergraduate Presentation to AESS Board of Directors, May 2015
Scott Sprindis
AESS Undergraduate Student Representative, Rowan University Senior in ECE

2. Inspiration and Guidance
Make engineering more openly connected
Brief monthly newsletter for students
Elaborate on one type of career out there each month
Provide some insight on the paths to take to head towards this career
Provide an engineer in this area that can be contacted for that month about the career
For example how one might end up working on avionics in a specific military jet, and a real engineer working on that jet
One of the first speeches I heard at my orientation was how difficult engineering was and to be sure this is what I wanted. But I wasn’t sure, even well into my junior year I didn’t know what I wanted to do, and I was terrified to admit that. Every speaker I have heard tells their story of success and how we can be like them. This to me inspired a need for a guise of absolute knowledge. In this competitive industry no one wants to admit any short comings, which is fair, but at the same time this can also mean a lot of wasted talent because up and coming engineers are too afraid to let a possible link in there network see “weakness”. Often times in engineering there is this idea of “no hand holding”; students are in charge of their own education, and that is an important aspect of problem solving and the work we do, however; this same philosophy does not need to be true with networking and developing a career. These are areas where young engineers could use more guidance. One thing I didn’t truly understand until job interviews, my senior year, was how dramatically different a career can be from the degree obtained.

3. Student Conferences Held by non-student branch
Emphasis on making professionals approachable
Help students understand what options are available to them in the job market
Student branches tend to be engineering majors that are already inclined to networking well; people that are open and well spoken. A lot of talk about networking, but how? Give students the opportunity to meet successful engineers. Make sure students feel comfortable being open about any questions they have. Give the opportunity to learn what there is too do with an engineering degree, and how to prepare for different areas. Make sure engineers participating do not assume certain experiences, so as to encourage an open question environment.

4. Novice Competitions Geared toward inexperienced students
Encourage and teach students
Provide direction
Inspire confidence
Specifically that uncertainty is okay
Design competitions that allow novice engineering majors an introduction into different areas of engineering. Focus on problem solving with more technical aspects more mildly introduced. Many competitions can be intimidating for certain students that never had the opportunity to work in engineering or coding as a hobby before college. This will allow students to see new career options, inspire confidence, and possibly allow for networking opportunities, if designed properly.

5. Questions?