The UT section of the Society of Women Engineers sent 26 members to WE18, the society’s annual conference recently held in Minneapolis, Minnesota. At the conference, UT SWE was awarded the SWE Mission Award Gold, which recognizes SWE groups that embody the organization’s core values and demonstrate continuous improvement and growth toward strategic goals.

They were also awarded the Best Practice in Mentoring award for SWEeties, their mentorship program that pairs freshman and transfer engineering students with upperclassman to complete goals and attend SWE events together.

Hannah Hajdik, Mary Liz Daffron, Abigail Cooper, and Kalie Knecht were selected to participate in the Collegiate Leadership Institute, a competitive leadership summit at WE18 that offered professional development and networking opportunities with society leaders.

At the conference, the UT SWE section also had a booth at the Invent It! Build It! Outreach expo with over 1,000 participants. They told visitors about engineering at the Tickle College of Engineering and worked through a photon flower demo with middle school- and high school-aged girls.