2009-2010 Women in EECS Officer Elections
Nominations are closed. The final officer nominees are below. Deadline to vote: April 29th, 2009Please fill out the ballot with your vote and submit in only one of the following ways:
- E-mail Rosa Enciso at renciso at cs.ucf.edu
- E-mail Saba Sehrish at ssehrish at cs.ucf.edu
- E-mail Antoniya Petkova at apetkova at cs.ucf.edu
- Drop your vote at HEC-231 to either Rosa or Saba.
- Drop your vote at the main office on the third floor of HEC. Ask them to put it on the mailbox of Rosa Enciso.
Rosa, Saba and Antoniya are not participating in the elections. We will not disclose who voted for who.
Below is a list of the candidates and their plan for each position. Some of them have allowed us to post their application, so if you want to learn more about them, their leadership skills, and vision for the organization, click on their name.
President
Candidate 1: Rochelle Elva, Ph.D. Student in Computer Science
Plan
- The officers will each be required to help with a 2 semester plan for the group. Each officer will take responsibility for some specified part of the plan to spread the work around evenly and to ensure that all officers are active. Officers will also have the opportunity there to discuss any problems that they are facing with their responsibilities.
- There will be two general meetings for the group one at the beginning and another at the end of the semester. At this meeting all of the women in the group will be briefed on planned activities and will also have an opportunity to make some input.
- join Volunteer UCF in some of their established events like providing child care for women who need to attend classes on a Saturday or working with the women at the battered women's shelter
- I would like us to host a Christmas party for the children of the janitorial (or custodial staff I think they are called). Their parents make our lives easier but they do not make much.
- The contribution to Breast Cancer research should become one of our annual commitments
-We can continue to encourage women and girls to engage in science based careers - by volunteering at the Science fairs; talks at Valencia community college;
- As part of our outreach to our own Women in EECS, we should get the names of new girls/women joining UCF and pair them up with someone who will be a point of contact for the first semester - at least until they know their way around. The 'big sister' will send a personal email welcoming the new student, and make a point of meeting with her.
Vice-President/Treasurer
Candidate 1: Majd Batarseh, Ph.D. Student in Electrical Engineering
Plan
More regular female speakers at the grad seminars held in UCF
Social networking activities within the student body and with other groups
Continual participation of the EECS female students in workshops and conferences held for female students in engineering and computing
Candidate 2: Ruba A. Amarin, Ph.D. Student in Electrical Engineering
Plan
- Help the new president with all tasks and serve as a president in case of president absence.
- Be part in organizing for conferences by advertising all the upcoming opportunities for women and be part of encouraging women to take an effective role by participating.
- Organize group meeting weekly to discuss upcoming events and to report status. And also be part of SPECS meetings.
- Organize outdoor events.
- Help in spreading our group's motivations all over campus and off campus.
Candidate 3: Stephanie Day, Currently junior in Computer Science, will be a senior next year
Plan
I will do my best to assist the President in whatever she wants me to do. I will try to network with other related clubs such as ACM and SWE to plan events and get ideas to help get our organization going. I will also do everything I listed in my plan for secretary.
Candidate 4: Ya Shen, Ph.D. Student in Electrical Engineering
Plan
Besides what we've done in the previous year, such as lunch, social, game night, study groups, I would like to suggest more outdoor events, like Challenge Courses from UCF Recreation and Wellness Center, to make this girls group draw together. We should also involve more in the community, and let more people know there is a group of girls in EECS, UCF.
Public Relations and Secretary
Candidate 1: Stephanie Day, Currently junior in Computer Science, will be a senior next year
Plan
As secretary, I would attend all the officer meetings and take notes on what is discussed. I will try my best to get Women in EECS recognized as an official student organization in UCF. Also, as former undergrad chair, I will help the next undergrad chairs to plan more undergrad events and try to make the club more visible to undergrad girls of all majors, with both social and academic events. I have ideas for many types of events and activities that I was not able to put on this past year, but I still hope we can have them in the future. These events include a programming/game competition of some sort as a fundraiser, open to all undergrads in EECS, and also some kind of group project where some students from all four areas of EECS get together to make something that can possibly be displayed somewhere in HEC.
Candidate 2: Shafaq Chaudhry, Ph.D. Student in Computer Science
Plan
Apart from the responsibilities listed for the Secretary role, some of the activities that I would like to do are as follows:
a) Get connected with the female engineering and EECS alumni who are working both in industry and academia. Make and maintain a directory of these important contacts and organize career talks or informal meetings with them so they can share advice and pointers with students graduating in the near future.
b) Develop a Financial Assistance program that perseveres ways to effectively raise funds and collect contributions for the group. These funds can help group members in many ways: support students, assist in traveling for research presentations, fund social events, help with logistics of invited speakers, etc.
c) Raise awareness and encourage female students (especially undergraduates) to participate in open source projects the likes of Google Summer of Code, Ubuntu Women, DrupalChix, Women 2.0, GNOME Women's Summer Outreach Program, etc.
d) Interact with female professionals in industry/academia, arrange talks by them and form strong liaisons for future.
e) Arrange field trips to Siemens and AT&T in Research Parkway.
f) Analyze the structure and functioning of the WEECS/WIE group, generate reports on how effectively it is achieving its targets and share results with the group. This will give us all a chance to evaluate and recommend changes.
Candidate 3: Mahsa Maghami, Ph.D. Student in Electrical Engineering
Plan
I don't know how much we are connected to SGA now. But my special plan is to increase this connection. For encouraging girls to join this group and participate in activities we need to offer some benefits. So getting funds from SGA or other institutes is the most important factor for me.
The other major plan for me is increase the connection between WIE and industry. We can invite industry women for our panels.
Undergraduate Committee Chair CS or IT
Candidate 1: Angela Nicole McCall , earning her second degree, currently a Sophomore in Computer Science
Plan
I am interested in the Undergraduate chair position. As an undergraduate chair, my first goal would be to host frequent (biweekly or weekly) informal events to encourage the ladies of EECS to meet one another- video game tournaments, movie nights, bowling, etc. My hope is that once the undergraduate women begin getting involved in the informal events, they would decide to come to talks and workshops hosted by W-EECS\WIE.
Candidate 2: Lisa Soros, Sophomore in Computer Science
Plan
I would like to see a mentoring program with elementary/middle/high school students. This could even just be over e-mail, with bi-monthly (or whenever is convenient) meetings in person. We got a good start with social events for the Women in EECS, but I'd like to see a few more, especially for undergraduates. I would really like to have a field day/picnic. As far as talks and workshops, I thought it was helpful to attend a workshop on research - another one of these would be helpful for students who are not already involved in research.
Undergraduate Committee Chair CE or EE
Candidate 1: Talitha Rubio, Sophomore in Electrical Engineering
Plan
My vision for the Women in EECS/WIE group is for it to gain more visibility among the female engineers at UCF. All too often, girls are isolated in their male-dominated courses, so they need to know the benefits of having friends that are taking or have taken the same courses they are. The WIE group is just that, a chance for the female students to band together and assist in studying, exchange career advice, attend important engineering conferences, or just relax and have some girl talk. (Which can be relieving after hanging around a bunch of guys everyday.)
So what I see for WIE is more prominence and visibility to the female students. The students need more encouragement and incentive to attend the events and join the group.
For 2009-2010, what I have in mind are events that focus on the engineering career and that serve to help students fine tune their interests. Also, for fun, some good events that would attract more participation would be perhaps a video game night, or any other fun activity that would keep to theme of technology.
Graduate Committee Chair
Candidate 1: Charna Parkey , Ph.D. Student in Electrical Engineering
Plan
Since many of the graduate students are busy with research and writing papers I would like to set up a peer review option for members of WIE to have others in the group proof read each other's papers.
Many of the Women faculty is unknown to the WIE members so I would like to highlight them by putting profiles on websites frequented by the girls. (facebook etc)
For those that are not able to attend meetings I would like to create a small email newsletter that is sent monthly as meetings occur with an update on events and accomplishments of the graduate members. We all need a little bit of recognition sometimes to help us see we really are progressing towards completing our degrees.
In order to include some fun while still being thought provoking I propose a book club, one that has an online discussion group where WIE members get to vote for the next month's book as well as discuss the current book.
In order to form a stronger bond between our members I would like to have a team building event that would take place each year if successful.
Candidate 2: Mahsa Maghami, Ph.D. Student in Electrical Engineering
Plan
- I would like to increase the technical panels. Inviting successful women we have met in conferences like Grace Hopper or Grad Cohort. Maybe we can get fund from some advisors to invite them as a distinguished speaker and arrange a special panel for WIE as well.
- Organizing some outdoor fun events especially at the end of each semester (going to state parks, theme parks, short trips)
- I would like to organize some technical talks among the WIE members. We can talk about our projects, our recently published papers or sharing ideas. WIE members can find girls with the same interests and they can give each other advice. I think this is good especially for first year students and maybe it helps them to choose their subject .
Mentoring Program Committee Chair
Candidate 1: Pamela S. Caraballo, Junior in Electrical Engineering
Plan
I am also in Tau Beta Pi engineering honors society and we're trying to set up a program modeled after UF's GatorTRAX program which sets up a few weekends a semester aside so that community children can do workshops and learn how to apply math to their education more effectively. Getting involved with this effort, especially with girls and community outreach would be great.
Outreach Committee Chair
Candidate 1: Lisa Soros, Sophomore in Computer Science
Plan
I would like to see a mentoring program with elementary/middle/high school students. This could even just be over e-mail, with bi-monthly (or whenever is convenient) meetings in person. We got a good start with social events for the Women in EECS, but I'd like to see a few more, especially for undergraduates. I would really like to have a field day/picnic. As far as talks and workshops, I thought it was helpful to attend a workshop on research - another one of these would be helpful for students who are not already involved in research.
Candidate 2: Rochelle Elva, Ph.D. Student in Computer Science
Plan
- join Volunteer UCF in some of their established events like providing child care for women who need to attend classes on a Saturday or working with the women at the battered women's shelter
- I would like us to host a Christmas party for the children of the janitorial (or custodial staff I think they are called). Their parents make our lives easier but they do not make much.
- The contribution to Breast Cancer research should become one of our annual commitments
-We can continue to encourage women and girls to engage in science based careers - by volunteering at the Science fairs; talks at Valencia community college;
- As part of our outreach to our own Women in EECS, we should get the names of new girls/women joining UCF and pair them up with someone who will be a point of contact for the first semester - at least until they know their way around. The 'big sister' will send a personal email welcoming the new student, and make a point of meeting with her.
Candidate 3: Ya Shen, Ph.D. Student in Electrical Engineering
Plan
Besides what we've done in the previous year, such as lunch, social, game night, study groups, I would like to suggest more outdoor events, like Challenge Courses from UCF Recreation and Wellness Center, to make this girls group draw together. We should also involve more in the community, and let more people know there is a group of girls in EECS, UCF.
Website Committee Chair
Candidate 1: Francesca Caviasca, Junior in Information Technology
Plan
I am fairly new to group (events and all) however I would like to see (if not already in place) group studies and possibly workshops to create beneficial study habits and time management.
Candidate 2: Yesenia De La Cruz, Freshman in Computer Engineering
Plan
Some of events we could develop are socials, volunteer projects, and workshops. The socials could celebrate a specific holiday, such as Cinco de Mayo in which piñatas could be used or an Easter egg hunt with prizes better then just candy. Also the socials could just revolve around the members interests. For instance, video games, dancing, or any other type of activity could be done. The workshops could deal with career oriented information or demonstrate things such as making piñatas (making workshops relate to socials) or cooking. Lastly, the volunteer projects could deal with many aspects in the community such as providing food for families or helping animal rescue centers. The main thing I believe is that the events should accomplish creating an enjoyable experience for each member and take into consideration their own interests. As for the position, my future plans if elected is to create a more interact website; a website that can act as a means of communication between members.
Advertisement Chair
Candidate 1: Ruba A. Amarin, Ph.D. Student in Electrical Engineering
Plan
- Make flyers for the different events WEECS are part of.
- Post flyer on the CECS tv.