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In early November, the Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers (SHPE) staged its national conference for 2007 in Philadelphia, PA. It marked the transition to a fall date for SHPE’s major yearly event.
The conference broke attendance records. More than 2,500 students, almost a thousand pre-college students and more than a thousand professionals and corporate supporters attended for an estimated total of nearly 5,000.
Aboard the Iwo Jima
The opening reception took place aboard the U.S.S. Iwo Jima, the Navy’s huge amphibious assault ship. Participants toured the ship and an Osprey aircraft parked on the flight deck. The Navy also hosted a number of technical sessions and was represented by its spectacular drill team, which performed at the opening of the Academic Olympiad contest, and by a spacious recruiting booth at the career fair.
There were plenty of sessions on technical and career subjects, including a series of workshops on professional development strategies. Other sessions covered topics from business etiquette to the latest developments in rocket science.
Procter & Gamble engineers led a well-attended session on product development, in which teams of students designed improvements to popular P&G products: new packaging for detergent, cat food and disposable diapers and an improved shape for a cake of soap. A luncheon to honor corporate sponsors and a gala awards banquet were also part of the conference.
Premier source
“We are truly the premier source for Hispanic technical talent,” says SHPE national president Diana Gomez. She’s proud that the organization’s Industrial PartnerSHPE Council of corporate supporters has reached fifty members, and cites SHPE’s cooperation with other Hispanic-focused technical organizations. This includes summer camps run with the Hispanic Engineer National Awards Association Conference (HENAAC) organization and support from IBM, and ongoing projects with the Society of Mexican American Engineers and Scientists (MAES) and the Society for Advancement of Chicanos and Native Americans in Science (SACNAS).
Four-day whirlwind
The conference was a four-day whirlwind of new experiences and nonstop networking, which Gomez hopes provided valuable tools for personal and professional development. “I want to help our student and professional members take advantage of all this country has to offer,” she declares.
SHPE is committed to a fall conference through 2010; next year’s date is November 16-18 in Phoenix, AZ. The Eastern and Western regional conferences will shift to an early-year schedule. The next Eastern Technical Career Conference will be held February 21-24, 2008 in Washington, DC, spearheaded by Region IV.
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