WEPAN Newsletter June 2023

Renew Your Membership Today

It is time to renew your WEPAN membership! Each of our members is an important part of a unique, enterprising network of advocates and leaders dedicated to advancing cultures of inclusion and diversity in engineering. Renew your membership today to ensure that you can continue to enjoy your member benefits with WEPAN! Your Individual Member benefits include:

• Professional Development
• Access to the Women in STEM Knowledge Center, the premier online resource for research, best practices and professional communities dedicated to advancing diverse communities of women in engineering and STEM.
• Access to timely and relevant professional development webinars, both live and recorded.
• A free or reduced rate for WEPAN workshops.
• A free or reduced rate for WEPAN Program Days.
• Discount registration for the CoNECD conference and ADVANCE Equity in STEM Community Convening
• Career Center
• WEPAN's Career Center allows you to search for jobs for free. WEPAN members also enjoy discounted Career Center services.

To renew, simply login to wepan.org with your username and password, select "Manage Profile,” and then select "Renew Membership Now

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Events

News

ADVANCE EiSCC Conference Materials Available

Conference materials from the 2023 ADVANCE EiSCC have been uploaded to the ARC Network Resource Library! You can access all presentations and posters from this year and the 2022 convening.

Join NCWIT's Higher Learning Circles

The National Center for Women and Information Technology (NCWIT ) provides FREE and customized professional development to computing departments seeking to diversify their student bodies, and is RECRUITING NOW for this program! The professional development takes place via NCWIT HigherEd Learning Circles.

Among other benefits, Learning Circle participants will receive guidance from an NCWIT HigherEd research scientist and facilitated access to NCWIT’s Tech Inclusion Journey for Undergraduate Programs. Joining a Learning Circle will also help departments identify goals and activities that make sense for their departmental context, leaving them well-prepared to develop and implement an NSF broadening participation in computing (BPC) plan!

You can learn more about the initiative on the Learning Circles webpage and express your interest by completing an interest form. NCWIT will form the Learning Circles this summer, so express your interest soon to secure your spot!

NFPA’s Fluid Power Vehicle Challenge Winners Announced

Now in its seventh year, NFPA Fluid Power Vehicle Challenge tasks college engineering students with redesigning a traditional bicycle using hydraulics as the mode of power transmission. By combining this unlikely pair, the Vehicle Challenge creates an environment that results in uncommon connections and breakthroughs while supporting learning and the growth of fluid power industry knowledge.

Students participating in the Vehicle Challenge gain knowledge and hands-on experience with fluid power components, circuits, and systems and their use in controlling force and motion. More than 140 students from 23 universities participated this year. One of the students who competed this year said, “If I would have known about the Fluid Power Vehicle Challenge and what a great opportunity it is for networking and learning, I would have signed up for it my freshman year!”

This spring, the final competitions were hosted by Danfoss Power Solutions in Ames, IA and Norgren in Littleton, Colorado. The University of Louisiana at Lafayette and Texas A&M took home the top prize at the two competitions. Individuals from 27 NFPA member companies volunteered countless hours as mentors, event hosts, product suppliers, and judges for this year’s program. A complete listing of winners can be found on the NFPA Foundation website.

The FPVC program lasts the entire school year, with final competitions happening in April. For more information, or to see if your company is eligible to participate or if your university has a team, contact Mary Pluta at mpluta@nfpa.com.

Founded in 1953, the National Fluid Power Association (NFPA) is the only trade association focused exclusively on fluid power technology with members representing the entire fluid power supply chain. Beginning with 35 fluid power companies at the inaugural meeting on May 1, 1953, NFPA has grown to over 300 member companies with an ever-growing impact towards ensuring fluid power is the customer’s technology of choice. Headquartered in Milwaukee, WI, NFPA continues to add value for its members and is working towards the continued success of the fluid power industry.‍

WEPAN Listserv

Do you have something to tell the WEPAN community? Remember that subscription to the WEPAN-L listserv is a member benefit! Share announcements, post publication opportunities, and collaborate with colleagues from different institutions and organizations on special projects.

To subscribe to the WEPAN-L listserv, visit: lists.purdue.edu/mailman/listinfo/wepan-l

Resources

Publications, reports, or communications relevant to women in engineering and STEM equity. All resources listed below are available in the ARC Network online resource library. If you need help accessing the library, please contact ARC Librarian Bethany Farmer at bethany@wepan.org.  

• Gender Segregation Across Engineering Majors: How Engineering Professors Understand Women’s Underrepresentation in Undergraduate Engineering" by E. Blosser

"Women’s persistent underrepresentation in undergraduate engineering is a well-documented concern. One issue missing from many discussions on the topic, however, is that women are not equally underrepresented in all engineering majors. Furthermore, a significant portion of the research focuses solely on women’s experiences within engineering . . . Using data from 23 in-depth interviews at one university, the findings demonstrate how the majority of faculty mobilize gendered images to position some majors as feminine and others as masculine, and then suggest that this impacts women’s choices of fields."

ARC Network

Funded by the National Science Foundation ADVANCE Program, Awards HRD-2121468 and HRD-1740860, the ADVANCE Resource and Coordination (ARC) Network seeks to achieve gender equity for faculty in higher education science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) disciplines. WEPAN serves as the backbone organization of the ARC Network.‍

Join the Next Virtual Visiting Scholar Cohort

Each year, the ARC Network selects two to four Virtual Visiting Scholars to conduct research on existing or emerging themes from scholarly literature on gender equity in STEM workplaces.

Virtual Visiting Scholars employ qualitative and/or quantitative meta-analytic and meta-synthesis techniques to identify best practices, structural barriers, or other larger themes from existing literature. Research also incorporates considerations of diversity and inclusion from an intersectional and systemic perspective.Virtual Visiting Scholars will be expected to work independently at locations of their choosing.

The ARC Network will provide a stipend for one year of $20,000. The funds will be provided as direct payments to the Scholar, not to an institution.Apply at equityinstem.org/vvs/call-for-proposals. Proposals close July 17, 2023 at 5pm ET
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Institutional WEPAN Membership

Want to encourage your institution to deepen its commitment to equity and excellence?

Consider becoming a 30 for 30 Institutional Champion Member. At this membership level, institutions have unlimited member representatives who get to dive into critical diversity, equity, and inclusion issues through custom workshops. These members also get the opportunity to strengthen their inclusive leadership capacity as part of the Equity and Excellence Council. Additional 30 for 30 Institutional Champion member benefits include:

• Professional Development
• Decades of resources in the WEPAN Knowledge Center
• Professional development webinars, including one featuring an invited speaker from your institution
• Free and discounted workshops, including one customized for your institution
• Free and discounted access to WEPAN’s Program Days
• Three annual convening registrations
• Communication & Networking
• WEPAN-L listserv
• Slack
• WEPAN member directory
• Social media spotlights of your institution
• Workforce
• Free and discounted job postings for your institution in WEPAN’s Career Center

For more information on how to become a 30 for 30 Institutional Member, please email membership@wepan.org.

Get Involved

Committees

We are looking for visionary members to join our committees and influence programming and member experiences. If you are interested in being a member of a WEPAN committee, please complete this survey: https://forms.gle/ZQyijAGNtPYYtNTV9

Slack Channel

Please join us on Slack to drive that connectivity across our membership during a critical time for connection. Join our Slack community today!

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