Chair's Message - Silicon Valley Women in Engineering 2020

Chair’s Message

2020 – Vision for a Better Future

Every day, we are surrounded by news of the struggles of our time — from the global health crisis to the impacts of climate change. We are reminded that both our local community and the world are facing complex problems with critically important consequences. We can be paralyzed by these problems, or we can take an active role in finding solutions.

The 2020 Women in Engineering conference theme, Vision for a Better Future, serves as a reminder that as engineers and scientists, we are challenged to the latter– to be a part of the solution. At this year’s WiE conference, you will hear from women across a broad spectrum of engineering fields who have used their technical expertise and leadership to make a positive difference in their local and global communities. These leaders are creating a better future by designing greener construction and energy solutions, developing life-saving diagnostics and medicine, and inventing AI and VR tools that promote inclusion and security while revolutionizing the way we interact and work.

In order for engineers and scientists to be effective change agents, we need to fully understand complex technical problems while also understanding the larger business and societal issues. Who benefits from a new technology? Where are the hidden costs in terms of money, labor, or planetary impact? How do we aim for balance when comparing goals such as safety versus privacy, connection versus freedom, quantity versus quality?

The WiE conference is a special community of faculty, industry leaders, and future engineers and scientists coming together to create a vision for a better future. As a participant, you will be able to immerse yourself in the details of technology while also learning about the complexities of implementing that technology to make a difference. Enjoy a full day of programming, from the morning keynote sessions through the evening’s Innovation Showcase that highlights the technologies of our sponsors. Take advantage of the many opportunities to explore different technical fields, hear women leaders share their career stories and advice, and build your professional development skills. Plan your conference day schedule now to make the most of the day.

We have some of the tech industry’s most innovative and accomplished leaders coming to engage with you. We hope that by hearing about their expertise and careers, you will be motivated to tackle complex problems as an innovator and a leader in your chosen field. There are so many ways that engineers and scientists can make a positive difference in the world. The WiE conference will help you develop your personal Vision for a Better Future.

Stacy H. Gleixner, PhD
Professor, Materials Engineering and College of Engineering Special Projects
Chair, 2020 Silicon Valley Women in Engineering Conference
San José State University

Sponsors

Title Sponsor

Mark and Carolyn Guidry Women in Engineering Program Fund

Carolyn Guidry (1937-2009) was born in Mississippi and spent her childhood in the Deep South. She earned her Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering at Louisiana State University in 1959. One week after graduation, she married Mark Guidry (1937-2020), a fellow electrical engineering major she met at LSU. Carolyn began her career at Boeing, but soon put her career on hold and devoted 20 years to raising their three children. She returned to school and earned her Master’s degree in Computer Engineering from SJSU in 1979. She joined Hewlett-Packard and was directly responsible for the development of a new flexible interconnect cable and the microcode for a new computer.

In partnership with Mark, Carolyn founded two successful companies in semiconductor design software and semiconductor product development. Both companies were later acquired and became leaders in their respective fields. After the second company was acquired by Integrated Circuit Systems in 1993, she founded the Mark and Carolyn Guidry Foundation and managed all aspects of the organization. She received an Award of Distinction from SJSU Davidson College of Engineering in 2006. Both she and Mark were inducted into the LSU College of Engineering Hall of Distinction in 2001.

Mark was a Louisiana native. After receiving his BSEE from LSU, he took a position at Boeing. He subsequently earned an MSEE from University of Washington and a Ph.D. from Iowa State University. He taught at LSU, where he conducted research in semiconductor technology, laser technology and radio wave propagation. Prior to founding their companies, Mark worked at Fairchild Semiconductor in Palo Alto, a small San Diego company and Texas Instruments in Houston.

All three of Carolyn and Mark’s children graduated with degrees in engineering. The Guidry family strongly believes in the power of education and the importance of developing engineering education in the U.S. for what lies ahead. The Mark and Carolyn Guidry Foundation has been a long-time leader in supporting women in engineering at SJSU. Its commitment and on-going support have made the Silicon Valley Women in Engineering program a model of success for educating new woman innovators regionally and nationally.

Champion Sponsors

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Cisco

75 billion devices are expected to be connected to the Internet by 2025. Each device includes sensors that collect data, interact with the environment, and communicate over a network. The Internet of Things (IoT) is the network of these connected devices. These smart, connected devices generate data that IoT applications use to aggregate, analyze, and deliver insight, which helps drive more informed decisions and actions.

The Cisco IoT portfolio provides an integrated architecture of hardware, software, and security offerings to safely and securely connect our world.

Come visit Cisco at the Innovation Showcase, where we will be showing how the connectivity behind the scenes impacts your everyday life. The demo brings out the different aspects of the Cisco IoT portfolio to connect and monitor devices across connectivity types, and to manage the extraction of data in a secure fashion.

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Google

With the Google Assistant, you can enjoy entertainment, find answers, manage everyday tasks, and easily control smart home devices–all with your voice. Listen to your favorite song, find a delicious brownie recipe, or check your commute to work. Or, prepare for movie night by dimming the lights and streaming the latest blockbuster. The Google Assistant can also help in situations where you may not speak the local language with interpreter mode. Today’s demonstration will give insight into how the Google Assistant is always learning and improving to help get things done faster and easier on the go, the car, and at home.

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NETGEAR

NETGEAR Walkthrough and Summer Internship Program

Since 1996, NETGEAR® (NASDAQ: NTGR) has been the innovative leader in connecting the world to the internet with advanced networking technologies for homes, businesses, and service providers around the world. As staying connected has become more important than ever, NETGEAR delivers award-winning network solutions for remote work, distance learning, UHD streaming, online game play and more. By enabling people to collaborate and connect to a world of information and entertainment, NETGEAR is dedicated to providing a range of connected solutions from easy-to-use high-performance Orbi Mesh WiFi systems, the Nighthawk portfolio of WiFi routers, cable modems and mobile wireless, cloud-based subscription services for enhanced control and security, to smart networking products and video over Ethernet for Pro AV applications.

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TSMC

TSMC Career Talk Sessions

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company Limited engages in the computer aided design, manufacture, packaging, testing, sale, and marketing of integrated circuits and other semiconductor devices. The company is also involved in the research, development, design, manufacture, and sale of solid-state lighting devices and related applications products and systems, and renewable energy and efficiency related technologies and products, as well as manufactures masks. In addition, it provides customer and technical support services; and sells and markets solar related products. Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company Limited operates in Taiwan, the United States, Asia, and internationally. The company was founded in 1987 and is headquartered in Hsinchu, Taiwan.

TSMC North America is the sales and service organization for the world’s largest semiconductor foundry with headquarters based in Taiwan. TSMC NA works with customers in the technology business that manufactures and sells products that run on our chips and cutting-edge technology.