LACCEI 2017 – Boca Raton, FL – Global Competencies & Broadening Participation in STEM

30 thoughts on “LACCEI 2017 – Boca Raton, FL – Global Competencies & Broadening Participation in STEM”

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2. Maryland Presenters: Please check the schedule and provide us with any updates regarding your presentations. You may update as a response to this thread.

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   1. I will be presenting my poster on Friday as well as a work in progress. Thanks

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3. Question #1:

   What do you expect to learn from the conference and gain from the experience?

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   1. Please answer as a “Reply” by clicking on “Reply” under my photo. Please do not start a new thread. Thank you. Use the protocol “A1” when answering Question #1, “A2” when answering Question #2, etc. A new question will be posted each day. All members of the delegation are expected to participate in this blogging experience.

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   2. A1- Personnally I am excited to be part of this event. I am expecting a lot of things and among them the fact that I will be meeting with people from other countries and different backgrounds. I am also expecting to exchange ideas and learn the work of other peers participating in this conference which will definitely impact my ideas for future reseach. Also I will be practicing my Spanish, the little I know… 🙂 Overall I will be gaining in networking and more knowledge!!!

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   3. A1 – I am looking forward to this conference. I’ve participated in the past several years in Latin America and it always provides some new insight regarding education and successful teaching practices. I think the networking will help me better understand what I would like to do next in my career.

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   4. A1 – At this conference, I expect to meet several students and professors from different countries and cultures while learning the variety of problems they aim to solve in their research. During this event, I will gain more experience with discussing my research to those from different academic fields and learning about graduate student opportunities. This will be my first international conference, and I am eager to talk with others about their personal and professional goals to build connections.

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   5. A1: I hope to expand my network while also gaining knowledge and insight for other international researchers through exchanging ideas.

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   6. A1 – I am very excited to attend this conference! It’s great to see many different cultures in one place. I hope to learn strategies in proper networking and to work on my “elevator pitch”. I also hope to see some great posters and learn presentation skills from the presenters in order to apply this at my upcoming Summer Poster Presentation Day. Finally, I can practice my Spanish!—maybe

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   7. A1. I expect to represent myself and the LSAMP program at the University of Maryland College Park at the conference. As with many of the conferences I go to, I also hope to learn a great deal about research in fields outside of my own. I have experience in neuroscience, aerosol and nanoparticle technology, and biomedical device design. And while I feel comfortable reading and learning about topics within those broad categories, I desperately love learning about research in new fields! I hope to gain knowledge from the science and experiences of those I meet and interact with!

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4. Q2: What were your thoughts about the “Ethical Hacking” exercise? What did you learn that you didn’t know before?

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   1. A2- I started the test but didn’t have time to explore the whole stages. It was pretty exciting. One thing I learnt is that there are companies teaching and recruiting people to inform and protect on the hacking activities. I thought it was just a guy sitting in a garage that will be crazy enough to do these kind of activities.

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   2. A2 – I enjoyed the “ethical hacking” exercise. It all started with the “ethical” adjective on it, how it is intended to portray that it is something for the good. It is meant to distribute knowledge regarding potential hazards that we walk into when using online tools or networks. I learned that there are really good modules out there that serve as a guide and instructional path to help us better understand what is current with technology. It is also a great starting point for someone that knows little to nothing about the topic and it slowly increases difficulty and complexity. It was a great session today!

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   3. A2 – I thought it was very interesting. I never thought that the words “ethical” and “hacking” could be used in the same sentence. It was a great activity. I prefer interactive lectures, so I appreciated the event. I learned that a person can hack into another person’s system if they are using the same network! And it isn’t wise to use free WiFi without a password.

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   4. A2 – The ethical hacking exercise exposed something eye-opening for me even though I study computer science. I knew that open, insecure networks were vulnerable to a variety of attacks, but I learned from the exercise a detailed method of how a possible attack is done. The scariest part is that anyone can do it with the open-source tools, and has harmful potential. I appreciate EC-Council for having us engage in the exercise; despite the various backgrounds we have, everyone could clearly understand the lessons from the workshop.

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   5. I LOVED THE ETHICAL HACKING EXERCISE. I had an extremely minute knowledge of ethical hacking, though I had been introduced to the concept previously, I had no actual experience with it. The exercise opened my eyes to countless possibilities with regard to the abilities of malicious attackers, After this session i decided that I am certainly going to explore hacking more!

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5. Q3a: Discuss the session that you attended following the morning plenary, e.g., sustainability, teaching engineering. What did you learn that was new?

   Q3b: Discuss the “Women in STEM and Diversity Panel.” What resonated most for you? How will you become a champion for women and people from diverse backgrounds in STEM?

   Assignment for tomorrow, Thursday 20 July 2017: Support one another’s posters, take pictures and post, and most importantly, develop some connections with students from other countries. Your individual tasks are to increase your networks by taking two individual photos with at *least* two other students from two other countries. Share their names, schools, and majors.

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   1. A3a – I attended the “Sustainable Engineering I” session. I learned about using yuca and rice as material for biodegradable plastics. It’s funny because during the Pre-Conference sessions, my team tried to come up with a way to make biodegradable plastics to help reduce wastes/landfills! I learned that when coming up with solutions like this, it is important to consider all aspects of error, so collaboration is key. For example, the speaker discussed humidity being a factor, but she was able to resist it a little. However, she didn’t discuss (or at least I didn’t hear) the speaker address shelf life. Shelf life was a factor that Hector brought up with my group when we discussed our plan. So, although the presentation was good, it didn’t address that point: a point that can easily be overlooked.

      A3b – I really enjoyed the “Women in STEM and Diversity” panel. The topics of including men in the conversation and looking at our cultures for answers resonated the most for me. To include men in the conversation will give women more allies. We live in a male-dominated world, so to get the ones in “power” (so-to-speak) on our side, they can help facilitate change. For culture, one of the members in the audience stated a good point. He noted that as the education level gets higher (undergrad –> masters–>phD), there are less and less women. I think that this is because of culture. As women get older, they feel more and more pressure to have children, or to take up a husband. Men are not pressured to do this. Culture dictates behavior and vice-versa.
      To become a champion for women and people from diverse backgrounds in STEM, I want to open up a conversation with the SHPE members at UMCP. There are 3/9 women on the eboard and proportionally even less women are active members. I hope to discuss ways to make other women in STEM feel inclusive and empowered.

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   2. A3a – During the Sustainable Engineering session, there was a presentation about using compostable biomass materials as fuel for gas stoves in rural communities. This presentation was intriguing because it addresses the needs of localized areas and presents a globally-applicable solution. I learned about a way to go sustainable without the high cost of buying sustainable products! In my personal activities of reading about environmental sustainability, it was both entertaining and exhilarating to see the active work being done by scientists with similar interests.

      A3b – The “Women in STEM and Diversity” panel has been my favorite session so far. It felt as if there was an aura of empowerment from seeing the diverse panelists. There were several points brought up about the global issue of the small amount of women in STEM, but the most resonating point was to educate men on the confounding factors that women face to study STEM. The factors include social and cultural expectations, levels of confidence, and lack of preparation and investment into women. The personal experiences of the panelists clearly demonstrated these confounding factors to recruit women into STEM, and an additional point of setting standards (for academics, achievement, completion of a program, etc.) EQUALLY for both women and men is a step towards resolution.
      To become a champion for women and underrepresented minorities in STEM, I will continue participating in discussions as in this panel with my peers and extend the conversation to UMBC’s SHPE members. Additionally, I will help in developing outreach programs to bring young students to UMBC’s campus and exposing them to potential academic and career paths.

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   3. A3 a- I liked the presentation about harvesting energy from human motion. It is very interesting and I had some ideas on another renewal energy topic.
      b- the presentation on women in STEM was interesting and got to know the different actions and projects done in promoting women in STEM. I will become a champion for women by sharing information I get from the conference to women around and tell them the opportunities out there.

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   4. A3a. I attended the sustainability session following the morning plenary. I really enjoyed the topics as they seemed to be very altruistic in the designed experiments and applications. Many focused on enhancing the community, which I liked. The language barrier was difficult for me during this technical session, but I feel that I largely was able to understand the research primarily through reading the slides.

      A3b. This was largely my favorite part of the conference so far. What resonated most significantly for me was the idea of become a ‘male champion’ for women in STEM. I realized that though I definitely supported the advancement of women in STEM, I have to vocalize that belief strongly and encourage other men to commit themselves to saying the same. I plan on joining my universities’ S.W.E. chapter at the outset of the conference!

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   5. A3a – I attended the Sustainable Engineering session. One of the presenters talked about housing alternatives sources of energy for a gas stove, using compostable materials. I have always taken interest in different ways to create energy using renewable resources. I through this presentation I learned about other uses of biomass materials to create sustainable energy.

      A3b – The “Women in STEM and Diversity Panel” really grasped my interest and opened my eyes to the lack of woman in stem. What resonated with me was how it is imparitive for me a man to involve my self and to become a support system for women in stem and take initiative to be proactive within organizations that can inpower more women to want to be involved with stem. I will become a champion by actively showing people that there is no obstacle you cannot overcome and by also sharing my life changing experience, attending LACCEI, in hopes to show them that they too can achieve anything they put there minds too.

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6. A3a – I attended a couple of talks in the teaching engineering topic and I noticed that the recurring conversation piece was how to maintain students engaged. One talk focused on gaming and inverted classroom set-up using virtual tools (e.g. Blackboard Collaborate). It was interesting to learn that students appreciate the accommodation of taking a class using their computer without having to be in a classroom in front of a professor. The use of these type of virtual “classrooms” allows the professor to actually take control of a student’s screen (via remote desktop) in the case of questions or clarifications and maintain anonymity by sharing private messages with the instructor. It encourages participants to freely ask questions by removing the concern of making a mistake by not having everyone in the group read a wrong answer. It was interesting hearing that this is something that sometimes students need and instructors do not always consider to promote a more dynamic class environment.

   A3b – I felt that Dr. Yong X. Tao’s, Dean of Nova Southeastern University comment regarding having a session with more men (or men only) would probably make an impact on improving diversity and participation of more women in STEM. It resonated the idea of having more male champions that impulse diversity and promote women participation. I believe that more education and having these kinds of panels (with more men) will make a bigger impact. I feel that most of it should be an attitude adjustment and that we have to break down barriers of taboos that we as a society teach/learn and we adopt as correct. I can continue to promote equal roles with the groups that we create in the classes I assist when we teach undergraduates. It is a good starting point to demonstrate that every engineer (I assist teaching a mechanical engineering laboratory for undergraduates) in the group has to contribute to achieving the same goal and that every member of the group has the same weight to pull the team forward regardless of gender.

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7. Q4: Summarize your thoughts about your experiences at LACCEI based on our conversation.

   Also, don’t forget to complete the assignment: Support one another’s posters, take pictures and post, and most importantly, develop some connections with students from other countries. Your individual tasks are to increase your networks by taking two individual photos with at *least* two other students from two other countries. Share their names, schools, and majors.

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   1. Also, don’t forget to complete the assignment: Support one another’s posters, take pictures and post, and most importantly, develop some connections with students from
      A4: I’ve had a great time here! I can’t begin to describe how blessed I feel to be given this opportunity. I agreed to attend this conference but didnt know what to expect. I’ve never been on a plane; I’ve never been to a 4-Day conference; and I’ve never been to a place where Latin America dominated the conversation. And at the LACCEI conference, I’ve never felt more empowered while being uncomfortable, i.e. pulled out of my comfort zone in all aspects. This experience challenged me. It challenged me to not only network, but to network in a different language. It challenged me to form relationships. And it challenged me to rethink STEM.

      From this experience, i enjoyed the women in STEM panel and the 2nd Planery Session keynote speaker. There was a common point spoken between the 2 presentations: understanding the ulture/social behaviors will lead answers and change more so t han policy and rules. Understanding the culture can lead to social change which can lead to STEM changes. Personally, seeing a panel of strong, powerful women gave me hope and made me excited for my final few semesters. Another good point is not to look at the world in black & white (racially and metaphorically). It is extremely important to expand one’s horizon when thinking about issues. There are many, many different countries and cultures and races around the world. Life does not just encompass the United States. And that is a current mindset that I’m trying top change. At LACCEI, everyone celebrated their United countries in a unique way. People were proud to be in a unit (Latin amertica) but made sure to individualize their specific celebration with their own flag. I wish I could take foor and more, but it’s soo loud

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   2. A4. I thoroughly enjoyed the LACCEI conference. It felt quite different than the engineering conferences I have attended in the past. The empowered multicultural vibe mixed with the altruistic, community-guided engineering projects made the conference stand out. It was almost like a breath of fresh air. It reminded me – in some regards – of the McNair National Conferences I have attended, though those have a large diversity in disciple (humanities, social sciences, STEM) whereas this conference focused on STEM. I also very much enjoyed chatting with my peers and getting to know them and their experiences. I feel that I will definitely work on my spanish and attempt to attend the LACCEI conferences yearly throughout my scientific career.

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   3. A4 – my experience at the 15th annual LACCEI Conference has really changed my mindset and has really helped me grow intellectually. My experience here has been extraordinary. It was the experience of a life time and I only wish that other students could hopefully be given the opportunity to participate in events like this. From learning about the women in stem to experiencing a culture that I am not use to being around all while being embraced whole heartedly by people even when there was a language barrier, this conference was truly a wonderful experience.

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   4. A4- Honestly, I will resume the past 15th Laccei conference experience as very powerful. It exceeded my expectations.
      The organizing commetee and volunteers were very welcoming and went many times the extra mile to help us.
      The logistics were wonderful especially using the WHOVA app that I became familiar with during the conference. WHOVA was quite easy and posting pictures, sharing contact information and learning from conference attendees was formidable. I loved the vibe of the overall conference atmosphere. I have met with different people from different countries and had interesting conversations.
      The different panels and presentations were very informative and professional. From the “ethical hacking” exercice to the “women in STEM” panel and different talks from notable professors (US and Columbia), I have learned a lot.
      I discussed with many faculty, volunteers, and students. From those discussion I have received feedbacks from my own presentation while discovering new ideas and methods from other presentations. I learned the challenges the Latin American countries are facing and how engineers in those countries are working to tackle those challenges. As Ms Bevlee of ASEE said during the closing ceremony that those countries have different problems they are facing in engineering education that’s mostly a gender problem but here in the US it is broader than that. I have had a good contact with the Latin culture and appreciated how open and friendly it was.
      I could not thank enough Dr Tull who gave us this opportunity and was very open to share her with us her personal experience. We were blessed and happy to learn she was elected vice president of the board. Dr Tull is literally a “wonderful women”. For Women in STEM, minorities and all she is indeed a model.
      Dr Bell was very patient with us and had the passion to share her experience and lead us during this conference as this was a first time international conference for many of us in the delegation.
      Hector is one of the very few people I have met that are very energetic, passionate and both as a friend and mentor.
      The student delegation from UMES, UMBC and college park was awesome.
      I have met with Holger from Peru who has done some work in electrical engineering. He has his master degree and is planning to come to the Maryland to continue his graduate school.
      I have met with Albert Espinoza from Puerto Rico who is working on harvesting energy from human motion. Albert is from the Universidad del Turabo and is working towards his PhD.
      I have met many more students from Columbia, Ecuador, Dominican Republic, And Mexico.

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   5. A4 – The LACCEI Conference was amazing! Thank you to USM LSAMP for this opportunity for networking and holding discussions on the importance of diversity in STEM. The LACCEI Conference was my first international conference and it has broadened my perspective on engineering research and challenged me to take on the responsibility of educating others on impacting issues of women and underrepresented minorities in engineering.

      Regarding the Plenary Session on Thursday with Dr. Jaime Salazar, I enjoyed his talk on the responsibility of engineers to solve vastly impacting issues. What I learned from him was that preparation and education for engineers is what will enable them to make an impact on the world, and his examples of sustainable agriculture and water accessibility made it easy to understand his lesson. It’s not just about what will help companies or organizations; engineers are able to help communities and people that don’t have the privilege as us.

      During coffee breaks and poster presentations, I networked with students and representatives of organizations that were present. I got to see the various problems being analyzed, from data science to predict molecular behavior to using machine learning to predict movie success (as in earning money). I met Felipe Benites Correa, Lucero Tirado Arévalo, and Pierina Perez Niño from la Universidad de Piura, Peru who all study Industrial Engineering. Their project was about engineering a strategy to make the mango ciruelo fruit more sustainable. When talking to Mr. Wesley Alvarez from EC-Council, I realized how easy it can be for SHPE at UMBC to invite companies to host a workshop to our members and build connections between students and industry professionals. I also met Dr. Bevlee Watford who spoke about how ASEE impacts us as engineering students. She highlighted how dynamic the factors are in recruiting students to learn engineering around the world.

      In a personal sense, I felt enthusiastic to see several Latinos and Hispanics in STEM at LACCEI. In middle and high school, I found that Latinos in my upper level classes were scarce. I was maybe one of two or one of three Hispanics within a class. Similarly at UMBC, there are few Hispanics that study STEM (at least from what I see from other undergraduates), so attending the LACCEI Conference makes me feel proud to be in the Hispanic and Latino community and seeing others like me. Going to events like this conference gives me the motivation to continue studying computer science and encouraging those who are unconfident in their skills as a scientist to help them find their academic dream path.

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