Hometown
Cambridgeshire, United Kingdom
We’ve been a SWE Global Affiliate since…
20 September 2022
We decided to launch an affiliate because…
Our initial aim of starting this affiliate was to see if we could create a strong network of women engineers locally to leverage each other’s expertise, share experiences, and help provide opportunities to grow in our respective careers. From there, we wanted to provide mentorship, coaching, and sponsorship to take us to the next level ― as well as look at how we can ensure a strong pipeline to fall back on for the future.
Does SWE Cambridgeshire have any signature activities that you conduct regularly or annually?
Monthly meetings are held with affiliate members along with lunches organized on an occasional basis. Discussions between Madhuparna and Rujeko Mayo (coordinator Raspberry Pi Code Club) led the affiliate to set up a team to volunteer for the Raspberry Pi Code Club at local school(s), with affiliate members Raquel Araya and Pavani Inturi volunteering at the Bewick School Raspberry Pi Code Club regularly from the September school term.
What is one thing you’re proud of from the past year?
After being brought into contact with the Bewick Primary School through the Raspberry Pi Code Club initiative, we were requested to prepare a workshop for the STEAM week at the school in the week of July 10. Jing Li from the affiliate teamed up with her colleagues in Cadence, and they successfully conducted the workshop using Scratch software from Raspberry Pi for school pupils in years 1, 3, and 5.
What is one of your favorite memories with the SWE community?
The recent WE Local Barcelona in May 2023 gave us an opportunity to catch up with the SWE community in Europe, as well as with SWE leadership. The professional development sessions were of great value to the six members from the affiliate who could attend this conference. They also shared their learnings with their respective companies (Cadence Design Systems and Keysight Technologies).
Favorite quote to inspire:
“Make every effort to change things you do not like. If you cannot make a change, change the way you have been thinking. You might find a new solution.” ― Maya Angelou
What are you looking forward to in the year ahead?
We are now preparing for an outreach event on September 21. Thanks are in order to our affiliate member Amrapali for suggesting this initiative along with preparing the poster for the event and to all the affiliate members who are volunteering with the event preps. Check out the event!
What advice do you have for other affiliates or sections?
Reach out to local organizations working on STEM-related activities. There are likely to be opportunities to cross-leverage and help achieve our collective goal of better gender parity in STEM.
Let’s Connect!
We are grateful to our affiliate member Ruth Jackson for setting up our X account (formerly known as Twitter) and Madhuparna Datta for setting up our email account. Our affiliate member, Karuna Padala, has done a superb job of setting up our website along with associated social media pages.
- Website: https://cambridgeshire.swe.org/
- Email: cambridgeshire@swe.org
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/swe-cambs-b62952281/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100094384777269
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/swecambs/
- YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@swecambs
- X, formerly known as Twitter: https://twitter.com/swecambs
