SBSE ACADEMIC EXCELLENCE INTIATIVES

For more information about SBSE's Academic Excellence Initiative or opportunities for involvement, please contact the Academic Excellence Chair, Seyi Akanni, seyi@stanford.edu. In order to support academic excellence for the membership, SBSE provides an Exam Notes Archive and encourages members to attend the Weekly Engineering Tutorial Nights. Additionally, the chapter had two academic-excellence focused meetings during the month of November at General Body Meetings. The first meeting had a representative from INROADS speaking about the internship program and the opportunity to get involved with working for a company for a number of summers to establish a professional relationship and develop skills through early experience in industry. There were several members that had already participated in INROADS internship and that could discuss their own personal experiences and how their hands on summer internship related to their academic experience during the regular school year. Students had the opportunity to apply to the internship program and begin their summer plans early.

The second was also focused on summer experience in the field of engineering through undergraduate summer research. Two deans from the School of Engineering spoke to the chapter about opportunities on campus to do summer research and the application process. A student panel of members that did research the previous summer followed the speakers and they discussed their experiences on campus and elsewhere through outside programs. The students presented their posters to the chapter and shared about their experience with their research projects and programs and how they related to their academic experience with their majors. This meeting gave members insight into their options on and off campus and encouraged the undergraduate students to explore opportunities to research.

The chapter had three participants in the Undergraduate Students in Technical Research at the Fall Regional Conference during Academic Excellence Month. The participants were Wagahta Semere, Oluseyi Akanni and Joseph Sithole. Wagahta Semere received first place in the competition and Oluseyi Akanni received second place. Both regional winners will move on to participate in the USTR competition at National Convention.

Two teams from SBSE competed in the Regional Academic Tech Bowl this past year. Team One won first place in the regional competition and will be competing at the NSBE National Convention. The members included: Ochuko Metitiri, Stephanie Lampkin, Jason Sese and Aneto Okonkwo. Team Two was eliminated in the semi-final round of the competition. The members included: Arin Pinto, Marcelo Worseley, John Alabi, and Jonathan Jones

During weekly general body meetings during Academic Excellence Month there was a scholarship opportunities binder that also contained fellowship, internship and research opportunities for the members that were eligible.