Upcoming Events
Self-nominations now open for GradSWE Executive Elections Apply Now [Link]
Do you want to assume leadership in our amazing group? Want to be directly involved in programming and networking with the faculty, student groups, and EDI initiatives within the Faculty of Applied Science and Engineering? Then an executive position with GradSWE is the best way forward!
The nomination form is opened here and will be closed by June 25th. You can nominate yourself for more than one role for the following position:
- President (Requirement: Former exec position holder or active volunteer experience in the past year) – 1 position
- VP Communications – 2 positions
- VP Finance – 1 position
- VP Social – 1 position
- VP Learning and development – 1 position
- VP external outreach – 1 position
Check out the position descriptions here and fill out GradSWE Executive Nomination Form once you are ready. If you have any questions, please feel free to reach out to us at gradsweuoft@gmail.com.
Past Events
GradSWE Bikes Around
June 18, 2021. GradSWE Moves had the first of it’s summer series GradSWE Bikes Around. On June 18, members biked from to the waterfront from campus.
'Spring's Here!' Research Coffee Chats
March 31, 2021. This event was an informal chance to learn about each other’s really neat research. GradSWE members shared their research topics with people in and outside of their fields and about all the amazing ideas people are working on.
"Launch your entrepreneurship career!" Event
March 11, 2021. We had a huge blast organizing the first-ever “Launch your entrepreneurship career!” event with our partners at WISE and TandemLaunch. There were great conversations with the amazing founders, staff representatives from TandemLaunch and U of T entrepreneurship team. The panel spoke about the importance of diversity and representation in the entrepreneurial world and shared their inspiring journeys with the participants. They shared the important role TandemLaunch played in de-risking disruptive technological solutions through their strong training and support program for future founders. Later, in more intimate discussions in the breakout rooms, participants learnt about the important and deliberate steps one can take as a graduate student to have a strong start in the startup world, including but not limited to, building meaningful networks with your research group and collaborators, spending time to hone one’s entrepreneurial skills with the training offered at the university and identifying partners or co-founders with complementary skills. The event concluded with reflections in the main room. If you missed out on the event but want to get in touch with our partners at TandemLaunch who are actively looking for graduate students for their Entrepreneur-in-residence startup program, please send us your contact information here. We have also made a post-event resources list that you might want to check out here. Lastly, to learn more about U of T training resources for entrepreneurs check out the entrepreneurship library or the iCUBE program at UTM.
Picture a Scientist Panel
February 11, 2021. We had an amazing time organizing the reflective panel discussion on Picture a Scientist documentary with the Chemical Engineering Graduate Students’ Association and the Centre for Applied Bioscience and Bioengineering at the University of Toronto. The panel was attended by over 50 people, including students, staff and faculty at the University of Toronto and everyone contributed to an insightful and actionable discussion. Some key takeaways that emerged:
1. Supporting women and minority community leaders in their roles and helping share the burden for action towards equity by giving value to work done by them which is often invisible, via active allyship.
2. Collecting data on pervasive bias that might exist with the university and using those insights to implement policy changes.
3. Providing means to disclose discrimination and harassment, free of fear of persecution.
We hope this event leaves people with important thoughts to enact on equity, inclusion, and diversity in our daily lives and have important discussions with those closest to us!
GradSWE UofT February Cookie Decorating Social
February 21, 2021. GradSWE celebrated GALentine’s day with a cookie social on Sunday, February 21. Members gathered online and decorated together with some *light* instruction provided by fellow GradSWEsters.
GradSWE goes to We20
November 2-13, 2020. The world’s largest conference for women in engineering, hosted by the Society of Women Engineers, took place virtually November 2-13, 2020. GradSWE UofT, a student club for women-identifying graduate students in engineering at the University of Toronto, received funding to send students to this important conference. We sent 42 masters & phd students to this virtual conference, and we used Zoom and Slack to connect over the conference throughout. We hosted 3 Zoom calls for networking, meeting each other, and sharing our learnings from the conference. We also discussed the conference sessions through a Slack channel. The Slack channel had 46 members: members from the graduate student community and SWE members from across Canada also attending the conference as well.
Find out about our top A-Ha moment and what We20 attendees learned from this excellent conference [Here]
GradSWE UofT Mentorship Program
November 2020 to April 2021. We are thrilled to introduce our pilot mentorship program connecting undergraduate engineering students with UofT graduate students from a range of engineering disciplines. The program will run between November 2020 and April 2021 providing students with the opportunity to gain insight into female engineering graduate students’ experiences within academia and industry. Mentors and mentees will connect virtually and also during facilitated events occurring every two months.
If this program interests you, please fill out the survey form, to help us identify you as a potential mentor and match you with your ideal mentee!
Register link: https://lnkd.in/eMtF-58
Women in Engineering Talk Art
October 23, 2020. Graduate Super Women Engineers held the social event Women in Engineering Talk Art. The event included a discussion with U of T engineering alumna and professional artist, Renu Indapurkar, on how arts and engineering influence each other. The discussion was followed by an acrylic flow tutorial guided by GradSWE president Anupama Sharan.
Celebrating Women in Engineering:
An Evening of Conversations
March 5, 2020. This event brought together members of the graduate engineering community, faculty and staff at U of T for an evening of discussion, food, and community building. The event kicked off with an introduction to the Graduate Super Women Engineers (GradSWE) at U of T, followed by a moderated panel discussion where invited panelists shared their stories in the field of engineering and beyond. The panel had an exciting lineup including some of the biggest names in the faculty of engineering and industry.
The panelists included:
- Cristina Amon – Dean Emerita of Engineering; Professor, Mechanical and Industrial Engineering
- Yu-Ling Cheng – Distinguished Professor in Centre for Global Engineering; Lead, Reinvent Toilet Challenge by Gates Foundation
- Marianne Hatzopoulou – Canada Research Chair in Transport and Air Quality; Professor, Civil and Mineral Engineering
- Naomi Matsuura – Professor, Material Science and Institute of Biomaterials and Biomedical Engineering
