I am pleased to announce our new graduate coordinators for FY14, Elizabeth Gregory and Elly Sinkala.
Elizabeth will be the new FY14 Graduate Member Coordinator-Elect. She is originally from Kansas.  She received my BS in aerospace engineering from the University of Kansas, her MS in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Hawaii at Manoa, and is currently pursuing her PhD in Aerospace Engineering at Iowa State University.
Elly has already begun her role as the WE14 Graduate Programming Coordinator. She is currently a postdoctoral associate at the University of California at Berkeley. Elly recently received her PhD in Bioengineering from the University of Illinois at Chicago.
The Graduate Member Coordinator (GMC) works to foster a strong community and network for graduate students in SWE by facilitating communication between graduate students in SWE and SWE graduate student groups, and by representing the interests of graduate students to the Society.
The Graduate Programming Coordinator (GPC) works with a dedicated team of graduate students and professional SWE members to create a diverse track of sessions for current graduate students, and for those who are considering going to graduate school.
Both positions are held for two years, the first year as the coordinator-elect learning the ropes and the second year as coordinator. Elizabeth will be working with Shivani Gupta, the FY14 GMC, and Elly will be working with Marcella Vaicik, the WE13 GPC.

Congratulations to all the Spring 2013 Graduates!  As graduation marks a new chapter in many lives (motivating current grad students that it is possible to someday graduate), now seems to be a great time to have you think about what you want to include in your next chapter.  SWE has many activites to increase your leadership skills, develop your network in meaningful way, and to support other women in engineering.  There are many ways you can get more involved in SWE both as a graduate student and as recent graduate below I have listed a few ways to get more involved than just a general member.
There are several options currently recruiting and available for graduate students and recently graduated MS & PhDs to get more involved. There are varying levels of commitment and different ways to be involved.  I encourage you to connect into SWE.
Short Commitment Options:

• Rapid Fire Research Presenter at WE13 more information is available in the Rapid Fire Callout Post. Abstracts DUE June 15, 2013.
• Volunteer to judge the Freshman Scholarship Applications.  More information about how to volunteer to judge. The judging is May 30 – June19, 2013. 
• WE13 or WE14 Session Panelist – Need Graduate Student Panelist for “Graduate Student Involvement in SWE Sections” also can volunteer to be a panel session moderator if interested please contact Marcella Vaicik, Graduate Programming Coordinator WE13 at Marcella.Vaicik@swe.org.
• Join the Graduate Student Community on Facebook by clicking here. Graduate students are welcome and encouraged to share opportunities for jobs, fellowships, and other items of interest to the Grad Student Community on Facebook.  We look forward to creating additional project leadership roles from within the Grad Student Community in the upcoming SWE fiscal year.  Those will be announced via the SWE Grad blog depending on project needs. 

Annual Commitment Options:

• Join a Society Committee.  This is a great way to learn more about the inner workings of SWE.  Committees are also a wonderful way to meet and interact with other professional members and make an impact on SWE. Click here to learn more about the different Society level committees.Graduate SWE members have served on several different committees for example Collegiate Leadership Coach/Coaching Committee, Program Development Grants Committee, Women in Academia Committee, Collegiate Leadership Forum please read through the committee descriptions and sign up to be a committee member. To apply click here to be on a specific Society Level Committee, applications are DUE MAY 30, 2013:
• WE14 Session Leader (can be session leader even if not able to attend conference) if interested contact Elly Sinkala at grad-programs-coordinator@swe.org. These roles start immediately after WE13 watch the SWE grad blog in October for the callout for these roles.
• Take on a leadership role at your local collegiate section as Graduate Student Activities Liason contact your local section leadership to volunteer for this position.

 2 Year Commitment Options:

• Society Level Graduate Programming Coordinator, successful applicants usually have served as session leaders at past WE conferences.  This role is a 2 year commitment with the first year serving as the Graduate Programming Coordinator Elect.  Applications will be available after WE13 watch the SWE grad blog this fall for this position.
• Society Level Graduate Member Coordinator, successful applicants usually have held leadership roles in their local collegiate section, involvement in the Graduate Student Community as well as society level roles on committees.  This role is a 2 year commitment with the first year serving as the Graduate Member Coordinator Elect. Applications are available in early April with all society level leadership positions callout. ​

I recently ran across an article about a case of an author of a Nature paper who has requested a retraction because of what he believes is fraud on the part of his co-author in processing their dataset. (Nature: Symmetry Study Deemed a Fraud) This article got me thinking a little about the sources of fraud in the STEM fields and how we as graduate students are affected by it. 
A few things that contribute to academic fraud include the “Publish or Perish” pressure in academia, the belief (which may or may not be true) that we already know the answer and don’t want to do the work to confirm our belief, and times when no one else is going to try and reproduce your results. What I’ve read indicates that the third thing makes cases of academic fraud more common in biological fields where repeating an experiment with a different sample may not guarantee the same result.
Interestingly, recent studies indicate that there is a gender bias to the rate of fraud in science. According to the study detailed here, men are more likely to commit scientific fraud, even when you take into account the current gender breakdown in the fields.
Beyond the temptation to commit such fraudulent activity, there are additional potential consequences for graduate students. What happens if your advisor, someone in your group, or another collaborator is found guilty of fraud (even if its on another project than yours)? Suddenly your work is tainted by association, which could dramatically impact your chances for future jobs/publication. In general, scientific fraud can also impact public perception of your field and even push back the entire field as any work that uses the fraudulent results may be invalidated.
It is startling to consider all of the impacts of fraud and other research misconduct and something we all have to deal with (either directly or indirectly).

For more information on this subject, I looked specifically at the following articles:
Original article: http://www.nature.com/news/symmetry-study-deemed-a-fraud-1.12932
Interesting Discussion on Fraud in Nature: http://www.nature.com/news/2011/111109/full/479151a.html
Article on Fraud from a professor at CalTech: http://www.its.caltech.edu/~dg/conduct_art.html
The Gender Bias in Fraud Article: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2013/01/130122101905.htm