Lael Wentland
Lael is the FY22 Local Programming Liaison and a 5th year Bioengineering PhD student. She placed 1st in 2020 WE Local Conference: San Diego research pitch competition.
One opportunity that I highly recommend from experience is the WE Local Collegiate Competition (US conferences only). This is a unique chance to share your research with a broad technical audience who can offer support, insight, and constructive feedback. The application process is straightforward, requiring the submission of a 500 word or less abstract.
If chosen as one of the 5 graduate students finalists for that conference, you will be asked to present a technical poster and a 10-minute presentation on your research. Finalists also receive a complementary conference registration and a $250 travel stipend.
We highly encourage you to submit an abstract summarizing your graduate research, co-ops/internships or external research experience to the Collegiate Competition. The concept of WE Local is “Meet Locally and Learn Socially”. WE Local conferences are much smaller, less than 500 people, which makes meeting new people less stressful. These conversations can lead to many beneficial networking relationships, potentially leading to that next opportunity or mentor!
The deadline for abstracts is Tuesday, November 9, 2021 at 11:59 p.m. CT. Click here for more details and to apply! Questions about the WE Local Collegiate Competition can be directed to welocal@swe.org.
If you are curious about the competition and attending WE21, I recommend checking out the WE21 collegiate competition which is similar in nature. This year the competition is virtual and zoom links to the posters and presentations are at this link (They happen on Monday October 18th and Tuesday the 19th, 2021).
We also have some past blogs that can help with the development of your presentation and how to practice for a rapid research pitch.
The General Research Talk (Part 1): How to Prepare
The General Research Talk (Part 2): Creating the Content