Issue link: https://iconnect007.uberflip.com/i/1098973
APRIL 2019 I SMT007 MAGAZINE 37 Nolan: And what can you take back to campus right away? Simon: We networked with one of the blockchain presenters. From that, we're going to set up a block- chain night at our school and have a speaker from one of the panels come to the campus in Santa Clara to do a presentation with IEEE, so that's what we're going to take back. Nolan: Awesome. How about you, Gregorio? You were interrupted last time. Gregorio: My goal was to find a speaker. Our group is a local commit- tee for metropolitan Los Angeles. We submitted a proposal for two speakers; I was trying to find a third speaker, and I did, so I was also able to make contacts. I'm also trying to grow my professional network. To wrap-up, I asked three questions. First, I asked who would recommend Rising Stars to other students and young professionals? Everybody raised their hands. Second, when I asked who was coming back next year, nearly the whole group planned on it. Third, when I asked if it was worth their time, it was a resounding, "Yes." As this conversation ended, I had an oppor- tunity to have a similar conversation with two other attending students, Steven Lukow and Shane Heau. Nolan: First, can you tell me your names and what you're studying in school? Steven Lukow: I'm a senior studying electrical engineering at New Mexico Tech. Shane Heau: I'm a freshman at New Mexico Tech, and my major is technical communica- tions. Nolan: What objectives did you wanted to accomplish coming to this conference? Steven: My main objective was to learn better team-building skills. This year, we're doing our senior design project, and I'm the project manager. I wanted to learn about any skills, tips, or tricks about how to better manage a team, bring in new perspectives, and make sure we get the project done better and finish on time. Nolan: And do you feel like you achieved that? Steven: I did. There were a lot of seminars here on topics. Personally, I'd probably be more interested in neural network development and that sort of thing, but the team- building sessions were even better for my specific goal to learn those skills, so I definitely got that. Nolan: What can you take back to campus right away? Steven: One thing that was mentioned involved the stages of team building: forming, storming, norming, and performing. I feel like we're kind of at the norming stage, but I really want to push us into the performing stage to get a lot of good results from our group. Nolan: How about you, Shane? Shane: For my major, we have to have a depth of stuff on top of just technical communica- tions, and I'm interested in the electrical engi- neering field. But I also wanted to see what was out there—some of the possibilities— learn how to be a team leader in the future. I feel like I achieved that through the talks that I attended; one was on safety and low radar in microwaves, which was very interesting. I have an interest in earth science, so that was neat for me. Gregorio Valdivia Simon Gebrai