Inspiring Excellence

Inside this issue:

Lunch with the Recruiters Consessioning with CASA Nielsen General Body Meetings A t(SASE)ty Fundraiser Molecular Gastronomy RACED QuickRace Finals Week with SASE Living off of a $1.50-a-day

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With the theme of "Inspiring Excellence," it's no wonder the UF team headed to Baltimore with high expectations for SASE's first national conference. Arriving in two separate groups, a total of 10 members attended - including 6 board members and 2 scholarship recipients! Since we did have a large number of attendees and there were only 5 choices of workshops/panels per session, we divided up our members as best we could to gain the most diverse experiences as possible. Everyone had a lot of fun meeting fellow SASE members in the workshops and mixers, as well as learning about professional development. On the first day, we spent a couple hours exploring downtown Baltimore with our new friends from OSU and Rutgers. The second day was jam-packed with workshops and panels to not only help us prepare for the workforce and get more in touch with our heritage, but we also set aside time to talk with other SASE leaders about making improvements in our

UF SASE wins the Gold Chapter Award at Conference

respective chapters. The speakers were all very engaging, perhaps the most notable being Rajiv Satyal (an engineer turned comedian!) with his take on Personal Branding. The companysponsored sessions were also quite intriguing, with the most popular amongst UF members being Toyota's TPS workshop and P&G's case study. At the end of the day, we regrouped to talk about our experiences and also make some last-minute edits to our resumes and elevator speeches. The last day of the conference was the Career Fair. Armed with a neat resume and skills from the day prior, we approached our target companies in confidence. Two of our members came back to UF with secured job offers while others were still in their hopeful callback stages. Overall, it was an experience that we'll never forget. We look forward to attending next year!

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Fall 2011

Lunch with the Recruiters

The University of Florida Chapter of the Society of Asian Scientists and Engineers hosted their first GE and P&G Luncheon event on September 26, 2011 at the Matthews Suite in the Reitz Union. Inspired from last years Dining with the Professors, this event was designed to allow students to be able to interact with the top recruiters from GE and P&G days before UFs semi-annual Career Showcase. Recruiters presented about their companies and afterwards, everyone enjoyed a filling meal. The students and recruiters were separated into different tables, with at least one GE and one P&G recruiter at each table. The recruiters critiqued resumes and answered any questions posed to them by students. Afterwards they rotated along the room in order for the students to be able to interact with multiple recruiters. Overall, the event was a huge success. Students were able to receive tips firsthand from the recruiters, conversation was informatively enlightening and there was a positive mood throughout the entire affair. This was the first of what were sure will be many future GE and P&G luncheons in the making.

Caption describing picture or graphic.

Concessioning with CASA

Both SASE and CASA made money during this event, but the real benefit was the experience of working closely with one another.

On November 5th, 2011, UF SASE partnered with the Chinese American Student Association (CASA) to concession during UFs homecoming football game against Vanderbilt. The event roughly lasted 6 hours as we worked along CASA to sell drinks during the football game. For three hours, we prepared to

sell the drinks, and got to know each of the board members of CASA. When the time came to sell drinks, the demand came in a rush. By working together and designating people to work different stations, we were able to complete orders in a timely and effective manner. In the future we plan on

working with more Asian American Student Union sub organizations. Both SASE and CASA made money during this event, but the real benefit was the experience of working closely with one another.

Nielsen
On the 14th of September, Nielsen came down to inform the students of the University of the opportunities that could be found through their programs. Their "Emerging Leaders Program" gained particular interest offering a chance for a well-rounded experience in the form of periodic rotation in specific fields ranging from Finance to Human Resources. The program is designed to develop students with high potential into leaders with useful experience. They achieve this by increasing proficiency within fields commonly found in leaders, such as public speaking and critical thinking. A recent Emerging Leaders associate had described his time there and attributed his new skill set to the program and encouraged others to apply.

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General Body Meetings

UF SASE used the fall semester to introduce several new events. To reflect these changes on both a local and national scale, the general body meetings served to both recap concluded topics and introduce exciting new programming opportunities for members. The first meeting of the semester served as an introduction for members to what SASE was and what the UF Chapter would be doing to prepare them for events during the semester. It was introduced by Leah Villanueva, the first Asian Pacific Islander Affairs (APIA) Director at the University of Florida. Ms. Villanuevas speech demonstrated the importance of professional societies to the APIA community. Like her position, UF SASE, which strives to empower its members to become leaders in the professional world, helped establish professional representation for the Asian Americans in the UF community. These strides in progress are not limited to the University of Florida. By far, the biggest change for SASE was the first National Conference- held in Baltimore, Maryland- for its chapters and interested individuals. With its series of workshops, engaging speakers and employers who do not normally visit UF, the National Conference truly lived up to its theme of Inspiring Excellence. UF SASE took the theme to two meetings early in the semester. Prior to the conference and the career fair held on campus, officers prepared their members how to act professionally. They demonstrated essential lessons that included professional attire and elevator speeches through compare and contrast style presentations. One of the most memorable segments was the professional fashion show. General members were also given the opportunity to demonstrate their knowledge of proper interview attire by dressing their peers in a grouporiented icebreaker. After the SASE National Conference, SASE members continued to expand on the lessons learned in Baltimore. This time, the meeting focused on inspiring members to be active and involved in their community. Drawing from the workshop provided by Proctor & Gamble, UF SASE divided its members into focus groups to identify the needs of customer reviews. The small groups of four to five members gave presentations acting as though they were a corporation. They modified their assigned products and presented the new product to the other members. This form of roleplaying stressed the importance of serving the local community as a professional entity. By the middle of the semester, the focus of the meetings shifted toward technical knowledge. SASE used this meeting to stress the importance of detailed information and technical skills in an engineering career. Another theme stressed during the meeting was efficient use of resources and skill. For this, SASE turned toward the Toyota Production System as an example. Through animations and video, SASE officers noted the philosophical approach of continuous refinement of a process. It exemplified the need for both organizational and technical skills to approach and overcome fundamental problems, skills that can be applied to any task. The last meeting of the semester focused on entrepreneurship. It opened with guest speaker Enrique De Diego, a 5th year computer programming student and owner of Catharsis, a small technology solutions company. Mr. Diegos presentation tied together with a student activity where each member had to find a way to successfully sell an imaginary product that would normally be seen as useless. The meeting cumulated in the idea that, regardless of what you are planning to do in the future, it is important to have a plan to obtain the background and resources necessary to ultimately fulfill your goals. The UF SASE fall semester general body meetings follow a similar plan. In order to produce successful professional leaders, each meeting highlighted essential resources, skills or topics for SASE members to take the lead in their future projects.

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Fall 2011

A t(SASE)ty Fundraiser
Food is one the most cherished items that college students buy. As such, UF SASE decided to hold a fundraiser to address this need, the t(SASE)ty Fundraiser. The premise of this fundraiser was to provide college students with Asian themed foods to foster cultural diversity, but also to provide a social environment where members could interact with each other. Even with the best of intentions however, our Fundraiser experienced constant power outages which interfered with food preparation. This forced us to adapt to our environment by ferrying our food from a nearby apartment where the food was cooked to our venue. Even with this huge setback, our group not only adapted to what we were given but we ran with it. After three longs hours of slaving over a hot stove, transporting food, and getting to know our members better, we not only surpassed our goal but doubled it. No matter the challenges that life threw at us, this event tested our innovation, our dedication, and our spirit as a team. Looking back, we had not only pulled through, we ran with what we were given and we made it our own. Thats food for thought.

Molecular Gastronomy

Fascinated by the science behind molecular gastronomy, David Hwang purchased a molecular gastronomy kit. Utilizing Lipton Green Tea and various chemicals, UF SASE turned the liquid into edible solid spheres!

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Rapid Attainment of College Engineering Diversity RACED

On the Friday of November 11, 2011, eight teams eagerly await the start of RACED, outside the Reitz Union lawn. RACED is an event held by AIChE (American Institute of Chemical Engineers) every year focused on exposing engineers to other disciplines of engineering at UF in a friendly competition. Students are responsible of putting on a team of 3-5 members, and they use their knowledge in engineering to pass obstacles to obtain another clue to the next obstacle. Each obstacle is usually a question provided by the different fields of engineering, and your team must work as a group to solve it. Each clue is rewarded after completing an obstacle, and is usually a witty puzzle that points at a location within the University of Floridas campus to complete the other obstacles. The winners are then forever embedded into RACEDs Hall of Fame Plaque. SASE sent three brave members into the competition, all of which were Chemical Engineers. Beginning at 11AM, they ran around campus, solving puzzles and recalling history of Engineering at UF. After two hours of frantic running, they arrived at the finish line, claiming 2nd place, and securing a spot into the Hall of Fame.

SASE sent three brave members into the competition, all of which were Chemical Engineers.

QuickRace
Let the races begin! The first annual QuickRace hosted by the University of Florida chapter of the Society of Asian Scientists and Engineers kicked off this past November. From 13th to 34th Street, four teams competed in a hunt for QR (quick read) codes across the universitys campus. Teams travelled by foot, car, longboard, huskymagic carpet to scan the codes using a smartphone app all for the grand prize of a $50 gift card. This years event worked with the Google student ambassador by incorporating the new Google+ feature of picture editing as one of the clues to decode. The event was such a huge success that the BECs E-Week asked to include QuickRace as an event of E-Week every spring semester!
To catch the reader's attention, place an interesting sentence or quote from the story here.

Scanning QR Codes

Finals Week with SASE

As a science/engineeringbased organization, we strive to help our members excel in their classes. Taking advantage of the student union being open 24/7 throughout finals week, we spent our evenings camped out in a study room and formed study groups for members who were taking similar classes. Each day for two weeks; we rotated members to get food, coffee, and of course - go home and shower. Since relaxing is also vital to one's mental and physical well-being, we put on a de-stress study fest on our one day of rest, midfinals. We decided to spread some holiday cheer by building gingerbread houses and trains while snacking on some winter treats. We also had a pet rock decorating session and a mini video game competition. The event only lasted about three hours, but it was a much-needed break for everyone.

Gingerbread Train

Society of Asian Scientists and Engineers

Contact Us: ufsase@gmail.com

Our Purpose:
Serve as an example of Asian American leadership in the

engineering and scientific community.

Create a global network Prepare members to excel in academia and professional world. Outreach to the community at large.

Were on the web! www.ufsase.com

Innovations from the (South)East!

Our Sponsors:

Our Mission: We, the Society of Asian Scientists and Engineers, aim to be the foundation for infinite potential of our members. By providing tools to optimize their force, the distance our members travel in their respective fields will result in maximum work. SASE is the most efficient engine in the organizational world, the amount of energy lost as heat is minimized and member potential becomes kinetic. At the end of the day, were asymptotes you cant touch this.

Living off of a $1.50-a-day

One sixth of our world lives in what is defined as extreme poverty. Living in the United States and buying US goods, extreme poverty is defined as $1.50 a day. Housing, transportation, food, education, and health are all affected by this deplorable global problem, but how can it be helped? UF SASE was inspired to tackle this problem in a unique wayby living off of $1.50 of food per day for five days. Irene Ng, UF SASE President, hoped that our actions [would] raise awareness (and hopefully funding) for those in developing countries suffering through extreme poverty. After roughly a months time, seven members went through this challenge. They hoped to give a much-needed voice to the silent and suffering. Each member tackled the challenge differently. Virak Ngauv attempted to live off of $1.50 a day on his own, he says that although the significant drop in consumed calories had certainly affected my body, the most surprising change was that that had affected my mentality. Mentally, I can deal with a few days of hunger. I can go a few days with less food without significant losses; humans were designed that way. The much harder hits were found at the grocery store. I used to have to consider such things as, how many bananas do I think Ill eat before my next grocery trip? but during the challenge I was suddenly stripped of my buying power; stripped of choice. I no longer had to consider the aboveI could only afford three. After his efforts, a group of three SASE board members took the challenge together. Irene Ng, Sumrah Iqbal, and Michael Fronda took a familial approach and pooled their money together to help with the buying power of their budget. The next week another SASE family got together between Caitlyn Soriano, Christopher Montoya, and Christian Rodriguez. Caitlyn had the unfortunate circumstance of being sick when taking on this challenge. She stayed devoted to the cause but when she did have to take a break, she donated money to offset it. The most recent pair to take the challenge were David Hwang and Marsha Vongjesda. Each family stayed together for five days but as an organization we are continuing to gather board and members to end global poverty one step at time. So far, we have raised $40 for CARE a leading humanitarian organization in fighting poverty. Our efforts can be found on our blog: fightingpoverty.tumblr.com

The amount of food each person had to eat for the 5-day challenge.