The AIAA New England Section hosted a “Night with Industry” event on 24 February to inform students’ professional curiosity and guide their future decisions as they engaged with attendees. Hosted with the AIAA MIT Student Branch, the MIT Women of Aeronautics and Astronautics (WoAA), Graduate Women in Aerospace Engineering (GWAE), and WeLEAP Aerospace – Global chapters, the event brought together undergraduate and graduate students with industry professionals to help students expand their professional knowledge of various fields, organizations, and roles. Additionally, the event encouraged students to develop key professional skills such as relationship building and effective communication.
Students were encouraged to ask questions of the evening’s panelists, including Lena Downes, Aurora; Endri Lesha, Raytheon; Shruthi Kamesh, Siemens; Idahosa Osaretin, MIT Lincoln Lab; and Kelly Mathesius, Formlabs, to learn about their careers. The panelists then “hosted” tables and students choose who to sit with based on interests and information heard in the panel discussions.
An awards ceremony also recognized the AIAA MIT Student Branch leaders. Former AIAA Board of Trustees member and Treasurer, Annalisa Weigel, presided over the ceremony and shared her experience with AIAA from her student days at MIT – when she was the student branch president.
Both the panel event and the awards ceremony were moderated by Durgesh Chandel, AIAA New England Secretary, Intel, and supported by many volunteers including Shreyas Hegde, AIAA New England chair.
