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Keynote Speakers
Dr. Sheryl Ehrman — Welcoming Ceremony
Dean of the Charles W. Davidson College of Engineering
at San Jose State University
Dr. Sheryl Ehrman is the Don Beall Dean of the Charles W. Davidson College of Engineering at San Jose State University. She previously served as Keystone professor and chair of the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, at the University of Maryland, College Park, having worked at that university since 1998 as a faculty member. As chair, she oversaw an expansion of tenure-track faculty, development of two new BS/MS programs, the growth of the transfer student pathway, initiation of a multidisciplinary research center for advanced battery technology, and development and implementation of strategies to engage alumni and industrial partners.
Quency L. Phillips — Opening Keynote
Executive Director at Building Back Better
Maria E. Hartin-Swart — Closing Keynote
Contracts Director at Lockheed Martin Space
Maria E. Hartin-Swart is the Contracts Director at Lockheed Martin Space with specific responsibilities supporting Special Programs (SP) Line of Business and responsible for ~$2 billion annually.
She provides executive leadership and guidance to senior staff on contracts and business management complexities, strategies for proactive contracting, drives resolution of business issues with key customers, develops and executes training programs, process improvements, and staff development within the Contracts, Estimating and Independent Cost Evaluations teams.
Prior to coming to Lockheed Martin, Maria worked in the legal industry for 12 years supporting various civil litigations, construction, intellectual property and tort law. Maria’s experiences at Lockheed Martin over the past 17 years range from Program Management, Global Supply Chain Management, Estimating and currently as Director of Contracts with Lockheed Martin Space in Sunnyvale, CA.
Maria is a native Californian from the San Francisco Bay Area. She married her high school sweetheart and is a mom of two, which keep her busy and on the go. She holds advance degrees from San Francisco State University and California State University of Hayward. Maria is a certified Control Account Manager, a Six Sigma Green Belt, and a graduate of the LM Executive Development and Growth Enhancement (EDGE) program.
Maria is the Corporate Co-Chair of Hispanic Organization for Leadership & Awareness (HOLA) BRG, and an advocate in supporting key STEM initiatives within Space. In this role, Maria works to lead and coordinate HOLA initiatives and objectives in support of Hispanics and Latinx throughout the corporation. Throughout her career at Lockheed Martin, Maria has been intimately involved with promoting Hispanic cultural heritage, STEM in public schools and community volunteerism in Sunnyvale, Denver, Valley Forge, and Florida Cape locations. As a result, Maria was the 2020 Award recipient of the YWCA’s Tribute to Women of Silicon Valley and the 2020 National Award recipient of Great Minds in Stem (GMiS) Luminary Honoree.
Featuring speakers from all across the Silicon Valley.
Speakers
Colleen Nowell — Rock Your Interview
Project Engineer at Blach Construction
Colleen Nowell joined Blach Construction as a Project Engineer, in February of 2022. She has worked in the construction industry since graduating from SJSU in 2017. In her free time, she enjoys binge watching a good TV show (she recently started Game of Thrones), traveling (she’s been to 9 different countries) and spending time with her friends and family. Her favorite aspect of working in the construction industry is learning something new every day.
Justin Nelson — Rock Your Interview
Project Engineer at Blach Construction
Justin Nelson joined Blach Construction as a Project Engineer, in January of 2022. He has worked in the construction industry since graduating from SJSU in 2021. In his free time, he enjoys golfing and spending time outdoors. Justin’s favorite aspect of working in the construction industry is working in a team environment. He also enjoys the opportunity to work both in the office and to be on a jobsite.
Ibrahim Moinuddin — Rock Your Interview
Senior Project Interview
Ibrahim Moinuddin joined Blach Construction in August of 2018 and is now a Senior Project Engineer. He has worked in the construction industry since graduating from SJSU in 2018. In his free time, he enjoys playing basketball, listening to music and podcasts, and going to the gym. His favorite aspect of working in the construction industry is working with a variety of individuals with different skillsets and levels of expertise.
Robert Ruiz — Career Trajectories
Product Marketing Director in SRG, Silicon Realization Group at Synopsys
Deepashree Sengupta — Career Trajectories
R&D Engineer in SRG, Silicon Realization Group at Synopsys
Ron Duncan — Career Trajectories
Senior Manager Applications Engineering in CDMG, Custom Design Manufacturing Group at Synopsys
Joe Cesena — Introduction to Model Based System Engineering
Fellow at Lockheed Martin
Mr. Cesena is a Model Based Systems Engineering (MBSE) specialist, developing MBSE technology that includes application of model-based methods to various spacecraft system engineering products, as well as investigation into automation of system engineering spacecraft product generation through either extension of model tool capabilities and/or Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence. Mr. Cesena helped pioneer the use of Model Based System Engineering at Lockheed Martin Space and holds a Bachelor of Science Degree in Mechanical Engineering from California State University Fresno, as well as a Master of Science in Systems Engineering, and an M.B.A from San Jose State University. In his free time, Mr. Cesena enjoys traveling, cycling, and keeping up with the family Huskies.
Gene Rosenthal — Introduction to Model Based System Engineering
Systems Engineering Manager at Lockheed Martin Space
Gene Rosenthal is a Model-Based Systems Engineering (MBSE) manager and LM Space. Gene manages a team that supports Programs and Projects as they execute, guide, and train programs in MBSE. This includes advancing the practice and advancing MBSE capability development activities. Gene has been with Lockheed Marin for almost 19 years. Throughout his career, Gene has worked within the Engineering and Technology department and supported several programs, including NIRCam, International Space Station (ISS), the Fleet Ballistic Missile (FBM) program. Over the past 7 years, Gene has been involved in MBSE activities, landing the manager role over 3 years ago. Gene is also the author of two MBSE white papers, which were published by the International System Safety Society (ISSS) and the International Council of Systems Engineering (INCOSE).
Micheal Ashley — Understanding Customer Journey & Why It Matters In Engineering
SJSU Incubator Launch Director
Michael Ashley, aka MASH, is Founder and CEO at CORL8, which provides software to help leaders triage complex strategic initiatives, collaborate transparently and share progress with stakeholders—visually. Mash also teaches Operations Management and International Business at San Jose State University, and Go-to-market strategy for the SV Innovation & Startup Program, and SV Software Technology & Innovation Program. Mash was Co-founder and CTO at FastPencil, which was acquired in 2012, where his technology helped power the Barnes and Noble Nook Publishing Platform. Today Mash is the Launch Director for the SJSU SpartUp Incubator Program, helping Spartan entrepreneurs work through ideation, prototyping, planning and fundraising challenges.
Anicea Dines — Surviving and Thriving
Director, Technical Partner Management, Partner Solutions Engineering, and OCTO at VMWare
Anicea Dines leads a team of senior Technical Partner Managers that supports VMware’s top strategic technology partners to innovate, integrate and certify on VMware platform.
She has been with VMware for 10+ years and has established the ecosystem partner engagement management model. Her team has developed ‘best of class’ processes to efficiently manage partner-VMware top engineering strategic initiatives.
Before joining VMware Anicea had a 13+ year career at Microsoft as Engineering Program Manager working with broader engineering teams and customers. Prior to that she has held Software Developer and Engineering Manager roles at tech companies such as Dialog Corporation; Lockheed; Apple and Brazilian Navy.
Anicea is passionate about DEI and supporting SJSU students as VMware ambassador. Her passions are coaching; mentoring and working with cross functional teams to boost collaboration, communication and innovation.
Aida Rivas — Surviving and Thriving
Staff Program Manager at VMware Driving Innovation
Aida manages open source compliance automation at VMware. Her success is based on collaborating with engineering teams across VMware, IT, Legal, Platform Services and driving alignment on common vision, goals, and objectives.
Aida has been working at VMware for five years. Previously worked at HPE for 17years. Prior to moving to the Bay area, she worked in the Oil, Finance industry as software developer and systems manager.
Aida is passionate about listening to people, understanding their journey, identifying opportunities to make each other’s journey more insightful, impactful and more meaningful.
Aida drives diversity, equity, inclusion efforts as the leader of the Latino Employee Resource Group Prof Dev
Dr. Nikki Liu — Diversity Discussions
Genomics R&D Scientist (Women @ Agilent Lead)
Dr. Nikki Liu, MD is a Senior R&D Scientist with over 4 years of cutting edge biotechnology experience. In her current 2-year tenure at Agilent Technologies, her emphasis has been on the application development of probe-based target enrichment of DNA and RNA sequencing. In addition, Dr. Liu also has 2 years of experience at Complete Genomics where she focused on the development of low- input, long-read DNA sequencing workflows. Prior to joining the biotech industry, Dr. Liu held research positions at Baylor College of Medicine and Houston Methodist Hospital developing clinical diagnostic tests for early detection of breast cancer brain metastasis. Dr. Liu received her medical degree from Windsor University and her Bachelor of Science degree in Biology from University of Michigan. During her undergraduate years in Michigan, she participated in organizations such as SWE and WISE and held internships in academic institutions such as OSU and Rush Medical College.
Sharon Basil — Diversity Discussions
Biopharma Inside Sales (Women @ Agilent Lead)
Sharon is a biotech professional with 3+ years of experience in sales and business development of the analytical life sciences industry. She graduated from the University of Delaware in 2020 with a Bachelors in Biomedical Engineering. During her time at undergrad, she participated in organizations such as SWE and SASE, and had internships at Innospec and Agilent Technologies. After graduation, she accepted a full time role at Agilent as an Instrumentation Inside Account Manager where she provides chromatography and mass spec solutions to clients in life sciences, pharma/biopharma, clinical, environmental, chem/energy, academic, and government industries. In late 2021, she moved from Delaware to the Bay Area to continue pursuing her career at Agilent on the sales team to support her clients in the Southwest US.
Sharon Basil — Diversity Discussions
Biopharma Inside Sales (Women @ Agilent Lead)
Sharon is a biotech professional with 3+ years of experience in sales and business development of the analytical life sciences industry. She graduated from the University of Delaware in 2020 with a Bachelors in Biomedical Engineering. During her time at undergrad, she participated in organizations such as SWE and SASE, and had internships at Innospec and Agilent Technologies. After graduation, she accepted a full time role at Agilent as an Instrumentation Inside Account Manager where she provides chromatography and mass spec solutions to clients in life sciences, pharma/biopharma, clinical, environmental, chem/energy, academic, and government industries. In late 2021, she moved from Delaware to the Bay Area to continue pursuing her career at Agilent on the sales team to support her clients in the Southwest US.
Isela Garcia — Imposter Syndrome
Marketing Recruiter at Google
Lunchtime Panelists
Abby Queale
Director of the Office of Innovation at San Jose State University
Abby Queale is the Director of the Office of Innovation. She is a registered patent attorney and is published in both the legal and engineering fields.
Abby began her career in technology transfer at Florida State University (FSU) as Associate General Counsel and Senior Licensing Manager where she licensed an institutional record number of inventions and creative works to the marketplace.
Bitten by the entrepreneurial bug, Abby left FSU to lead MagCorp, a technology development partner of the National High Magnetic Field Laboratory, as its founding CEO and developed a new model for technology development partnerships between the public and private sectors by successfully negotiating a novel master research and intellectual property agreement with FSU.
Abby loves playing and watching sports. As a Disney Parks aficionado, when she’s not at EPCOT, she’s collecting Disneyana and helping her family and friends plan their Disney trips.
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Israel Mireles
Developer at AEI Consultants, IAB Chairperson
For 7 years Israel has been in the Professional Industry developing software for small and large businesses. His craft encompasses the entire software development process, from assessing project needs, to deploying and maintaining production grade level systems. As part of the Development Team for AEI Consultants, Israel works with stakeholders to improve AEI's technology ecosphere. He received his BS in Computer Engineering in 2015, here at SJSU. During his college career he served as a MEP Student Advisor where he demonstrated his passion for helping others.
Fernanda Perdomo-Arciniegas
MPA, Interim Director of Chicanx/Latinx Equity
Fernanda Perdomo-Arciniegas (she/her/hers/ella) has worked in the Office of Diversity, Equity and inclusion since 2017 as the Deputy Diversity Officer and transitioned into her current role as Interim Director of Chicanx/Latinx Equity in October of 2021. In her new role she assesses, develops, and implements professional development initiatives and programming for staff, faculty, and administrators supporting Chicanx/Latinx student, faculty, and staff success. She also supports and implements initiatives from the Office of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion, working closely with administrators and campus stakeholders.
Mathew J. Stowe
Director of MESA and Student Programs
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