SWE - Spring 2009 - (Page 42)

Vcom3D's Vcommunicator® Mobile assists government and private sector personnel in effectively communicating with residents of non-English-speaking regions. This iPod®based tool features culturally appropriate behavior and activityspecific language content that can be used anytime, anywhere. the language and tools of finance. “It wasn’t complicated stuff as far as I was concerned,” she said. The conclusion she came to is that science is important, but she found that for her, “soft” people skills are more important in the long run. Though she has a Ph.D. in chemistry, she commented that it would be better if she had a Ph.D. in psychology. Geomagic’s Fu also finds that engineers have inherent analytical skills and think concretely from the bottom up. Business demands abstract, top down thinking. An engineer’s thought process is deep and narrow while a business perspective is broad. “Engineers solve problems. Running a business isn’t about problem solving; it’s about having opportunities. As an engineer, I was concerned about my performance, the problem I was solving, and the need to deliver a solution. As a CEO I am concerned about creating an environment to steer people in the right direction and avoid some of the treacherous conditions in the marketplace,” she observed. For Fu, the love of learning is key to acquiring business skills. When she began Geomagic she hired a CEO, who hired several MBAs. She learned from them, especially their failures, and became more confident about her own ability to succeed. To Sheft, entrepreneurs who come from engineering and science need the “soft” skills more than anything else. These include the skill to assemble teams that work well together, the ability to raise funds, and to understand where to find resources for marketing and sales. In her view, successful entrepreneurs listen, learn, collaborate with others, and change course when needed. SWE Entrepreneur Award In response to the growing number of women-owned businesses, in 2001 the Society of Women Engineers established its Entrepreneur Award to honor a SWE member “whose independent path to create an engineering, scientific, or technology-based business serves as inspiration to other women.” SWE ENTREPRENEUR AWARD RECIPIENTS: 2001 Cheryl Collarini civil engineering and M.B.A. Collarini Engineering Inc., Petro-Temps Inc., and Anchor Engineering LLC 2002 2003 2004 2005 Janice Sands Ash, P.E. environmental engineering and civil Ash Engineering Inc. Cheri Leigh, P.E. civil engineering and engineering management Leigh & O’Kane LLC Judith Nitsch, P.E. civil engineering Judith Nitsch Engineering Inc. Marsha Anderson Bomar mathematics, transportation engineering, civil engineering Street Smarts Inc. 2006 2007 2008 Not awarded Kristy Schloss civil engineering Schloss Engineered Equipment Inc. Carol Craig computer engineering and electrical computer engineering Craig Technologies Reflections on success Time, capital, business skills, or resources do not guarantee that an idea will make it into market. Talking with other entrepreneurs about how they got started, Fu recalled how much she and her co-founders didn’t know in the beginning — they had only an idea and their passion and sense of responsibility to see their initial concepts carried to completion. With some luck, endurance, and help from others, she said, they accomplished their goals. Now they can look back, knowing they created something that has given value to society, and have personally accomplished a lot more than they imagined they could. Having brought Vcom3D to a company described as revolutionizing education and training, Wideman cited that the orders of magnitude in technological advances demands the ability to move quickly in order to take calculated risks and make business decisions. As an added inspiration and motivation to keep on top of technology, she has a photo taken in 1954 showing a mock-up of what the RAND Corporation thought the home computer would look like in 2004. The consensus then was that the technology to put a computer in each home would be available but too expensive. “That puts things in perspective for me,” she stated. I Let’s buy him a cup of coffee Networking is as important as knowing how to run a business. Networking is where entrepreneurs find resources. Sheft illustrates this point with a story about some faculty members who wanted to start a small business using research they had conducted in modeling human motion. “Their idea was applicable in any number of fields, from sports to rehab or animation. We had given them some funds to get them started in the earlier rounds of their development. I told them about someone I had met from another university who was researching exercise equipment. ‘Let’s go buy him a cup of coffee,’ I suggested.” She uses this story to emphasize how entrepreneurs must be able to identify resources and then tap into them, often informally. 42 SWE SPRING 2009

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of SWE - Spring 2009

SWE - Spring 2009 Heritage Club Contents President's Note View from the Executive Suite Editor’s Page Honoring Women’s History Public Policy Update First Lady: The “Second-Hardest Job in America” Bringing Science and Engineering into Public Policy At the Intersection of Engineering and Public Policy From Research to Reality Coffee Table Dialogues Membership Information & Calendar A&B Winning Essays from the Lava Lounge Engineering World: Issues • Events • Technology • People Point of View: Your Role in Public Policy Career Toolbox: Communicating with Congress; Finding Your Voice Corporate Partnership Council Media Shelf: Women’s History Opportunity Index SWE Scrapbook: Dressed for Success

SWE - Spring 2009

For optimal viewing of this digital publication, please enable JavaScript and then refresh the page. If you would like to try to load the digital publication without using Flash Player detection, please click here.