... January General Body Meeting ...

After Friday's torrential downpour, we were unsure what kind of a turnout the first General Body Meeting of the year would bring. Fortunately, the sky was on our side. On Saturday morning, the rain of Friday night was a distant memory, and there were over 20 people who succeeded in showing up for the first meeting of 2008.

The first activity of the meeting: the Icebreaker!! Like most icebreakers, this one was designed to get to to know one another. Split into two teams, we played a game that was more or less the exact same as Two Truths and a Lie. We also learned that some of the general body members are really good liars, exceptionally crafty and evasive. Take note: this might be useful sometime in the future.

The game of Ultimate Liar segued into a bridge-building competition. How? A vague connection between correct guesses in Two Truths and a Lie and earning skewers for use in building a tower. Once the skewers were distributed, three teams worked to build their own Tower of Babel.


But the winner of the event was the only team that utilized basic engineering principles by starting their construction with a strong foundation for their tower. As such, their tower didn't fall over when it was time for it to be measured. Good job, (mostly) engineers!




Once the fun and games ended, it was time for the meeting's main draw. The president and vice-president took on the task of addressing the propositions that will be on next week's ballot during Super Tuesday. Armed with spreadsheets delineating the progress of the various presidential candidates, and PowerPoint slides noting the main ideas behind of several propositions, we headed toward an enlightening discussion.

Alright...so there were A LOT of propositions discussed at the meeting. Despite what people may say, it DOES pay to read through the Voter Guide shortly before voting day. If you HAD read through the Voter Guide AND attended last Saturday's meeting, we might all be a bit more knowledgeable for it.

Think about that. Then read your Voter Guide. Then think about whether or not you're going to the NSBE National Convention in Orlando, Florida. You better get on that if you are. Oh, and let us know so we know to see you there.

... Habitat for Humanity with NSBE Jr. ...

Our January meeting changed things up in an effort to give back to the community. We partnered with Habitat for Humanity to help build houses in Santa Clara. Whether climbing on a roof or hammering in countless nails, students gained an understanding of engineering in action and the benefits of helping others.

Please enjoy the pictures from the Habitat for Humanity day of fun, community service, and HARD work!








Isn't it a great feeling to know that you're sore from a day of hard work for the community?! Much pride goes out to the team who represented NSBE Jr. and our NSBE Alumni Extension chapter to the community.

... Second Annual Holiday Party ...

The holiday party was fun! I would have stopped at that but I was told to provide more detail; it was really fun. Perhaps one of the more impressive things about the night is the amount of diversity represented at the event as far as fields go; your biotechs, defense contractors, strategy and operations, educators, your standard computer techies and even...even, professional athletes!

Before the food arrived, and before everyone was given permission to start eating, the networking opportunity was exceptional. There were new faces; attendees brought guests and long-lost people from general body meetings past. Oh, and a few people that were MySpace and Facebook stalked -- I mean, found.

The food – I’ll call it good. Scratch that – great. Anytime you get to eat a $30 meal – especially for free – it has to be great. Or maybe it tasted really great because they told me it was expensive? Apparently that’s what the Stanford guys want me to believe.

And of course there were your great classic dinner table comments – I would explain but I have to keep this relatively PG rated. I’ll let you try and catch them live next time. Then came the gift exchange. There was definitely the techie touch to some of the gifts – a pen radio and a holiday wouldn’t be a party without a guide to 1001 cocktails (That’s a different drink a day for 30 something months). To summarize, the event was fun and I can’t wait for next year's party.

... December NSBE Jr. Meeting ...

Our December meeting started with a seminar on SAT preparedness. A guest speaker from KAPLAN described the new SAT and tips and tricks to improve your score. Once students were prepped for the SAT we moved into engineering design topics. Engineering design has many applications and the students were asked to apply engineering design principles when designing bridges. Four teams competed and had varying strategies to solve the problem given to them. The winning team discovered how to quickly and effectively carry out their design concept.

...San Francisco, Rain, and "The Color Purple"...

Whoo-hoo! I replaced my camera and now I have pictures!! But I really need to learn when to use flash and when not to. Hm... :-\

It was with great success that our NSBE Social Coordinator Renee managed to corral a group of about 10 people (it was hard to count – people scattered like roaches at the end of the show…) to a Thursday night showing of the musical “The Color Purple” at the Orpheum Theatre in San Francisco. The unexpected complication of the night? Rain. Nope…rain wasn’t on my radar! (Get it? Radar for weather forecasting? No?) As we all know, fresh rain = slow drivers = accidents = extra time to get to S.F.!



From the time we parked until our collective butts hit our seats, there was the possibility of having to watch the show in the lobby. You guessed it – we were late. (Hangs head in shame, but rightfully blames the RAIN!) With the zero hour arrival of the ticket holder, plus the help of ushers along the way, we were in our seats only 5 – 10 minutes into the show. Best of all: our seats were awesome balcony-level, front row seats. Great job, Renee!


Depending on your familiarity with the book/movie, your enjoyment of the show varied from “Good” to “Great…and that guy was hot!” (The girls know what I’m talking about.) Even the people who aren’t usually fans of musicals thought the show was a great production. The set design was spectacular, using slight construction and lighting changes to relay the settings of each scene for the audience. I’m not going to give a point-by-point review of the show, but I will recommend that you see the production if you can.

One thing I will do is encourage you avail yourself to experiences in the Arts. Often, we tend to give it an offhanded thought – if we even think about the Arts at all. But for we mostly-technical types, it’s a worthwhile reality check to see (and support!) the products of our creative counterparts. And in the case of “The Color Purple,” how often does an all-Black show bring us together in the Bay Area? (That wasn't rhetorical – if you have an answer, please respond.)

... November NSBE Jr. Meeting ...

Saturday’s November NSBE Jr. meeting on the campus of San Jose State University focused on the subject of computer science. Our NSBE Jr. Champion, Jessica, along with individuals from our NSBE Alumni chapter and from SJSU, came up with some great presentations and activities that seemed to get the kids excited about science and engineering concepts; either that or they were faking it and would have a brighter future in Hollywood.

A speaker from Yahoo! discussed computers and practical applications in which computer science is used. Students listened intently as they learned of everyday applications that used computer science to make them work. After learning about computer science, the students were given the opportunity to actually write their own programs. Students at San Jose State University led an exercise using a program called Alice, available at http://www.alice.org/. (There’s a GREAT promotional video available on the website for those who are wondering how this all works. Their future endeavors will incorporate The Sims computer game!) This software package allowed students to program virtual environments by using a drag-and-drop feature for programming. The virtual worlds created were both educational and entertaining.

Another activity that we all engaged in was the ‘Build-A-Bridge-That-Will-Hold-Massive-Weight-in-A-Relatively-Short-Period-of-Time’ Challenge. The techniques that the kids used to win the challenge were pretty interesting. The rules were not too stringent so the kids engaged in various over-the-top techniques to accomplish the complex task. This leads one to believe that these kids, while extremely motivated to follow the path of righteousness (we hope…), would be able to perform outstandingly well in future jobs by completing tasks “by any means necessary” with a few exceptions to the term “means”. We’ll see who wins the next event.

It’s the battle of the adults vs. the little whipper-snappers, the ancient-of-days vs. the Young and the Restless, the Dinosaurs (no disrespect to people 24 and above) vs. the newborns… Come out to the next PCI meeting to support your age group!!!!! Come out to support the Kids!!!!

November Power Lunch

Where was everyone today?! The November Power Lunch was pretty incomplete without you. October's Power Lunch had an enormous turnout - we started getting our hopes up. These are some mighty attendance fluctuations; you'd better have a good excuse the next time I see you...

A group of six (then eventually five...too bad you had to go, Renee...) met at Corner Square restaurant for some Korean BBQ in Santa Clara on a beautiful warm and sunny afternoon. The problem: it took a bit of driving and a hefty amount of squinting to find the correct location of the restaurant. Perhaps next time we should let everyone know that we're going to a shopping center!

All in all, the food was great; everyone (except Jessica who got Mexican food next door) thought their dish was good. I'm sure most of us (but not Jessica) would go back there again.

Post-Earthquake Checkup...

Were you shaken by yesterday's earthquake? For the California transplants -- welcome to California! Hopefully, you now have a good quake story to share with your friends and families back home. You can share it with the rest of us at the November Power Lunch this Friday. Hope to see you there!

November Power Lunch
November 2nd
Corner Place, 2783 El Camino Real, Santa Clara, CA

... October General Body Meeting ...

Renee insisted that her noble accomplishment be put on the blog so here it is. Renee won. Renee and Marcela won. Yes, yes. They did build the longest bridge that held the most weight equipped with nothing but 10 index cards and a foot of scotch tape. LaTasha and Alex did come through with the style points though – their suspension bridge held its own but it did fall short on the length requirement not to mention that Tari was a pretty tough judge. That was a pretty cool icebreaker – we were all given index cards and scotch tape and asked to build the longest bridge that could span two desks and hold the most weight.





A quick review of October’s events followed starting with the September general body meeting where our speaker, Mr Morgan, spoke of what it takes to transition from a regular 9-5 engineering/ science job to a community service role and why it is important for us as Black professionals to do so.





This months featured speaker was Mr. Paul Hart of the World Financial Group and he spoke of building wealth. Several money building vehicles were reviewed with a focus on what tax categories they fell into i.e. Tax Now, Defer Taxes and Tax Never. He spoke of looking up to people who have built their wealth successfully and attempting to mirror their decisions; a good example being the several no-maximum-limit life insurance plans with associated cash values and death benefits that a lot of people in power (over 90% of congress) own. He spoke on the importance of building accessible wealth and ensuring that you leave your family with wealth and debt. Am I being too generic without giving specific details on how you should invest? Its on purpose. I am just but a keyboard drone with no formal training on how to advice people on wealth building. Talk to Paul Hart about how to build you wealth.





We closed up by looking at the next series of upcoming events, as listed below. We do not hold monthly meeting in November and December due to Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays and we also skip out on the January Power Lunch as well for similar reasons.

- 11/02: November Power Lunch at Corner Place, 2783 El Camino Real, Santa Clara, CA
- 11/10: NSBE Junior Meeting. The last meeting focused on Robots and Seitu Barron, one of our Mechanical Engineer members, presented and the kids got to make motors from scratch. The November meeting will focus on Computer Science and Engineering and Makinde Adeagbo, a facebook engineer will present on computers and the kids will write a couple of programs.





- 11/13: The BRN conference sponsored by Network Associates. Cynthia Wesley, The BRN CEO was at hand and she gave a moving speech on the importance of networking within and outside NSBE. Her speech on this was unrivaled and I have to say she did a great job getting everybody motivated about heading out to the conference. I got mine. Got yours? More details can be found on the BRN website.

- 11/16-11/18: NSBE Region 6 Fall Regional Conference sponsored by Microsoft. Bill Gates will be the keynote speaker and this conference should be one of the more exciting conferences that the region has put together in the past couple of years. Check out the website for the agenda and other details.
- 11/29: NSBE Happy Hour. Azucar is a great Cuban place in San Jose. They have some nice food for the hungry and apparently the drinks are to die for. 71 E San Fernando St, San Jose, CA 95113





- 12/05: December Food Sort at the Second Harvest Food Bank, San Jose Distribution Site, 750 Curtner Avenue, San Jose, CA 95125
- 12/06: NSBE Social. Viewing of the “Color Purple” in San Francisco at the Orpheum Theatre. Tickets are in the $80 range.
- 12/15: December Holiday Party. A white elephant party where we get to close down the year in style, gear up for the Christmas season, exchange gifts and celebrate the friendships and relationships we have developed. Location TBD.
- 01/26: General Body Meeting. First of the 2008 calendar year.

... Silicon Valley AIDS Walk 2007 ...

Maybe not all bragging is bad bragging. TO celebrating a touchdown while his team is down 30 points = bad bragging. Some famous guy writing a book on how he would have done something bad to “someone he loved” had he done it … neither a good idea nor the good kind of bragging. Elvis doing his victory dance over Diego for beating him in the annual “lets see who will raise more money for a good cause –athon” … not classy but warranted, definitely not classy.



The day was as picturesque as can be … a great reminder of how good we have in it California … Jessica had her walking mojo on, Renee was in on a red clothing competition with a couple of other participants (Red apparently indicated support for AIDS), Alex V was the official walk hype man, Tari was the pretty boy (I kid you not on this one – one of the traffic control cops commented that he was “dressed for club AIDS walk”, Diego was late as always … where does it end.





So we may have set our goals a little too high this year. We came short of last year’s total money raised but the great news is that as a team we raised a percentage point of the total amount of money raised. We fell a little short given that African Americans make up 2.8% of the Santa Clara County population and that a huge number of all new HIV and AIDS cases come from within the African American community. I didn't say it, Oprah did. More work definitely needs to be done. No doubt about it.



The walk in itself was fun. We definitely had a good time hanging out and the trip to the Thai restaurant later on was a fun experience. HDTV football on big screen capped it all in a way that couldn’t be better summarized than by the mission statement itself … “positively impacting the community”

.. Dezs Goodbye Dinner ...

New York: Congested, smelly subways, super cold, super expensive, …
California: Nice, clean, great weather, best place to be, …

Aaaaah, now it makes perfect sense why people move to New York. Blistering cold temperatures and smelly subways. Fancy job in a fancy building I guess is simply the icing. Dez, Dez, Dez. Where do we start? How about last game of soccer season 5 (games run for 40 minutes by the way).







20 minutes: NSBE is kicking ass. Score is 5-1
30 minutes: ooh dear, oooh dear, what happened? NSBE is down 6-8
33 minutes: Ola scores! NSBE is down 7-8
35 minutes: Henry scores! We are on a roll!
37 minutes: Emeka scores! We are up 9-8
39:37: All the action is happening close to our goal. Chris has that “I am ready to swat that ball into the bleachers look” and you can tell that this game is ours. Ok, so bad guy touches ball, bad guy kicks towards our goal, Dez has option to swat the rubber off the ball back into a Nigerian Para Rubber Tree but nooooooo. Dez does a cartwheel and a flip followed with a backwards kick as he falls onto the ground in slow motion kicking the ball into our own goal. In case you didn’t get the magnitude of his actions I’ll say this again in caps … OUR OWN GOAL! Night ends and the game is tied at 9-9. Thanks Dez.









Other than making us lose soccer games, Dez was an overall nice guy. Pretty ironic that he hosted Jana’s going away party who also left for the cold unexplored depths of North America. A lot of good times getting hustled for poker money, random bet money and of course the classic argument settler that came up all the time, “Trust me, I looked it up”









The goodbye event at Dave and Busters was fun! VIP seating, the whole crew showed up including a bunch of lovely TAN people, good food (well, depending on who ordered and what they ordered), CLASSIC conversation – Tiffany, Renee – Shall I go into details? And of course the usual games after dinner – basketball, air hockey, racing, the game where you have to shoot the zombies, Tiffany and Alex doing cool tricks on the camera … fun times.









Too bad it all had to end. Dez shed a couple of tears at the end … it was funny hearing him go in all bass “I’ll miss you guys” while sniffling. No big deal though, we’ll be waiting for him as soon as he realizes that the cold wilderness of New York + all the fancy wine and cheese parties in fancy buildings with fancy furniture frequented by people wearing fancy clothes is definitely not the place to be … after all, they don’t have space for soccer fields now do they?

... October NSBE Jr Meeting ...

On October 13th, the students in NSBE Jr. had their first official meeting of the school year at San Jose State University. What is NSBE Jr. you ask? NSBE Jr. is the chapter based aspect of NSBE’s Pre-College Initiative (PCI) program. NSBE’s PCI is designed to encourage middle and high school students to excel in math and science and give them the tools necessary to successfully complete college. The NSBE Jr. meetings are hosted by mentors from both San Jose State University and the Silicon Valley Alumni Chapter.












The meeting began with students working through some difficult math problems. One student, Andrea, even volunteered to work through the problem on the board for the other students to follow along. After the students completed their math problems, we moved on to the meeting topic for the month: Robotics. Seitu Barron, a mechanical engineer and member of the Silicon Valley Alumni Chapter, spoke to the students about robots. His presentation included examples of robots in every day life as well as futuristic dancing robots.

The students, ranging from 5th to 12th grade, also participated in an interactive activity designed by college students at San Jose State. The students designed motors using primarily a wire coil, magnet, and battery. Initially the task was difficult, but the students stuck with it and explored ways to improve their motors. By the end of the exercise, all of the groups had spinning motors. Some of the students were so proud of their motors that they took them home for further improvements.

Next month’s meeting will be on November 10th from 10 am to 2 pm at San Jose State. The topic will be computer science and the students will be coding their own programs. If you are interested in helping out, please contact Jessica Miller for details (jessica_miller_52@yahoo.com).

... October Power Lunch ...

Pasta? Or shall we say Jennifer’s home numero dos. My bad. That would be numero due for you Italian speakers out there. I have to say that the waitress here definitely knows the maitre d code of conduct pretty well unlike her. The aura was nice as always, good food, good people with a couple of very interesting characters … stress on INTERESTING. Several of the bigger SouthBay companies were represented – Space Systems Loral, Lockheed Martin, Abbott Vascular (formerly Guidant), Pioneer, SanDisk + of course we had a lot of the little small name guys around. We had a hiring manager from Space Systems Loral who brought with him several Electrical Engineering recs. that he needed to fill ASAP. You should definitely come and check out the next power lunch at the Corner Place in Santa Clara. These do serve as a great networking forum and you should take full advantage of it! Come out and meet some people!

...September General Meeting...

One of us has GOT to bring a camera next time!

As just exclaimed, the absence of a camera was unfortunate. Now, there’s no visual documentation of Alex’s violently competitive Bring-This-Item-To-Me ice breaker game, no chronicling of the speaker from the Silicon Valley AIDS Walk Coalition, and no evidence of the ubiquitous presidential handshake between Elvis and our featured guest speaker, Mr. Morgan. To those who missed the meeting, all you’ll remember is that it was a rainy Saturday. Too bad, but I’ll do my best to summarize what you missed.

So what game was Alex making us play? You really had to be there. First, the room was split into two groups. We were given a vague reading of the rules – an item would be called out; it was each respective team’s job to provide the item. Simple enough, right? Not when rules were created spontaneously! Who carries their passport with them? Who notifies their roommate – also on one of the teams – to bring a textbook to the meeting? Who suggests that said roommate get the textbook out of their backpack and uses it to score points? The answer to all of these questions is Alex. We’ll be sure to keep a strong eye on him during all future ice breakers….

On to more important business…

By now I hope you’ve heard of the Silicon Valley AIDS Walk Coalition. Why? For one, this alumni chapter has a team set up for you join. The purpose of the Walk is to raise money for local organizations to use for HIV/AIDS education, awareness, and prevention programs that directly serve residents of the Silicon Valley. Speaker Ray Mueller shared the history of the walk as well as the organization that runs it. As of this writing, Alumni Chapter President Elvis Kibiti has raised the most amount money for the team. But don’t give up yet…there is still PLENTY of time left to beat him! The Walk is on Sunday, October 21st, 2007. Get started.

Ever thought about using your engineering degree for something outside of the corporate world? Guest Speaker Mr. Morgan shared his personal story of his transition from a traditional engineering job (the desk, the cubicle, the long hours…) to a community service job that utilized his experience and background. He is now a happy educator at Evergreen Valley College. You never know when school will come calling your name!

Reminder: AIDS Walk – Register or donate. Those are the two options.

...September Power Lunch...

Looking for a great start to your month? Well then, check out our monthly First Friday Power Lunches!! Here’s a recap of our last outing:

For our September gathering, a beautiful sunny Friday afternoon greeted the NSBE alumni guests at Athena Grill, a Greek-cuisine restaurant located in Santa Clara. The lack of parking in close proximity to the restaurant was the first clue about the massive popularity held by this lunchtime Greek eatery. (Let’s all pretend that it being the ONLY restaurant on the street wasn’t a factor....)

Our illustrious Social Coordinator had enough foresight to secure a reservation, but the group still had to squeeze through the several-people-deep line to get to our table. Once seated, and after a bit of a delay due to miscommunication, plates of Hummus and other delicious Greek delicacies wafted their scents from the table. Here’s a helpful tip for future gatherings: if you ARRIVE early, you EAT early!

By the way, who can explain what Skordaliá tastes like? How about the (presumably) yummy Meltizanosaláta? No one? Hm. Hummus is easy – I can figure that one out on my own. The following can be forwarded to the owner: How about menus with pictures?

Please come out and join us for the next NSBE Alumni adventure in eating. The next Power Lunch will be on October 5th. Visit the NSBE-AE-SVC website more information.