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NTCC 2007 Recap

I just wanted to recap this year’s NTCC 2007 which was a great success for our organization. We were fortunate to get a lot of support from the University and the School of Engineering which allowed one of the largest groups to attend in recent years.

Some of the highlights of our trip to Denver were the Design Competition which I was a part of along with Chris, Diana, John, and Mercedes. We all worked really hard on our design called the iLOCK which is a keyless entry bike lock that can be opened with a keychain remote. All the hard work paid off and we were rewarded with winning 1st place which was announced during the closing ceremony of the event. This was an especially sweet victory considering it’s been a few years since USC has entered this competition and one that has been traditionally dominated by Cal Poly. This year USC came out of nowhere besting UC Berkeley, Carnegie Mellon, Cal Poly and Stanford. I really want to congratulate the team for this accomplishment, you guys are awesome!

Another highlight was the Website Competition which I entered along with Stephanie. We placed second although to be honest I really think there were some serious flaws in the judging and the organization of the competition. I’m taking these up with SHPE National but regardless our team did a great job.

The conference itself was a lot of fun and there were some really interesting workshops to attend. One that I really enjoyed was called Project Management for Results and it was really enlightening considering the experience I had just gone through leading the Design Competition team. This workshop was part of the professional track so I don’t think there were many students there but I would definitely encourage students to check these out next time because you can learn a lot from them.

The career fair was also great with so many companies to talk to and network with. We got to take some cool pictures like this one with the Pillsbury Dough Boy and there were a lot of cool things to see like a Ford GT.  I actually had an unexpected on-site interview with Deloitte which went very well. You just never know who you’ll meet and it’s all very exciting.

Denver itself was interesting, and to be honest I wasn’t prepared for how freezing cold it was over there. I was a little underdressed but we had a lot of fun times walking downtown with everyone on the street giving us strange looks because we were absolutely freezing. Traveling with a group from SHPE was just amazing, I got to bond with old friends and make some new ones and it really makes you feel connected with everyone. This just makes life as an engineering student that much better when you come back home to LA.

For those that haven’t heard, this year was the last NTCC. SHPE National is making sweeping changes to improve the conferences both nationally and regionally. So this year they’re actually starting the new SHPE Conference which promises to be a bigger and better national conference. They’ve already set the date, its taking place this coming October 31 – November 4th, 2007 in Philadelphia, PA. So for those of you who have never been to a national conference or missed NTCC, make sure you start planning early. See you there!