Outstanding Collegiate Member
Elizabeth Heyde
California Polytechnic State University
For being a dedicated, committed, and effective leader; for consistent academic excellence; and for outreach efforts that encourage and inspire the next generation of women engineers.
Elizabeth Heyde has extensive outreach and leadership experience within and outside of the Society of Women Engineers, which she joined while an undergraduate at California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo (Cal Poly). She holds a B.S. in biomedical engineering, graduating in 2019, and continued her studies in a graduate bioengineering program at the University of California, San Diego, where she received a master’s in June 2021.
Heyde began volunteering at SWE outreach events that involved school-aged children, particularly girls. She grew from a volunteer to a leader by becoming chair of the SWENext program with the Cal Poly SWE section. SWENext invites girls through the age of 18 to become a part of the SWE engineering community. In her first year as chair, Heyde expanded the program by establishing 11 SWENext clubs and serving more than 100 SWENexters across California. At the end of her term, the Cal Poly SWENext club network accounted for 8% of SWENext clubs in the U.S. Heyde was invited to the WE18 conference to share best practices for developing these clubs. She continues to advise and currently leads the SWENext Clubs Work Group on the Society-level programs committee.
She also served as secretary and worked with other leaders to shape the Cal Poly SWE section. This included increasing member engagement opportunities, expanding officer development programs, and planning events on and off campus. Cal Poly SWE has been recognized with 22 awards at annual and local SWE conferences over the course of Heyde’s involvement, five of which were supported by her outreach efforts.
On the Society level, Heyde developed a series of outreach resources for those who work with SWENext clubs. She continues building these resources through the outreach and SWENext programs committees. At UC San Diego SWE, she worked on several outreach groups that provided STEM events for high school girls.
Outside of SWE, Heyde was president and vice president of the Biomedical Engineering Society and was a member of the Cal Poly Quality of Life Plus Student Association, a mentor for several students, a teaching assistant, and a researcher in the Human Motion Biomechanics Lab.
At UC San Diego, Heyde served as an outreach co-chair within the Bioengineering Graduate Society and continued to mentor students in association with SWE and the Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Mentoring Program. She completed her thesis research in the Petersen and Medically Advanced Devices Labs.
Her industry experience includes three internships with Medtronic. Following her graduate work at UC San Diego, she joined Medtronic’s structural heart group as a research and development engineer.
Heyde enjoys playing sports, exploring coffee shops, and collecting fun socks.