Women in Circuits Corner: Women in Circuits Mentoring and Networking Bingo Event at ISSCC 2023 [Society News]

Abstract

Women in Circuits (WiC) organized a mentoring and networking event that was held at the International Solid-State Circuits Conference (ISSCC) 2023 on Sunday evening, and participants played multiple rounds of getting-to-know-you bingo to prompt discussion prior to an open networking session. The bingo format was developed to encourage mingling and conversation between engineers attending the conference who might otherwise not get to talk to each other. Attendees were assigned to a table and provided with a 3 × 3 matrix to input professional and personal fun facts about themselves. The goal was to find commonalities with other people at the table, thus sparking conversation on shared interests; the first person to cross a row off got bingo! A Python script was used to automate the process of shuffling participants between rounds to new tables so that participants were matched with a unique set of people each time to maximize intermingling. The event was a resounding success, with more than 130 participants; the room was packed to capacity. Winners from each round won IEEE Solid-State Circuits Society (SSCS) swag such as T-shirts, umbrellas, and mugs.