So you seem to want to:

- socialize with other engineers,

- work (= program, I suppose) on interesting projects together.

My opinion is that programming is actually a very lonely activity to the point where I think it is actually harmful if you are not concentrated during programming. It may be more fun to get out of someone's own "bubble" for a couple of minutes and have a talk with some fellow programmer, but that fellow might be very comfortable in his/her bubble at that time, so you are actually distracting him/her.

So maybe you should try to find interesting software projects one way and try to socialize another.