What I Do Currently, I am a clinical professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at Baylor University. I teach freshman engineering design to students who have just completed high school and started college. In that course, we learn about the things engineers need to make them successful. We also build something like a hot air balloon, a chemically powered car or a water balloon launcher. I also teach the capstone senior design course where students work with a customer (like L3 or Lockheed Martin or Sherwin Williams) to solve a challenge faced by the company. Sometimes I do research to try to figure out what gets girls interested in engineering and what keeps them in engineering in college. But the best part is talking to students about why I think engineering is a cool career!
Why Engineering? When I was a little girl, I launched model rockets in the backyard. I thought it was a lot of fun to build the rocket, launch it and try to catch it when it came back down. My dad would take me flying in our airplane and I loved taking the controls and flying around. In elementary and middle school, I really liked math and science, but the best part was that I liked being better at it than most of the boys in my class. In college, I first wanted to be a computer scientist, but then I worked on designing parts of ships by using a wind-tunnel and I got hooked on Aerospace Engineering. I was a much better engineer than a computer scientist!
School Days I got my Bachelor of Science in Aerospace Engineering at the University of Missouri-Rolla (now the Missouri Institute of Science and Technology), my Master of Science in Aerospace Engineering from the University of Texas-Arlington and my PhD in Aerospace Engineering from the University of Maryland-College Park.
My Day At Work After I graduated from college, I went to work for Bell Helicopter in Texas. The best part of my job was that I got to go down to the flight testing facility and fly in the helicopters to learn more about how they flew. Then I would design flight simulators that flew like the real helicopter. I even got to fly the helicopter once! That was really cool!
Best Part The best part about being an engineer is coming across a challenge or problem that needs to be solved. I put on my thinking cap and, using all of the training I have, I design a solution. It is even more fun when you work on a team with other people to solve the problem! Then you get the benefit of everyone's experience and knowledge.
Proud Moments I think the best part about being an engineer is that I can have a family as well. I am most proud of my family - my husband and two boys. A second runner up would be that I was the first woman to receive a PhD in Aerospace Engineering in Rotorcraft at the University of Maryland.
Challenges A few of the professors that I had in college told me that women should not be engineers, so I proved them wrong by being the top student in their class. When I started work, I had to work with some guys who thought women could not be engineers. I worked hard and did my best and soon they wanted me to be the handling qualities engineer on all of their projects!
My Family My husband is a mechanical engineer and my father was an aerospace engineering professor - I even had him for 3 classes - ugh! I have two adult sons - one who works in professional soccer and the other studies faith, food and environmental justice.
Dreams and Goals I hope to become an associate dean of engineering so that I can focus on recruiting and retaining women in engineering.
Inspiration I guess that my mom and dad influenced me the most since they always told me that I could do anything that I wanted to do. Sally Ride is pretty cool, too!
Want to be an Engineer? My best advice - don't let anyone stop you. Try to find a woman engineer that will coach you through the tough times. Keep taking math and science in school and don't let the boys do all of the fun hands-on stuff!