Innovation Health & Design Lab

Head of 3D Technology

Class of 2021

"I came to college wanting to be an entrepreneur – I never ever wanted to be an engineer. Martha Hall (director of the Innovation Health & Design Lab) will tell you – all I want to do is be a mogul, have a lot of money and invest in a lot of businesses. I almost switched my major freshman year to entrepreneurship, but I talked to two entrepreneurs who graduated as mechanical engineers and they said that the skill set you learn is invaluable, and that’s a lot harder to learn on your own than entrepreneurship would be.

In fourth grade, I started participating in Odyssey of the Mind. I loved OM, it was so much fun. It was all about creativity and problem-solving. That was definitely where my engineering roots came from. One of the other great things it exposed me to is teamwork.

I didn't know at all what kind of field I wanted to get into and realized that was an important thing I needed to nail down. Being involved in the Innovation Health & Design Lab helped me develop my passions pretty early on. I am the head of 3D technology for the lab. Initially, my duties were learning how to use all the tech in the lab: 3D scanners, 3D printers, the new Computer-Aided Design program. My position has evolved into more of a project management position, so now my responsibilities involve keeping different projects on schedule to meet their goals. Now I know I definitely want to be involved in wearable technology as well as designing for people affected by disabilities. Working in the lab has just given me a completely different motivation, mindset and skillset from other engineering majors.

I love the clothing challenge projects. It’s a huge issue. You want to be comfortable and confident in what you're wearing, and I think it’s crazy for people to not have those options simply because of fit. After graduation, I would want to pursue a master’s in applied fabric because I feel like the groundwork I have with mechanical engineering puts me in a good spot to deal with anything rigid, but once we get into fabric or any textile, I’m just completely lost. If I can nail that down, I feel like I would have a really good skill set for wearable technology.

I would say one of the most impactful projects I’ve been involved with is the Mama Project. The purpose of the project is really important: Increasing survival rate for premature babies. Almost every single project has a great reason behind it, but this one also allowed me to teach a lot of non-design-focused students about design and prototyping, which I felt was really important for an interdisciplinary lab. I didn't think we should just be bringing in engineers to do the engineering parts of a project. We should be teaching everybody who wants to learn how to design and giving them the tools to creatively problem solve.

I think one of the biggest issues I had in college was finding my passion and finding the field that I wanted to get really involved in. The lab gave me the opportunity to teach students as well as invent stuff on my own, help people and create change."