TEXT BY AMANDA LYONS

PHOTO BY AHNA HUBNIK

What I love about my job

Working with my colleagues to think about the future of the college and how we can work together to get there.

Proudest Moment

The dedication of our faculty and staff to our students and college. This is something I saw before coming here, but I continue to see it daily in various ways across the college and am inspired by it.

Trends in Engineering

Engineering adapts new approaches and knowledge to solve increasingly complicated problems. For instance, through sensors on cars or those worn for health monitoring, we can better understand ourselves and navigate the world around us. Likewise, AI algorithms don’t only help process information, but also provide new approaches to solving complex analysis problems for engineering systems that current methods still struggle to tackle.

What Inspires Me

Problems that can be attacked in new ways or from a new perspective. My work reaches across disciplines or uses new approaches within a discipline. One example is the work I do with marine biologists to understand squid locomotion. Squids have a unique propulsion system that is different from most of marine nekton and our typical mechanical systems, so you gain a whole new perspective by learning from these animals.

Advice for Success

Personal connections matter — make them, build them and nurture them. Not everything is a straight line. Learn to go beyond what you’ve been taught and seek out connections with different perspectives that help you think about problems in new ways. When starting something new, working hard at the beginning pays off later as you can draw on your experience and prior achievements. Lastly, opportunities like to hide, so take the initiative to go looking for them.

Fun Facts

I like to keep my engineering skills sharp with projects around the home and also by designing and building things in my garage where I have some basic machine tool equipment. A few recent projects include building a Newtonian reflector telescope and adding wired internet to my home. 

Favorite Quote

There’s one from Zig Ziglar that I appreciate and strive for: “You will get all you want in life, if you help enough other people get what they want.” Similarly, my dad always used to say, “It’s about your attitude,” in reference to both success and happiness in spiritual and personal life.